About Us

Rankin Wilbourne & Morgen Wilbourne

Rankin (B.A. University of Mississippi, M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary) has been a pastor for over two decades, serving in a variety of contexts, including as lead pastor in Los Angeles, and assistant pastor in the Northeast, South and, most recently, the Midwest. Before becoming a pastor, he worked in corporate banking for several years. He’s written two award-winning books and is keenly interested in emotional health, wholehearted discipleship, and building bridges from the Bible to our modern concerns.

He loves sports, including coaching his three children’s teams. He’s married to Morgen and their family resides on a farm in Indiana.

Morgen (B.A. University of Southern California) trained as a creative writer. She is a native New Yorker, the daughter of urban missionaries, and has a diverse ministry background, both in the United States and overseas (Moscow, Tokyo, Freetown).

In her most recent season, she has been a writer and editor, mother to three children, and wife to Rankin. With Broom Tree Media, she writes articles and essays and asks a lot of questions.

What is a Broom Tree?

In naming this ministry, we wanted a name that was hospitable, not off-puttingly religious-sounding, but also with a story behind it. We love the hospitality of trees…and then we read 1 Kings 19, where Elijah, running for his life, journeys into the wilderness and sits down under a broom tree. Depressed, exhausted, even suicidal, he falls asleep there, and is awakened by an angel who gives him cake and water. (Then he takes another nap. And eats another meal.) We like the image of a broom tree as a place of rest and restoration, a place of shade in the wilderness, and a place of preparation for encounter with God. We thought that fit well with our own story, and also suggests some of what we hope to do with our platform, which is to explore what comes after a great success or a great failure, after burnout, after exhaustion. 

In a desert place, what can wholehearted faith look like? We’re called to love God with our whole heart, soul and strength. And yet – when seasons of dryness or damage come, we wonder if leaves, much less fruit, will ever return. We want this platform to provide sustenance, nourishment, rest for the weary, even the depressed, those who may feel like giving up, the cynical, the disenchanted. We see God’s care for Elijah under the broom tree as a template, a model, a path, for how we might begin to care for one another today.