ABOUT US
RETREAT STAFF
Drs. Mike and Kari MacKenzie
Clinical Director, Executive Director
Kari MacKenzie, M.A., D.Min. is the Executive Director of Marble Retreat, while Mike MacKenzie, M.A., D.Min. serves as the clinical director. Both have been leading intensives at Marble Retreat since 2007. Mike has been a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) since 1996 and Kari has been a Counselor since 2002. Both have completed their Doctor of Ministry degrees, specializing in Counseling Christian Leaders, from Lincoln Christian University where they did extensive research in this area. In 2009, Mike and Kari became adjunct professors at Lincoln Christian University, teaching courses and supervising the D.Min. track in Pastor Care. They both have a Master of Arts in counseling and have completed doctoral work in Marriage and Family therapy.
Their background includes a variety of ministry experiences which give them an understanding of being in ministry including Mike’s work as a hospice chaplain and Kari’s missionary work in China. As well, they served on staff together at LifeBridge Christian Church and Blessing Ranch, an intensive counseling center for clergy. Before joining Marble Retreat full-time, they owned and operated MacKenzie Counseling Services for 8 years where they counseled individuals and couples and specialized in working with those in ministry.
Having written: Don’t Blow Up Your Ministry: Defuse the Underlying Issues that Take Pastors Down: (IVP, 2021), two dissertations, and many professional and popular articles on the topics of counseling Christian Leaders and thriving in ministry, Mike and Kari speak on these issues. They have a shared passion to see healing and restoration brought to those in Christian service as well as helping ministry leaders stay resilient in ministry. They are proud parents of two sons, Dylan and Easton, and bring to Marble Retreat, a great love of the outdoors to go with their rich fund of counseling experience, compassion and deep commitment to serving God and those of the faith.
Patrick & Mindy Crowder
Lead Therapists
Patrick & Mindy Crowder serve as our lead pastor care therapists. Combined, they have 80 years of vocational pastoral ministry experience, including planting churches, which has fueled their love for pastoring and for pastors. They have served as full-time pastor care specialists since 2015, initially caring for about 250 pastors and church planters in the Southwest with both proactive and crisis care. Their ministry grew into extending care more broadly to leaders throughout the US and abroad which landed them at Marble in 2021. They offer clinically informed faith-based counseling and care to pastors and Christian leaders, having provided counseling and coaching to hundreds of ministry leaders and couples. Their newly formed non-profit: Healthy Pastors and Leaders, Inc. healthypastors.net to envisions developing an extension of proactive care to pastors and leaders building upon the lessons learned from the 1000s of hours sitting with leaders in crisis.
Patrick: B.B.A. Angelo State University; M.Div. and M.A. Journalism from Regent University, D.Min. Pastor Care, A.B.D. at Lincoln Christian University. Full-time ministry for over 40 years. He has designed and taught spiritual formation, pastoral counseling, and other ministry and Bible related college courses for many years. His life calling in every role has been to be “a Barnabas to leaders.”
Mindy: B.A. Texas Tech University, M.A. Counseling, Townsend Institute at Concordia University Irvine. Over 40 years of pastoral ministry experience in numerous roles. As a pastor, life-coach, therapist, and mentor, Mindy comes alongside individuals to help them find direction for a healthier soul, deeper relationships, and empowerment to be their true selves. Her focus is to give pastors and leaders a safe place to authentically unpack the mess that is ministry.
They have seven children between them and enjoy their fourteen grandchildren.
Bob and Lisa Rue
Host Couple
Bob Rue and his wife, Lisa are the host couple at Marble Retreat. After serving as volunteers for a number of years, Bob and Lisa made the move in June 2015 to become full time residents in the Marble Retreat lodge. Bob is an excellent cook and Jeep tour guide. Together they make the lodge a comfortable, hospitable, loving, and fun place for our guests. Bob retired as an elementary physical education teacher this past spring (2015), making it possible for Lisa and him to make this transition. He held that position for 30 years in Longmont, CO. Lisa is an adjunct professor with the University of Northern Colorado and Co-Founder of Preventative Technology Solutions. Bob and Lisa have two grown children, Sarah and Rick and two grandchildren. Bob feels blessed to be caring for God’s people from all around the world in such a beautiful place during this next chapter of his life.
