Pastor Casey Treat (CT) was heavily involved with drugs as a teen and he eventually was given a choice between prison and rehab. It was at the Christian-based rehab program that he was born again and called into ministry.

RHS: Come on, Casey. He's an old friend. I met him first at nine o'clock this morning. See I'm not very forgetful. No, I never met you before Casey and yesterday they got me an early copy of your book, How to be Your Best When You Feel Your Worst. Terrific. I could write a book on that.

CT: That's a good idea.

RHS: Yeah, no?

CT: You should try that book writing thing.

RHS: Your story is phenomenal. You were not born in a Christian family?

CT: Nope, I was raised in the Pacific Northwest in a typical secular family...go to work, try to pay the bills. But I think for many of us teenagers in that baby boomer age, we thought there must be something more. I needed a purpose. I needed fulfillment. I needed something more. And so we began to search for it, and I ended up with the alcohol and the drugs and that whole world.

RHS: At what age did you start?

CT: Well, I started at 13, 14, and by the time I was 16, you know, we were using all types of drugs and needles. And so by the time I was 18 and 19, I was getting in trouble with the law and all of the problems that come along with drug use.

RHS: Then how did you switch courses?

CT: Well at 19 the state probation department said, you have two choices - prison or a rehab center. I said let's pray about that. And...

RHS: You used the word pray?

CT: No, not really.

RHS: No I didn't think so.

CT: But I ended up in a rehab center where I met a Christian man named Julius Young. Julius became my spiritual father and I was born again at that time and everything changed. A purpose, a vision, everything about my life was different from then on.

RHS: You went to school?

CT: I went to Bible school in Seattle. I met my wife Wendy who was the daughter of a Methodist pastor, and when she called mom and said, "I've met my husband, but we can't date yet because he's in a drug rehabilitation center," you know her mother was not encouraged. But they later believed in me and we were married and started Christian Faith Center together. She was 22, I was 24, and you were building the Crystal Cathedral...

RHS: How did you know?

CT: ...and we were birthing a new church. But we would watch you on television and we'd be inspired. I always loved Romans 12:2, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" because I knew I had to change my thinking as well as my relationship with God. So I would see you, hear about possibility thinking, if they can do it at Crystal Cathedral we can do it in Seattle. A few months ago, we moved into a 5,000 seat sanctuary.

RHS: Wow.

CT: And I would say your ministry has a part of building that church in the Northwest.

RHS: Oh thank you. Thank you.

CT: It's wonderful.

RHS: And I'm told that your church today is the largest church in Seattle?

CT: Yes, we'll have about 9,000 people in services this week, and Wendy is there preaching right now. Our congregation prays for me to leave so she can preach more.

RHS: Fabulous! That's the faith. That's positive faith. But tell me, something happened pretty badly to you?

CT: Yeah along the way we were building a new sanctuary and I had to do a medical exam for life insurance and they failed me! And I said, you can't fail me I'm the pastor. I'm healthy. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't chew and I don't date the girls that do! But I had contracted hepatitis C as a young drug user, and so now it had grown into cirrhosis of the liver and my liver was failing. And they said, "You will die young." At first, you know, that's a shock. It's hard to build a new sanctuary when you're dying. So I didn't want to announce to the church that I had hepatitis C. So I told the elders, let's pray, let's believe God. You know Proverbs 18:9 amplified Bible, use every endeavor to heal yourself.

RHS: Yes!

CT: Lest you are brother to those that commit suicide. So I said we're going to fight it with our faith with prayer. God's going to heal. We'll use medicine. We'll use a better diet. We'll use everything we can to overcome this hepatitis C and I started eleven months of chemotherapy.

RHS: Did you lose your hair?

CT: Yes, my hair was falling out and the red was gone. You think I'm white now, I was so white on chemotherapy I was transparent. And shots, you know, and the pills, and the visits to the doctor every week. But after a few months I cleared the virus and I said to the church, you've noticed I've lost weight and had hairs falling out. Well it's not just you know I'm getting old, it's chemotherapy. And of course the church was shocked, but the prayed and they stood with us. Eleven months we cleared it and I got my hair back. I got my youth back. And we got the sanctuary built and you can be your best when you feel your worst.

RHS: That's terrific! And I don't think the church would be what it is today - so strong, so alive, and so large if the people hadn't had their faith shaped so powerfully and they got it shaped when they saw the pastor without hair on his head.

CT: Yeah there were a few bad days there, but I think we all learn in the midst of that greatest challenge at the end of ourselves. Paul said, "I glory in my weakness because when I am weak that's when I'm strong." And as you teach Dr. Schuller that's just not a nice idea in the scripture.

RHS: Oh no!

CT: That's true

RHS: It's true

CT: And it is life and we live on that stuff.

RHS: Yeah without faith it's impossible to please God.

CT: Yeah we walk by faith and that's so much more than just a religious concept, it's the reality of our lives.

RHS: Yes, yes. Well thank you very much! God is blessing you.

RHS: Wow. Yeah, oh I can't wait to read it. Wow. So what do you think about why are bad things happening to good people? A lot of people are listening to you right here and now and they are in tough spots.

CT: Yes.

RHS: You've been through it tougher than most people.

CT: Well I think sometimes we forget God forgives and cleanses us from all of our sin. But at times we live with our consequences, don't we? And that was me, using drugs and needles I had contracted hepatitis C, and never knew it. So I had to deal with those consequences. But then He strengthens us, He empowers us, and He enables us to overcome those things. The other thing, we just live in a world that has evil and whether its disasters, and weather problems or wars, or evil people, we have to deal with those things. We can't deny or ignore those things but even then God enables us. So I think when the apostle said, let's glory in our weaknesses, he was encouraging us that no matter what we're facing, the storm, the war, the disease, greater is He that is in us than He that's in the world.

RHS: Wow. Casey Treat, thank you.

CT: Thank you.

RHS: God loves you and so do I.

CT: Thank you. Amen.