In 1998, Brenda began serving through short‑term foreign mission teams, traveling to Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala with various churches. These trips included construction projects, assisting doctors and dentists, and spending time with youth living in a children’s compound.
Brenda and her husband, Dick (who passed away in 2024), joined First Baptist Church in December of 2012. The following summer, she traveled with FBC to the Dominican Republic to help at a camp for deaf children and their families. Soon after, Brenda joined our Missions Committee — the first step on a path that would eventually lead her to Haiti to work with teachers, and later to Kampala, Uganda, where she listened to the stories of refugees and shared the skill of knitting.
When the pandemic kept everyone at home, Brenda pursued further ministry preparation through an online program and earned a Master of Christian Ministry from McAfee School of Theology in Georgia. Just two years later, already serving as Pastor of Missions and Discipleship, Brenda was ordained by First Baptist Church.
Not all of Pastor Brenda’s mission work has taken place abroad. She has deep personal connections to several local ministries, including Family Promise, Helping Hands, Anew, and others.
If you ask Pastor Brenda why she settled at First Baptist after journeying from no church, to Presbyterian, to Methodist, to Southern Baptist, and finally to a CBF congregation, she would tell you this:
“At FBC I am loved more than I could ever have imagined and encouraged to answer God’s call with a resounding YES! This place, this family, is where I belong.”