ALUMNI
Faithfully Pursuing Literacy
After three decades of pastoral ministry, Randy Roth ’66 left the pulpit to create
a non-profit focused on literacy that continues to assist thousands of underserved students in Oakland.
As the new pastor of First Covenant Church in 1988, Roth organized a weekly prayer group, Pastors of Oakland, to think about outreach to the community. “When the Oakland Unified School District superintendent attended a meeting, he told us 70 percent of third graders read below grade level,” Randy recalls. “He said, ‘We need you and your churches to adopt a neighborhood school to keep students from dropping out and ending up in prison.’”
Randy was already tutoring at the school across the street from his church. When he read John Ortberg’s book, “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat,” he told his wife, Diane Graf Roth ’66, “It’s time to get out of the boat.”
He launched the Faith Network of East Bay as a 501(c)(3) organization, establishing a board of directors and an accountability structure that included fingerprinting and background checks. Congregations began to step up.
Initially focused on literacy, Faith Network began with experienced teachers and mentors who trained volunteers to tutor mostly third graders. Succeeding by Reading expanded to Science Horizon and Health for Kids and Path to Math. Testing twice a year charted students’ progress. Eventually, the board renamed the organization Children Rising, which continues serving schools in Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, Alameda and Richmond.
Randy happily shares success stories. Volunteers Bill and Nancy mentored Abraham Wordsworth, a Liberian student at Burckhalter Elementary. “They stuck with him all the way to college with more than a few bumps along the way,” Randy says. Now an account executive who has worked for Google and Salesforce, Abraham serves on the board of Children Rising.
Randy followed several family members to Westmont, including his aunt and uncle Doris ’53 and Dwight Anderson ’53, and cousin Terry Johnson ’63 and his wife, Dottie Arnold Johnson ’64.
He enjoyed studying Old Testament with Professor David Hubbard ’49, who later taught at Fuller Seminary and became its president. Initially uninterested in ministry, Randy attended graduate school at Fuller and served as an assistant to President Hubbard. But a memorable course with Robert B. Munger inspired him to be a pastor. “He said pastors equip the saints for the work of ministry,” Randy says. “Instead of preaching all the time, they help others discover their spiritual gifts and use them for evangelism and building up the church. That excited me.”
Randy enrolled at North Park Theological Seminary, where his second cousin, Ted Norland, was finishing a Master of Divinity. After graduating, the two served as co-pastors at West Hills Covenant Church in Portland, where they moved with their wives.
In 1971, Roth became president of the Greater Portland Association of Evangelicals, and he prayed for spiritual awakening. “These pastors sensed that we were all called together to be a salt shaker in the community,” he says. “Some of the churches began welcoming people experiencing homelessness to their unused property. It was quite amazing.”
When Randy and Diane learned about Steven, a boy born out of wedlock to a drug-addicted mother, they welcomed him into their home. “It was a challenge,” Randy says.
At the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church, Randy received the Irving C. Lambert Award, which honors excellence in urban ministry, for establishing and guiding the Faith Network of East Bay. His wife, two daughters and son accompanied him as did Steven, now the senior vice president of Morgan Stanley in Chicago.
This is a story from the Spring 2025 Westmont Magazine