- I grew up on the mission field.
(soft music)
Southern Baptist sponsored my parents
in 1969 to go to Columbia
and that's where I grew up.
I grew up in Bogota, city of 5 million.
- [Narrator] While living in Columbia,
Brian made a profession of faith at 10
and experienced the call to missions
and specifically church planting at 15.
Then a family friend suggested he pursue
his ministry training at Sanford university,
where he would also meet his wife, Laura.
That would be the first of his many connections
to Alabama over the years.
Since college, God has used Brian and Laura,
along with their two children all around
the world from Ecuador
and North Africa to places across the US.
- But I always come back to Alabama.
We're here to serve God's purposes.
- [Narrator] On April 1st, just as the COVID-19
pandemic shutdown was taking place,
Brian began serving as lead church
planting strategist for the State Board of Missions,
building on the foundation laid by his friend
and predecessor Lamar Duke who passed
away earlier this year.
- If anything, I come in right now
and there's already an awareness that
the gospel needs to be preached in all of Alabama
and we wanna have an Alabama,
not just lots of churches,
we wanna have churches that plant churches,
that plant churches.
- [Narrator] The pandemic hasn't slowed Brian down
if anything, he's more excited than ever
about starting new churches
and resourcing church planters
and about the impact the Myers-Mallory
state missions offering has on church
planting in Alabama.
- You're giving allows us to not only train
and equip planters and resource them,
but also it allows us to support directly
support several of these church plants
throughout the year.
And one of the new things we're doing this year
is we're also opening up coaching.
We wanna coach church planters,
we don't wanna just send them out
so every church planter has a coach
and we're about helping them monthly reevaluate,
somebody to listen to their needs.
So as you pray and as you give,
and as you get involved with church planting locally,
you're gonna make a great difference for the Kingdom.
(soft music)