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'Rascal' returns home having answered a call
By SHERYL KAY © St. Petersburg Times, published November 5, 2000 LUTZ -- Two decades ago Steve Cooper was growing up troubled in Tampa Heights, son of a single mom on food stamps. Today he works at a job he calls the fulfillment of a dream. He is youth pastor at First United Methodist Church of Lutz, under his childhood mentor and role model, senior pastor Rick Cabot. Twenty years ago, it might as well have been just a dream. "I was looking to live the life that was being portrayed," said Cooper. "I experimented with a lot of different freedoms -- chewing tobacco, marijuana, in school, a foul mouth." Cabot remembers Cooper well. "He was a fun-loving, energetic, likable rascal, but he was a rascal, and he did get into trouble," said Cabot, who met Cooper around the neighborhood in 1984, while he was serving as a youth pastor himself, at Bayshore United Methodist Church in South Tampa. After a series of problems, Cooper was expelled from school in the 11th grade. After working days, he would go to Cabot's home to help with painting and maintaining Cabot's car. "Some kids really strike you in a special way, and he certainly did," recalled Cabot. "In spite of him being a rascal, he seemed to care very deeply about God, and he did have a special love for people." The admiration was mutual. "He was the most godly man I've ever seen," said Cooper, 30."He helped me get the big picture because I was watching his life, and I was thinking I want to be just like him in the future." Eventually Cooper started to volunteer in Cabot's church, and soon after felt his own religious calling. In 1991 he left for Toccoa Falls College in Georgia to study pastoral ministries. "We still stayed in touch all that time," said Cooper. "When I got engaged I wanted him to do our premarital counseling, and I drove three hours once a month for six months so I could go to him." Cooper's studies took him to Wilmore, Ky., where he graduated with a master's degree in divinity from Asbury Seminary last year. He then went on to a part-time youth pastor position in Kentucky. But on a visit to the Tampa area during Christmas, Cooper learned that Cabot was seeking a youth pastor for First United. "I was happy where I was, but Rick's pretty tenacious," Cooper said. "The pastor in Kentucky understood how much it meant to work with a mentor. "And mostly he understood because this job would be full time, and my wife wanted to come down here because her family is here." Today Cooper oversees a youth ministry directed at almost 60 children, in grades six through 12. "First and foremost, I try to emulate Rick and the way he was with me," said Cooper. "I hang out with the kids, we do Bible study, and I lead multimedia youth services." Cabot says Cooper has been a tremendous addition to his staff. "It's like having a loyal friend on your team," he said. "He still has enough youthfulness from the old days to be great for the kids. He has that spark and that energy, but now it is channeled and focused into his ministry."
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