Sierra Reach Ministries sits on Applegate Road in the small foothill community of Applegate, California, where its building has served as both a house of worship and the hub for a local food and clothing ministry since 2001. The church is known for two things above all: a Bible-centered recovery ministry called Pathfinders that meets every Tuesday evening, and a Thursday-morning food and clothing closet that opens its doors to neighbors in need. Around those two anchors, Lead Pastor Valerie Horner and her team have built a full schedule of teaching, fellowship, and outreach that reaches from the Placer County foothills to Nairobi, Kenya, and to Israel.
The vision of Sierra Reach has always been stated in three short phrases: Reach God, Reach the World, Reach One Another. Everything the church does flows from the passage in Isaiah 61 that the founders made the church's mission text, the words about bringing good news to the afflicted, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to captives, and comforting those who mourn. That same passage gave birth to the Food and Clothing Closet, and it continues to shape the way Sierra Reach talks about itself and its calling.
Sunday in the Sanctuary
The main weekly gathering is the Sunday worship service, held from 10:00 to 11:00 AM at the church on Applegate Road. An online stream runs at 10:30 AM for those who cannot attend in person, and giving is available online as well. Before the service, at 9:00 AM, Linda Costantini, the church's co-founder, leads a prayer meeting in the sanctuary. The combination of an early prayer gathering followed by a full family-style worship hour gives Sunday mornings at Sierra Reach the feel of a daylong rhythm rather than a single appointment.
Children are cared for during the 10:00 AM service. Rachael Jeffers, the children's pastor, oversees a team that includes Meg Mihelic and Christine Nightingale. Together they provide classes for every age from nursery through fifth grade in a setting designed to partner with parents in growing kids in faith and character.
Students in middle school and high school gather separately during the worship hour for the Sierra Reach Youth Ministry, or SRYM, which runs from 10:30 to 11:45 AM under the teaching of Hilary Brown. The format leans into relationships, mixing games, Scripture study, worship, and prayer so students can grow in their walk with Christ alongside adult mentors.
Pathfinders: A Twelve-Step Journey Through Scripture
Of all the ministries at Sierra Reach, Pathfinders may be the one that sets it apart. It meets every Tuesday evening from 6:30 to 8:00 PM in the church and is led by Tom Mihelic, the lead elder and recovery pastor. Pathfinders is a faith-based recovery program built around a Bible-based twelve-step format. It is open to anyone, regardless of what they are recovering from.
As the church describes it, "We are all recovering from life in this world, and there is no better way to overcome any life-dominating issue than through God's word and a personal relationship with Jesus." Scripture is heavily emphasized at each step, and Mihelic walks participants through what it looks like to find true freedom through Christ. Pathfinders has its own Facebook group where members stay connected between meetings.
Wednesday Mornings in the Word
Sierra Reach runs two parallel Wednesday morning Bible studies beginning at 9:30 AM. The ladies' study works through books of the Bible at a conversational pace, encouraging women to slow down, study Scripture together, and discover how God's Word applies to everyday life. The men's study, led by Dave Horner, focuses on a different book each term with the goal of helping men follow Christ with perseverance and faith. Both groups are open to newcomers as well as longtime Bible readers, and both emphasize fellowship and encouragement alongside the study of the text.
Tuesday Mornings With the Gleaners
On Tuesdays at 10:00 AM, Pastor Lou Costantini, the church's founding pastor and now pastor emeritus, leads Gleaners. The group reviews the previous Sunday's sermon, talks about the Bible in light of current events, and prays together. It is a small, conversational gathering that has become a regular midweek touchpoint for those who want to dig deeper into what was taught on Sunday.
Men, Women, and Youth Life
Sierra Reach organizes much of its adult discipleship through men's and women's ministries. The men's ministry, led by Dave Horner, gathers on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM for Bible study and brotherhood. A monthly men's breakfast, held at the church on Saturday mornings, has become another regular rhythm for fellowship and encouragement.
The women's ministry is led by Nicki Young and Nancy Mosier. Throughout the year it hosts gatherings designed to refresh and connect women at every season, including an annual Ladies Christmas Dinner, a Friday-evening event called Hope Cafe that mixes worship, treats, and an encouraging message, and a spring Ladies Retreat at Zephyr Point on Lake Tahoe.
For students, SRYM meets during Sunday worship as the church's primary youth program. Hilary Brown leads the teaching, and a permission form is available for events that take students off campus.
The Food and Clothing Closet
The Food and Clothing Closet is the longest-running outreach of Sierra Reach Ministries. It was started in the fall of 2001 out of the heart of Isaiah 61:1-4, with the desire to bring good news to the afflicted, bind up the brokenhearted, and bring comfort to those in need. Every Thursday from 9:00 to 11:30 AM, the ministry opens at the church on Applegate Road and provides groceries and clothing to neighbors in the community. The closet is led by Evie Waughan and operates as an extension of the church's core identity as a place that meets practical needs.
Reaching the World
Beyond the local closet, Sierra Reach supports two international ministries. In Kenya, Pastor Harun Nygesa and his wife Sheri pastor The Bridge, a church just outside Nairobi that also runs a free preschool for the surrounding community. Harun serves as regional secretary for fifteen other churches in and around the city, and Sierra Reach has walked alongside this work as The Bridge has planted additional congregations.
In Israel, the church partners with the Hatikva Project (the Hope Project), a ministry that exists to see the Israeli body of Messiah built up and to serve needy Israelis in the name of Yeshua. Both relationships reflect the church's stated call to "Reach the World" in addition to reaching its own neighborhood.
What Sierra Reach Believes
Sierra Reach Ministries is an evangelical, non-denominational church, and its statement of faith is foundational to everything it does. The church holds that the Bible is the only inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God; that there is one God eternally existent in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that Jesus Christ is fully God, born of a virgin, lived without sin, died as a substitutionary sacrifice, rose bodily from the dead, ascended to the Father's right hand, and will return in power and glory.
Salvation, the church teaches, comes through repentance from sin and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, made possible by regeneration through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's present ministry empowers believers to live godly lives, and His gifts remain available to the church today. Sierra Reach also affirms the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, the scriptural practices of water baptism and communion as outward demonstrations of inward faith, the spiritual unity of believers in Christ, and the sanctity of marriage as the covenant union of one man and one woman for life.
Practical Details
The church office is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and can be reached at (530) 878-2705. The mailing address is PO Box 430, Applegate, CA 95703, while the physical building sits at 18015 Applegate Road. Worship services are livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, sermons and conversations are available through the Sierra Reach Ministries podcast and the Pastor Lou Costantini podcast, and a weekly email keeps subscribers informed about everything happening at the church.
Giving is welcome in person at the offering box in the sanctuary, by mail to the PO box, or online through the church's giving page.
For more than two decades, Sierra Reach Ministries has held to a steady rhythm of prayer on Sunday morning, worship on Sunday morning and online, recovery on Tuesday night, Bible study on Wednesday morning, food and clothing on Thursday morning, and men's study on Thursday evening. Around that rhythm, the church has built a community that takes seriously its call to reach God, reach the world, and reach one another, beginning in Applegate and stretching far beyond it.