At the start of Canon Point’s church service in early May, Pastor Jason Bunse stepped before a crowd of people filling rows of chairs at Claggett Creek Middle School.
From the small stage, he read passages from the Bible and ran presentation slides as he explained what the attendees would learn while reading the Book of Genesis. His summary: “God creates, man rebels, God redeems.”
Bunse launched the Keizer church with his wife this spring, after recently returning to the Salem-Keizer area for the first time since he was arrested for selling drugs in 2004.
Bunse’s journey to starting the church began in a cell at Marion County Jail 20 years ago. He had been arrested in northeast Salem after attempting to buy two kilograms of cocaine from an undercover drug enforcement officer.
That served as a turning point in his life, Bunse said in an interview.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison for selling and trafficking drugs, and was released two years early for good behavior. While in prison, he felt prompted by God to shift from distributing drugs to spreading the teachings of the Bible.
“Some people end up dead in that business and/or life in prison. And so for me to get a chunk of prison time was probably the better option, since I couldn’t walk away on my own, and so I just look back and I’m thankful now because of that answered prayer,” Bunse said.
At the time of his arrest, Bunse had been selling and trafficking cocaine and other drugs for nearly a decade. He lived in Keizer and drove to Portland each Friday to supply other drug dealers ahead of weekend parties.
Hearing God’s voice
Bunse said he grew up exposed to drugs and alcohol, and frequently moved around the Salem-Keizer area as a child. Bunse recalled his mother teaching him the Bible as a child and attending church when he was young, but his family was pulled out of church by his stepfather at 10 years old.
Church wasn’t a part of Bunse’s life again until he said he heard God in his head for the first time while driving to Portland to sell drugs. This happened months before his arrest, and Bunse said God told him to return to church again.
Bunse believes God was reaching out to him to begin steering him away from dealing drugs.
“He chose to sit down in the car with me and have a conversation with me. I didn’t want to have it. I wasn’t ready for it, but he loved me enough to disrupt my thinking for a moment and offer me a new way,” Bunse said.
In the following months Bunse recalled pulling off of Interstate 5 and briefly attending services at a church near Brooks. He would enter after the service began and leave before it ended.
Bunse described his irregular attendance as “dating the church,” and only stopping by when it was convenient. While he believed that God is kind, he felt unworthy of joining the others attending church because of his choice to sell drugs.
However, Bunse did not know how to leave the business after years of earning “easy money” through it. He prayed for help quitting.
Then, in March 2004, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration was investigating someone Bunse worked with in the blackmarket drug trade. That person arranged for Bunse to purchase cocaine from the undercover agent, leading to his arrest.
Bunse subsequently spent about three months in the Marion County Jail before ending up in the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan. He served the majority of his sentence in the federal prison, located roughly 30 minutes northwest of Salem.
A Bible offers hope
While in the county jail, he was only allowed out of his cell for one hour of the day. He was drawn to a bookshelf in the jail filled with tattered books.
On his second day, he found a copy of the Gideon Bible.
As Bunse sat on the top bunk in the concrete room, he recalled feeling hope for himself after reading gospels about the compassion given to the “down and outers and the ruffians of this life” by Jesus Christ.
Then, Bunse said he was prompted by God to apply the business strategy he used as a drug dealer – find a source of cocaine and distribute it to others for sale – to spread the teachings of the Bible to other people.
Bunse said he believed God repurposed his life, and this shifted his perspective on his prison sentence. He began to see it beneficial to his life: he was no longer “discipling guys in the drug business,” and now able to dedicate his time to studying “God’s way and his plan.”
“I had a hope and a purpose to live for that was much greater than anything I’d ever lived before,” Bunse said.
Throughout his prison sentence, he listened to a Portland-area pastor speak on the radio and sought to discuss the Bible with others in the prison.
At one point, after being transferred to Sheridan, he was asked by another incarcerated person to lead a Bible study. It began at cafeteria tables, but as interest grew, the group moved to his cell.
Life after prison
After his release from prison in 2009, he lived in a halfway house near Portland International Airport and then lived with his mom briefly before returning to the Portland area.
For five years he ran his own businesses, including one in railroad maintenance and another in shipping, and attended Athey Creek Church in West Linn. Brett Meador, pastor at the nondenominational church, was the one Bunse had listened to on the radio.
After spending time ministering in Bible-centered rehabs and attending the church with his wife and four children, Bunse was asked to serve as an associate pastor and did so for 10 years.
Bunse said he had planned to start his own church since his time in the Marion County jail, where he envisioned he would start multiple churches as a way to spread the teachings of the Bible. He accepted the pastor role in West Linn with the intention of going on his own eventually.
Church leaders agreed to support Bunse in the endeavor when the time came.
He and his wife were considering starting the church in Texas, touring possible cities to do so, when he said God steered them back to Salem for “unfinished business.”
This prompted him and his family to move to the Salem area, and start Canon Point Church.
Bunse said the church has an approach to ministry centered around Jesus Christ and the Bible, encouraging members to interpret the words of the book themselves rather than focusing on the pastor’s perspective.
The church is independent from Athey Creek, but Bunse said his former church is connected to Canon Point while it’s becoming established.
The new church shares Athey Creek’s Bible-centered approach to ministry
Bunse described Athey Creek members as family to him, and said his former church provides “spiritual support, coaching” and assistance to Canon Point.
Canon Point is also financially supported by Athey Creek.
Confronting his past, sharing his faith
In the fall Bunse began holding interest meetings in Keizer and posting on social media to build interest, before launching.
The first service was on Easter Sunday at Claggett Creek Middle School — which he said drew roughly 1,000 people. Bunse recalled setting up loud speakers outside for those who could not find room inside.
The church now meets on Sundays at the middle school, and holds a midweek service as well.
He said the church may have an independent building in the future, but for now the church team will continue renting space at the school or other locations if needed. Church leaders are currently working to expand their team to accommodate those participating in the church, Bunse said.
Returning to the area has allowed him to “face the wreckage, the loss, the pain of how (he) left things.” He said the Salem-Keizer area represents “the failures” of his life because he chose to commit crimes across the town.
Returning forced him to confront his past.
“There’s pretty much nowhere in Salem I can go, Keizer I can go, without ‘I did a drug deal there’ or ‘I was involved in crime there,’” Bunse said. “Everything has a memory.”
Now, he seeks to replace the bad memories with good ones. At a restaurant near the corner of Market Street and Lancaster, where he was arrested, he did so by inviting a person to church.
Bunse said he believes his journey is one of hope, which is what his church aims to provide to people.
“I would say my story’s a reminder that your story isn’t finished. No one is beyond God’s reach. No one is too far gone,” Bunse said.
NEWS TIP? Contact reporter Krista Kroiss at [email protected].
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