Meet Bishop Larry Cook Who Purchased North Minneapolis Gas Station to Drive Out Crime

Meet Bishop Larry Cook, the pastor behind Real Believers Faith Center in North Minneapolis who purchased a nearby gas station to help reduce crime in the area.

North Minneapolis’ Marathon Gas Station had been plagued with high drug use and crime for years, KSTP reports. But all that changed when Cook’s congregation decided to take matters into their own hands by purchasing the gas station in November and turning it into “The Lion’s Den.”

“You’re not going to ever see somebody hanging out because we put a stop to that,” Cook said. “We didn’t say that you’re not welcome, but we said you can’t sell drugs here.”

After purchasing the gas station, Cook sought to recruit some of the people who previously used the gas station for illegal activity. The new staff is now helping Cook by working at the church located right behind the gas station.

“I wanted to talk to the guys that were out here because I see a lot of value in them,” Cook said.

“My idea is to sit here and to catch all the fish that I can catch.”

In addition to cleaning up the area, the church aims to transform the lives of those who used to hang out at the gas station and have since become church employees.

“We’re trying to clean this up, give people hope and change their mindset,” Sharon Cook, Real Believers Faith Center assistant pastor said. “There’s more to life than getting high, hanging out or gangbanging,”

“One person at a time, one block at a time, one church at a time, together we can do it,” she added.

Cook had plans of purchasing the gas station for some time and when he finally did, he and his wife were “elated,” he told Fox 9. He shared his goal of raising awareness of his church as well as adding to its infrastructure in the form of smart business investments.

“To control the corner. To spread our influence of who we are as a church and what we do as a ministry,” Cook said. “Also, to take advantage of the economic power that it can give our church.”