Pastors John and Jenny Reeve
Lead Pastors
John and Jenny were married in 2004 and have three children, Nevaeh, Cohen, and Eliana. A few months after getting married, they helped John’s parents, Pastors Bob and Sherry Reeve, plant The Cause (Community) Church in Brea in January 2005. John was the first staff member hired to serve alongside his parents, and he and Jenny led the youth ministry together for several years. As the church grew, John’s role did as well...
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John became the Executive Pastor, helping his parents oversee the Staff Team, ministries, and the direction of the church. In January 2019, Jenny left her full-time position at Azusa Pacific University and joined the staff as the Children’s Ministry Director. Together, John and Jenny served as the Family Pastors until Pastor Bob graduated to heaven in February 2021. A few months later, in May 2021, Pastor Sherry transitioned into the role of Founding Pastor and commissioned John and Jenny as the new Lead Pastors. The greatest honor of their lives has been serving alongside Pastors Bob and Sherry for 17 years, learning from their teaching and example, and now leading and shepherding God’s people at The Cause.
John has a B.S. in Business Finance from Cal State Long Beach and a M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has served the Lord in full-time ministry for over 20 years. Prior to serving at The Cause Church, he served on staff in youth ministry at Faith Community Church in West Covina for four years. In addition to serving at the church, John enjoys spending time with his family, watching sports, working out, reading, and eating Mexican food, especially Jenny’s cooking. His heart is to see people come into relationship with Jesus, grow in Him, and live passionately for His Cause.
Jenny graduated from Life Pacific College with a degree in Biblical Studies and Leadership. She has a vast work experience, including being a paralegal, event designer, and executive administrative assistant. After coming to Christ when she was 20 years old, she began volunteering in the church and passionately serving the Lord. For the past 20 years, she has served in and helped lead many ministries, including children’s, youth, young adults, women’s, prison, marriage, and parenting. Jenny’s favorite things to do are spend time and make fun memories with John, Nevaeh and Cohen, bake delicious desserts, read and learn new things, travel to beautiful places, and creatively decorate her home. Her heart is to love God, love people, and equip families to disciple their children.
Pastor Bob & Sherry Reeve
Founding Pastors
Pastor Sherry serves as the Founding Pastor and provides leadership oversight to several areas including staff development, strategic ministry growth, and Women's Ministry. Sherry graduated from Azusa Pacific University where she met and later married her husband, Bob. They were married for over 40 years before Pastor Bob graduated to Heaven in February of 2021. Their sons, John and his wife, Jenny, Josh and his wife, Elisabeth, and their daughter, Shannon, and her husband, Jonathan, are also currently serving with them at The Cause Church.
Sherry is passionate about empowering women to live out their fullest potential at every stage of life and sphere of influence. Sherry has her Masters of Art degree in Education, was the founder of Jubilee Preschool and Elementary School, and operated a learning center for behavioral problems and learning disabilities. and is an experienced teacher who ministers to both adults and children. She has written curriculum for pre-schoolers preschool and elementary children and has worked with children who have various learning disabilities, behavior problems, and attention deficit disorders.
Sherry is a gifted, anointed, powerful teacher of the Word of God and is practical and humorous. Sherry has traveled internationally speaking to large and small groups about marriage, family life, parenting and educational challenges. She also wrote, produced and co-hosted a local cable television program entitled, "Encouraging Word."
Bob met the love of his life, Sherry, during their college years at Azusa Pacific University while he played baseball and majored in Biblical Literature. He wisely got "Smart" and enjoyed being married to Sherry for over 40 years.
He was a proud father of two sons, John and Joshua, and one daughter, Shannon, and even prouder grandpa to his eight grandchildren -- Nevaeh, Asher, Cohen, Arabella, Amos, Dracien, A'aliyah and A'aniyah.
He served God wholeheartedly in ministry for 25 years at Faith Church in West Covina, CA before fulfilling God's call to lead The Cause Church in Brea, CA for the last 16 years of his life. He traveled internationally with Sherry to speak to large and small groups about marriage, family life, and parenting, yet poured out his heart and soul into his family. His honest yet humorous approach to teaching made you laugh and learn about yourself and pointed you toward becoming a fully-functioning follower of Jesus.