Cheryl Yarrow
Office Manager
Cheryl Yarrow serves as the office manager of Marble Retreat and is the friendly voice on the other end of the phone in our office. Cheryl and husband Daryl reside in Glenwood Springs. After a 15-year hiatus to raise their two daughters, soon to be college graduates, Marble Retreat welcomed Cheryl back on staff Spring of 2018. Cheryl grew up in Florida, and after graduating from Wheaton College (IL) as a political science major, moved to our Nation’s Capital to be salt and light. There she served leaders in both ministry and public service and was active in reaching out to congressional staff and congressional interns. In 1995, God led her across the country to join the Marble Retreat staff, ministering alongside founders Louis and Melissa McBurney, initially as hostess in the retreat lodge. After seven years of serving in a variety of capacities, including using her administrative gifts, Cheryl “retired” to focus on her growing family. Her passion for Marble Retreat and heart for those in ministry never waned over those years, and she’s delighted and grateful to be part of the ministry team again.
WE BELIEVE IN
ONE GOD, Creator and Sustainer of all things, Who exists in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
THE BIBLE as the inspired revelation of God and final authority for living out our faith.
THE DEITY AND HUMANITY OF JESUS, his sinless life, and his miracles; his atoning death and his bodily resurrection provide the only ground for justification, forgiveness, and salvation.
THE ONGOING WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT in convicting, empowering, comforting, and guiding believers.
THE UNIQUE AND INVALUABLE WORTH of each individual based entirely on God’s love and grace.
OUR STORY
Marble Retreat was born out of the conviction that clergy and others in Christian service, have extreme job demands which can frequently result in symptoms of depression, anxiety, frustration, discouragement and burnout. Worse still and because of their position, they find it difficult to seek help.
These factors, and God’s call, led Mayo Clinic-trained psychiatrist Louis McBurney, M.D. and his wife, Melissa, to begin the ministry of Marble Retreat in 1974, over 40 years ago. Marble Retreat has now served the Christian counseling needs of more than 5,000 Church leaders who have come from every state and more than 60 countries.
In 2003, Steven Cappa, Psy. D., L.P.C., and his wife Patti Cappa LMFT, CAC II, stepped up to carry on the rich legacy of Marble Retreat, assuming the duties as directors, where they served 10 devoted years.
In 2013, Marble Retreat was proud to welcome Drs. Mike and Kari MacKenzie as the new directors of Marble Retreat! They have brought a rich and deep conviction of caring for clergy and believers at large. They had served the ministry since 2007, before stepping into their new roles as Directors.
OUR FOUNDERS
Melissa McBurney is co-founder of Marble Retreat. She adds to this her experiences as an author, conference speaker, homemaker, and mother of three adult children (Bruce, Andrea, and Brent) and a delighted grandmother! She adds decades of Christian counseling experience to her BA from Baylor University and when she served alongside Louis brought to group sessions her valuable insights, rich female perception and deeply personal spiritual maturity.
The late Dr. Louis McBurney, co-founder, received his BA and MS degrees from Baylor and his MD from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston where he was named Outstanding Student in Psychiatry. He was chosen the Outstanding Intern in Internal Medicine at Houston’s Methodist Hospital. After three years as a General Medical Officer in the Navy, Dr. McBurney completed his psychiatric specialty training at the Mayo Clinic. There he was chosen by the Mayo Psychiatric Section and the American Psychiatric Association for a Faulk Fellowship.
While at Mayo, Louis and Melissa became aware of the pressures felt by those in Christian ministry. From that awareness grew a conviction of God’s call to establish a Christian counseling center for clergy and their spouses. After a year of further training in London, they ventured out to the Colorado Rockies to answer that call. In February 1974, the first group was held and, over time, Marble Retreat became a reality.
Dr. McBurney was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). He wrote numerous articles and books including: Christian Sex Rules: A guide to what’s allowed in the bedroom, Every Pastor Needs A Pastor, Counseling Christian Workers, and Real Questions, Real Answers About Sex (Zondervan Book Publishers).
On January 20, 2009 Louis McBurney quite suddenly and shockingly succumbed to head injuries he’d unknowingly suffered approximately two months earlier, the result of a fall he suffered while descending his garage attic ladder.
