Former senator spotlights Coeur d'Alene church in YouTube series

For Gordon Crow, St. Thomas Catholic Church in Coeur d'Alene is "Alive" and well.

And he has the videos and testimonies to prove it.

The former Kootenai County resident and past Idaho senator is the man behind the camera of MassTransit, a YouTube series that tells the stories of historic churches. Retired today, he travels the nation with his wife, Sandy, in their RV to find and share these stories.

“I’m serving my God, holding up His church, a church that I love and want to show it to others,” he said.

During the videos, he films services, walks church grounds and interviews priests and parishioners. Each one runs about 15-20 minutes. 

Most recently, he and his wife visited St. Thomas Catholic Church, “which was near and dear to his heart because he and Sandy were so deeply embedded here” during their time in Coeur d’Alene, said friend Mike Kennedy.

The St. Thomas episode, "Alive," premiered Thursday night.

Crow, a Republican, was elected to the Senate in 1994 and served three terms from 1995 to 2000 before deciding not to seek reelection. 

“I was lucky to be elected,” he said, laughing. “It was a different time back then. I couldn't get elected now.”

After following a few career paths, including being president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce in Laramie, Wyo., Crow formed MassTransit in 2021. Today, he is based in Howardwick, Texas. 

At St. Thomas, which is more than a century old, he came away impressed with its vibrancy and committed followers and was excited to be able to tell its story.

“It is a very historic church, and it’s very much alive,” said Crow, who was en route to another church in Minnesota on Wednesday.

He jokes that he selects churches to visit based on whoever invites him. He has stopped at nearly 20 parishes in states including Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri.

One of his productions covers seven parishes in Iowa that were combined into one due to a lack of priests. Masses were held at five different churches on weekends.

The challenges the Catholic churches face are “all over the board," Crow said. He loves highlighting not only how they handle them, but turn to pray for God's guidance.

“I just believe it's God's providence that leads us around,” Crow said.

He believes MassTransit is just getting started. Crow handles every aspect of production, from the recording to the editing and storytelling.

“You're talking to the whole crew right now,” he said, chuckling.

Crow wasn't raised Catholic. His faith walk took him from Protestant to Lutheran before finding peace in the Catholic teachings that can be traced to the apostle Paul.

His dream job, always, he said, was to work for his church.

“I thought I’d end up doing that when I retired,” he said.

That day finally arrived. As he and Sandy looked at retirement options, one appealed to them: Living full-time in a motor home, traveling the country and creating a YouTube channel.

Crow said the idea initially was to film priests delivering homilies and sermons, “then do a deeper dive.”

He laughs as he explains why it didn’t quite work as planned.

“Not every priest is a good homilist, and not every sermon deserves a deeper dive," he said.

But he wanted to lift up the Catholic church, but not shy away from the challenges.

He hopes that MassTransit is doing just that.

He spoke of one story of a relative who had lost his faith, watched an episode of MassTransit, and was encouraged to seek the Lord through the Catholic church.

“People are looking for faith,” Crow said. 

Crow said they aren’t doing this for money, and aren’t making any, but he wouldn’t mind breaking even. Some churches he visits have held free-will offerings to support MassTransit, and if they can reach 1,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel, they can earn advertising revenue.

He said when their days on the road are over and they want to settle down, their eyes are fixed on Coeur d’Alene. 

He plans to return to Coeur d’Alene for an episode on St. Pius X Catholic Church, one of the city’s oldest churches. 

Crow joked about having burial plots at St. Thomas cemetery.

“One way or another, Coeur d’Alene will always be home,” he said.

Info: Episodes of MassTransit can be found at youtube.com/user/sanoroo/.