Pastor Chris Garrigue
Associate Pastor
In junior high, Pastor Chris began volunteering to run sound for the children’s ministry. Decades later he is still serving the Lord with the gifts and talents God has developed in him. Pastor Chris attended Citrus Community College where he received an Associates in Science degree in the area of Behavioral Sciences. While at Citrus College, God rocked his world! His Mom had been fighting Breast Cancer for 11 years, and God finally called her home. This experience really deepened his heart and compassion for those who face though times, and has molded him into the man he is today. Of course he misses his mom, but he knows the Lord really is still on the throne!
After Citrus, he attended DeVry University where he received an Associates of Applied Science in Electronics and Computer Technology, and then went on to also achieve a Bachelor of Science in Technical Management with honors. He married his wife Lorraine in July of 2003, and has four children. While God has blessed him with the knowledge for technical things, it is the people that he has brought around Chris that truly make things happen. He loves working with other volunteers and seeing them grow and develop a hunger to know and serve God.
Pastor Joshua Reeve
Associate Pastor
Pastor Josh Reeve graduated from Azusa Pacific University with a B.A. in Business Administration and also completed his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2006. He and his wife, Elisabeth, have been married since 2005, have five children (Asher, Arabella, Amos, A'aliyah & A'aniyah), and are passionate about expanding the kingdom of God through the local community as well as through worldwide missions. At The Cause Church, Pastor Josh oversees the business administration, finances and human resources, and he is passionate about maximizing the church's potential through effectively managing the resources God provides.
Pastor Junior Tuitoelau
Associate Pastor
Pastor Junior Tuitoelau Jr. has served in various pastoral roles spanning from Associate Pastor to Youth Pastor/ Young Adults Pastor, under the leadership of his father, Pastor Sauni Tuitoelau Sr. in the cities of Bellflower & Long Beach, CA. Pastor Junior has served with a call to lead adults and youth to live up to their full potential as men and women with passion, purpose, and practical faith. With over 23 years of pastoral ministry experience, Pastor Junior established his ministry roots through Phoenix First Assembly and Masters Commission, under the direction of Pastor Tommy Barnett and Pastor Lloyd Zeigler.
Pastor Junior and his beautiful wife Sandy have been married since 2007, and they are proud parents to their son Cody. Pastor Junior and Sandy are passionate about loving and leading broken people back to Christ. Pastor Junior oversees all of our Connections and First Impressions Teams here at The Cause. Pastor Junior also enjoys coaching young athletes and is regularly invited as a motivational speaker in public and private schools – all with the focus of encouraging our youth to face their fears and live out their dreams. During their downtime, you might catch Pastor Junior and family coaching football as he did in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Southlands Christian as a defensive line coach, or just spending time with people that need to hear hope in or out of the church setting.
Pastor Judy Walker
Associate Pastor
Pastor Judy is a Texas-transplant who moved to California in 2004. She has been attending The Cause since its first days in the movie theater and joined the staff in 2016. She graduated with honors from Liberty University with a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Religion/Foreign Language).
Overseeing the Next Steps and Small Groups ministries, Pastor Judy is passionate about helping people grow in their relationship with the Lord, connect to other members of His family, and live out His purpose for their lives.
Pastor Tony Salerno
Intern Pastor
Tony Salerno began his ministry to youth and families after graduating from Vanguard University. From a local youth ministry, he went on to be the founder of an international youth organization, which led to his work today with an emphasis on providing media resources and materials for kids and families. Tony is the recipient of numerous awards including 8 Grammy® nominations and five Dove awards, with recordings that have Gold and Platinum status.
Tony serves in the capacity of an advisory and helps role to various areas of the church, with a focus on the children’s and youth department. His desire is to see this generation have a hunger for God and His Word. He and his wife, Kathy, have one son, Anthony.
Ministry Team
Sarah Hernandez
Worship Director
Sarah and her husband have 3 beautiful boys. Sarah has a B.A in Music Theatre and Education from UC Irvine and a M.A. in Education from Hope International University. She has been serving in the worship ministry at the Cause for 9 years and has been the Worship Director for 3 of those years. In addition to serving at The Cause, she loves playing with her kids, eating good food with her husband, surfing, and enjoying a movie or a concert. Sarah's desire is to see people encounter Jesus through worship and grow closer to Him through the power of His presence.
