Testimony Tuesday: Serving God in small faithfulness through twists and turns 

By Avonlea Brown

Logan Riber, resident director of the male dormitory The Hill, often uses his testimony of twists and turns to counsel the resident assistants of his dorm. He even has a tattoo on his right forearm as a reminder of what he learned. It says:

God is in control. God is good. God is enough.

Riber grew up in a Christian household in East Peoria, Illinois, and accepted Christ at the age of seven, but he knows now that it was more out of fear than a desire for a relationship with his Savior. He kept his sins hidden, which resulted in a shallow relationship with God. 

“I was a perfectionist, the rule-follower type,  and struggled with that as a kid and even as an adult,” Riber said. “I also struggled more with the ‘hidden sins’ like lust or pride.”

When Riber was in high school, his family participated in a church plant in central Illinois and he began delving deeper into his faith while attending his youth group. 

“I did begin to desire in those years to want to serve God with my life, I didn’t know what that meant at that time,” Riber said. “I thought about doing missions but I didn’t feel called to be a head pastor, but I knew I wanted to learn more about the Bible.”

Riber looked intentionally for a Christian college and decided to attend Cedarville University in 2007. The integration of faith into every classroom, chapel five days a week and the in-depth look at the Bible convinced him to remain on campus despite roadblocks in his way.

After freshman year, Riber’s family could no longer afford to contribute to his education. His brother left school to move back home, but Riber felt called to stay. So he looked for a way to pay tuition. The Lord provided a company that offered Riber a loan enough to cover his tuition for the first part of his sophomore year.

Riber took the momentary provision as a sign he was in the right place, even if the future looked uncertain. 

“I still desired to be in ministry of some sort but had no clue what I wanted to do specifically,” Riber said. “I majored in finance as a way to kick the can along and added a missions minor.”

During school, Riber met and married his wife Kristin, who graduated one semester behind him in the spring of 2011. They got married and lived in Cedarville.

When looking for ministry jobs, Riber heard from several agencies that his debt from school made him ineligible to go. So he graduated and began working to pay off his loans. Riber put his degree to use as an energy analyst while they continued to look for ministry opportunities.

”During that time the Lord helped us grow in wisdom and sanctification, learning how to care and relate to people,” Riber said. “So we spent seven years in business and we were thinking, ‘Ok God, you closed the door because of finances and, now, how can I be used?’” 

They attended Dayton Avenue Baptist Church and helped with children’s ministry. They also hosted small groups in their home, answering a call they felt to relational ministry. 

Riber remained in his business position during his pursuit of ministry. While not the ministry he wanted to do, the job supplied the money to pay off their debts and serve the Lord in a different way by becoming parents.

In 2014 and 2016, Riber and his wife adopted their two eldest children, Selah and Eli. 

“We both love adoption and the connection it has to spiritual adoption, and God’s love for the fatherless,” Riber said. “When I was younger there was a stigma that adoption was a bad thing. Having kids that don’t look like you means you get to be a testimony to the good that adoption is and what it means.” 

After starting their family, Riber continued to put emphasis in his life of serving the Lord in little faithful ways, and looking for ministry opportunities. It would not be long before a door swung open for him and his family to begin serving. 

When the head pastor, Ken Winter, left Dayton Avenue Baptist Church in 2017 to revitalize Heritage Fellowship Church in Springfield, Riber and his family followed. Riber took on the position of youth pastor a year and a half later. Shortly after, he left his analyst job to focus on ministry full-time. 

In 2020, Riber received an offer to work at a children’s home in Mississippi. He and his wife thought it looked ideal for their family and moved within months of taking the job. But what looked like a perfect, open door turned out to be a toxic environment. Riber swiftly moved his family back to Ohio. 

“We look back on that as another twist and turn,” Riber said. “God is bigger than me and what he calls me, and you and all of us, to do is much more than a career or a job – he calls us to be faithful in his word and you can be faithful to his word regardless of how you make your money or the circumstances around you.”

Kristin’s parents offered their home as a place to reorient and plan, and Riber returned to a business job. During a time of uncertainty, Riber put effort into seeing God as faithful to his good promises. Six months later, the Riber family landed back in Cedarville, where they got involved at Grace Baptist Church.

Riber clearly felt called to relational ministry, taking delight in walking alongside other Christians in small groups and opening his home every chance he got. 

“We tried to live what I would call a true open door policy, we would meet people or students on campus and I would genuinely say, ‘Hey here is my address come over anytime you want,’” Riber said. “And that required some sacrifices, probably more on my wife’s part than mine, but we saw a lot of great fruit come from just being in life together with other believers.” 

Following his calling, Riber decided to pursue a position at Cedarville University as the resident director of Lawlor Hall. He did not receive the role and responded in disappointment before reminding himself that God had a plan – even when he had trouble believing it. After the rejection, Riber and his wife found out she was pregnant with their first biological child, Charis, who was born in 2023. 

“With three kids, I don’t know if Lawlor would have been a long term thing, even though the space was big enough to make it work with two kids,” Riber said. “Even if nothing else came, it’s still better for God to be in control because he knows something we don’t, and we might not get to see what that looks like. But I do think he provides us with glimpses of that to remind us that God’s priorities are bigger.”

The next year, Riber accepted the position of RD for The Hill, where he works to incorporate his testimony into how he mentors and disciples the men in his hall, especially in times of uncertainty. Through all of life’s twists and turns, Riber felt convicted to live in small acts of faithfulness to a God who was bigger than everything. 

“Simple faithfulness in the small things is a testament to what God desires,” Riber said. “It is easy to make our stories about what we accomplished, but God did not put us down here to make much of ourselves but rather to understand that we are ultimately satisfied in him, that our eternal life [purpose] is to know God.” 

Avonlea Brown is a senior Broadcasting, Digital Media, and Journalism major and editor of Campus News for Cedars. She likes reading, traveling, and learning new things.

Photo provided by Logan Riber