Kacie Starr Long (formerly Triplett) and her husband, Alfred Long, planted their new church, CityReach Church in Florissant this past September, then shut the church down in May, because the people they are ministering too are not those who would traditionally want to come inside the doors of a church. “We are still doing God’s work, just not through the traditional four walls of the church at this time,” Long said.
“People are like, ‘oh, you started another church, there are tons of churches in St. Louis,” said Long. “But our mission is different, because we are going after those that are not likely churchgoers. So what does that look like? It looks like having a church full of people that traditionally have never stepped foot in a church, or haven’t stepped foot in a church in many, many years. So they might be really unfamiliar with the basic doctrines of Christianity.” Those who Kacie and Alfred Long minister to are not those who would traditionally fill a congregation.
Kacie Starr Long has come a long way since 10 years ago. In 2007, the then-26-year-old was elected as the city’s youngest ever alderman. In November 2012 she left politics and began, then in 2014 it was revealed that she had been using city funds to pay for her personal purchases.
“It started off really kind of innocuous, that I’d take a little bit of money from here, to use it for here, and I’ll put it back,” Long said. “It just really snowballed. And so I found myself kind of like, oh my God, what do I do? If I admit what I have done, I’m going to be in trouble, I’m going to go to prison. And the Lord said, if you admit what you have done, I will be with you. And I am not in prison!” She was charged a $22,000 restitution fee by the city, the last of which she paid this past fall. “God is true to his word. I lost my job, I lost a lot of things, but the Lord has been with me and I think that it’s been helpful to be able to relate to people and to tell my story of admitting what I’ve done and growing and learning from that, and trying to help make the world better.”
And “the scandal,” as she calls it, had a silver lining. Kacie’s future husband, Alfred Long, first noticed her through the news coverage of her political activities and eventual resignation.
“I knew God forgave her, and even then I could feel her heart,” Alfred said. “I didn’t know we were going to get married, but I felt her heart. I watched her from the beginning! She didn’t know. All the highlights, the good parts and the bad.”
“It’s kind of funny,” Kacie said, “How God used that incident to bring me to my husband.” And since ‘the scandal,’ she says, her life has been “completely transformed.”
“Ten years ago, it was all about me, and now, it’s all about Jesus,” Long said. “Probably around 2011, 2012 is really when I began to grow closer with the Lord. Internally, I really felt God shifting me from politics to him.” She saw God telling her that her life was about to change. “One day, I was taking a nap. And the Lord was like, ‘you know what, Kacie? Right now, everything’s about you, but one day, it’s going to be all about me.’ As a politician, you’re very driven, and everything is about you. Because you’re constantly trying to let people know what you have done, you’re constantly trying to win the approval of people so they will vote for you.”
Long felt the tension between her two lives then—one life as an up and coming politician, and another as someone who felt drawn to the church. “This was right when Twitter came out, when it became really big with politicians. I remember creating two separate accounts. I had one account that was just for church people so that I could really be myself, and then I had another one that was for the campaign. I remember having a talk with the Lord, and God was like ‘either you’re going to be for me, or you’re going to try to please people. Which one is it?’ So that was kind of the beginning.”
Now, a few months into co-ministering with her husband, Long’s life is transformed. Running the church, she says, is “great for our marriage.” And the people in the community around CityReach have been receptive to the message that the Longs are bringing—even if some of the most devoted congregants aren’t who they expected.
“We knew that there were a lot of children in the surrounding community, but we had no idea of how God had called us to minister to the children of the community,” Kacie Long said. “And, you know, we were really looking at the adults, but as we were going out to do our evangelism, and knocking on doors to talk to the adults, these children kept following us. They would see us praying for the adults, and they wanted to pray, you know, they wanted to learn about Jesus, they wanted to come to church.”
Now, the Longs drive a group of kids to church themselves each Sunday, using their personal cars (“We’re really praying that God’s going to give us a van,” Long said.) And their congregants—children and adults—look forward to church each week. Earlier this month, they thought there would be a snowstorm, so they cancelled services. “Some of the kids called to see if we were going to church. Some of the adults…texted us sad faces that we weren’t going to have service. They want to go to a place that is accepting, and we are seeing that there is a hunger for the Lord.”
The couple’s next goal is to establish transition homes, called Hope Homes, to help people get off the streets. This is a topic Alfred Long is passionate about, because he went through a similar transitional housing program while he was recovering from heroin and alcohol addiction. “I was in Teen Challenge, a Christian drug program where you go for a year,” he said. “It’s almost like going to Bible school. You always have someone there to nurture you as you come off the streets, and you have the opportunity to get away from your environment and to be nurtured in the word of God.”
“In the meantime,” Kacie Long said, “Al is still going forward with prison ministry. He recently completed a 13-week drug and alcohol program inside of the men’s prison in Pacific, MO. I am still going forward with my weekly Christian talk show every Wednesday on gospel station, 690AM. And we are still doing outreach in the community — praying for people and sharing Jesus. We are still doing God’s work, just not through the traditional four walls of the church at this time.” They intend to re-launch the physical location of their church next year.
In doing so, the Longs hope to do something no one is doing yet in St. Louis. “We found there’s a lot of programs that provide physical things,” Alfred Long said, “But the spiritual component is missing. But I found that that’s the only thing that could help me.”