Gary Tung
Music Director
Gary serves as The Cause Church’s Band Director (“he makes the band look good”) and helps lead the church in worship through this role. If you want to laugh, spend a few minutes with Gary, whose light-hearted approach to life will result in comical thoughts. Gary and his wife, Esther, are proud parents of two boys.
Pastor Julie Valenzuela
Children's Ministry Director
Julie has been serving youth and their families for 30+ years in the performing arts industry. For approximately 25 of those years, she and her husband were the entrepreneurs of a Christian performing arts school with 2 locations and six satellite locations located in preschools, elementary schools, and high schools throughout Southern California. In these locations, she mentored teachers, developed traveling ministry outreach teams, ran arts camps, wrote and developed large scale productions, activated kids of all ages in ministry, discipled children, youth, and adults in the Word of God, and trained people of all ages to use their gifts to glorify God.
Julie is passionate about the church and seeing families grow strong and develop a passion for Jesus! She loves her Cause family and she is most excited about discipling and training children and youth how to worship and apply the Word of God in their lives. She highly believes in activating them in their God-given gifts.
Julie is happily married to Joe Valenzuela and together they have four kids: Danny who is married to Ryan, Linda who is married to Scott, Jordan, and Joey. She considers her family her greatest treasure! Julie has an Associate Degree in Christian Ministries at The King’s University with plans to further her education, in the area of Christian counseling.
Chris Costello
Youth Ministry Director
Chris Costello grew up in a christian home. His parents Chris & DeeDee met at Life Bible College and after graduating answered the call to full time ministry. They have been pastoring since. Though Chris grew up in a loving christian home, he had his rebellious years in junior high & high school. When Chris was 20 years old he moved from the small town of Bishop, Ca to Tustin Orange County where he pursued his dream and passion for Mixed Martial Arts. Shortly after moving, Chris had an encounter with God that lead to him recommiting his life fully to Jesus. With a new passion and love for God, Chris found his walk with Christ to be difficult and discouraging without a community to fellowship with and learn from. One night as he drove back home from his job at a pizza place in Brea he broke down and cried out to God. "I can't do this alone" he said. "I need other people to help me. A bible study, a worship night, a church, I just need other people." The next day Chris went to work and had his first delivery. When he arrived at the address with the pizza, he found himself at The Cause Church. He was invited to a young adult service that day and from then on, The Cause Church was his home church. Chris went on to compete in MMA professionally while serving as a youth leader at The Cause. He began to realize, like his parents, he too was called to full time ministry. Chris later became the High School Director at the Cause and then stepped down to answer God's call to full time youth ministry with The Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Irvine Ca. In June of 2017 Chris met his beautiful wife Esmeralda, who took his kickboxing class. They soon after married in January of 2019. Esmeralda, who also has a strong calling on her life to ministry, became a youth leader alongside Chris. Together they share a great vision for what God wants to do in and through this generation of young people.
Cause YTH Director
Deanna Knickerbocker
Celebrate Recovery Ministry Leader
Deanna has been serving God’s kingdom through Celebrate Recovery for the last 13 and half years. She started her journey with the Lord in her residential treatment center for women recovering from drugs and alcohol. Deanna grew up Catholic and always knew that God loved her but needed to experience deep darkness before she could appreciate and find the light in 2009. She met her husband in recovery and is now married for 10 years to a wonderful man, Pete and they have two beautiful daughters, Madison and Makayla. Her life is now fully devoted to bringing others to Christ as she speaks in jails and institutions, in rehabilitation centers, as well as domestic violence shelters to share the hope she’s found in the Lord. Deanna has her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from CSUF and is going back to school in the fall to start her Master’s program in Christian Leadership. She is thrilled to take the next step towards God’s immense calling on her life, to set the captives free.
Travis Simons
Project Coordinator
Travis has been attending The Cause since it began in a movie theater and has been on staff since 2019. He graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a B.A. in Radio-TV-Film in 2009. Travis worked in the TV industry for 11 years for various networks before joining the church staff as the Project Coordinator. Along with working on various projects at The Cause, Travis’ role has expanded to include working in Cause Kids children’s ministry as the Assistant Children’s Director under Pastor Julie. He enjoys travel, fishing, camping, and other outdoor activities.