Executive Board Nominees

Brian is forty-seven years young. He grew up just outside of Detroit, Michigan.  He and his wife Karen met at COB Annual Conference in Des Moise, Iowa in 2006 and married in 2007.  They are the proud parents of three children: Peter, Saida, and Asher.  Brian has pastored the White Branch Covenant Brethren Church in Hagerstown, Indiana for the last sixteen years.

He is an Upper Elementary teacher at Surety Christian Academy in Richmond, Indiana.  As he responded to God’s call to ministry he received a B.S in Secondary education from Central Michigan University, a M. Div. from Bethany, and a D. Min from Anderson University, in Indiana

Brian along with the family enjoys square dancing.  Their three children make great “callers.”  Brian has given of his talents over the years by proving not only pastoral leadership, but also serving in leadership roles with the YMCA in  New Castle, Indiana, the local ministerial association and the Henry County Pregnancy Care Center in New Castle, Indiana.

How Brian feels about the Covenant Brethren Church is best said in his words:
“Upon leaving the Annual Meeting and Worship Conference of 2024 at Chiques Church in Manheim, Pennsylvania I knew I had found my spiritual home.  I truly enjoyed the time of worship and fellowship that we shared together.  I love what God is doing through the Covenant Brethren Church, its mission, and purpose.  I resonate with the blend of modern evangelical and historic Brethren perspectives.  I wholeheartedly support the ‘Statement of Faith.’  I am excited about the growth, especially in the international churches.”

I finished High School in 1969 and joined the Air Force Reserve. I Was discharged in 1975. In 1972 I married Carolyn, and she continues to tolerate me to this day. That same year I started working for Woolco on their management training program. I worked for them for three years when I resigned to move to Southeast Kansas. My wife’s family farm in this area and we always talked about moving there at some point. I started working as an apprentice carpenter for two of my uncle’s and we formed a corporation. I retired from carpentry in 2007 and started helping my wife’s family on the farm and still do.

When we moved to rural Girard, Kansas, Carolyn and I started attending the Church that she grew up in, The Osage Church of the Brethren. This was a slight change for me as I had grown up in the United Methodist Church. I joined the Osage Church in 1976 and have been a part of it to this day.

In a couple of years, I was asked to lead the singing during worship and still do. It wasn’t long before I was asked to teach the Sunday School class that Carolyn and I attended, and that class is now the “Old Folks Class” or more formally the Path Finders. I no longer consider myself the teacher but more the facilitator.

As a part of our journey with the Osage Church Carolyn and I were selected as Deacons. I also served on the Western Plains District Board as a member of the Witness Committee for three years and the Chair for three years. After a year off the Board, I was re-elected and served for three years as the Chair of the Transformation Training Team. Our main function was to organize an event we called “The Gathering” as well as schedule Pastor training events. The Gathering was an event where all the congregations would come together for insight sessions, music, worship and fellowship. This was not a part of District Conference, it was its own event.

Also, while Carolyn and I were a part of the Church of the Brethren we were trained as On-Site Coordinators for disaster relief and serve in New Orleans for two weeks and Nashville for two weeks.

I believe it was around 2009 that I felt the call to train as an Ordained Minister. I felt it was a call to help serve in the disaster situations. I finished the Church of the Brethren Trim program in 2014 and was formally Ordained in June of that year.

Carolyn and I attended our first Brothern Revival Fellowship meeting in 2019 and have been a part of the growth and Annual Meeting and Worship Conferences of the Covenant Brethren Church since that year. I applied to transfer my ordination from the Church of the Brethren to the Covenant Brethren Church in 2021 and was accepted August 16, 2021. I currently serve on the Prayer Committee.

Carolyn and I would bring reports of our thoughts about those meetings to the Osage Church and after a long and arduous struggle with the Western Plains District the Osage Church separated and became members of the Covenant Brethren Church.

My name is Joseph Brown and I am currently serving as Senior Pastor of Faith Covenant Brethren Church which is a plant or new start. We are the only CBC in Adams Township. I grew up in a small town of Salisbury in Western Pa. My greatest desire is to serve Jesus as Lord and Savior completely and wholly while bringing others to Christ. If I am elected to a position on the Executive Committee, I hope to be an asset to those I serve.

I have served in the Western PA District COB in the following positions: Gifts Discernment (Chair), Outreach and Service (Chair), Standing Committee, Executive Committee and have also served as Project Director for two disaster projects in PA consisting of Hyndman flood project and Salisbury tornado project. I also served as temporary Chairperson for Region 3 Executive Board and assisted churches desiring to come into membership of Region 3 CBC I also served on the Regional Circle. I am currently serving as Vice Chair of Region Three CBC, Chair of Prayer Team for Region Three and am one of the Regional Elders for Region three.

For my hobbies I love to carve bowls, build some furniture and enjoy hunting and fishing.

John grew up in the small “furniture town” of Bassett, in Southwestern Virginia.  He married Anna, his high school sweetheart, in 1984.  John and Anna have four daughters and four grandchildren.  He responded in repentance and faith in Jesus Christ in a Revival Meeting at Mount Hermon CoB on October 11, 1984.  After much prayerful discernment he was licensed into the Gospel Ministry on December 6, 1992 and ordained into the Gospel Ministry on September 24, 2000.  He pastored Pulaski First CoB from August 1, 1996 through January 31, 2006.  John has pastored Rocky Mount First CoB (now Rocky Mount Covenant Brethren Church) since February 1, 2006.  He has served on variety of Commissions and Committees in the CoB (two terms on the District Board and on the District Witness Commission), CBC (currently on the CBC Missions-Outreach-Disaster Support Committee and on the CBC Southern Regional Board and the Southern Regional Ministry Committee), and served on local ministerial groups in both Pulaski and Rocky Mount.

John has been involved with the “CBC Movement” since being invited to the Moorefield Gathering on August 19, 2017.  He was involved in the Chambersburg Meeting on July 27, 2019 (also the Winchester Meeting on September 28, 2019 and the Woodstock Meeting on November 16, 2019) and was truly blessed to participate in our first Annual Meeting at Woodstock VA on October 23-24, 2020.  He has attended every Annual Meeting since.  He relinquished his ordination in the CoB and was ordained in the CBC on July 18, 2020.

His continuing vision for the church is for us to have a greater conviction to fully live out the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

I have been married for 51 years, have two children and four grandchildren. I grew up in West Virginia, but as a child lived for a time in Colorado, Italy, and Japan. Back in 1980, while living in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, we met David and Laura Jean Rittenhouse and attended New Hope Church. It was through that blessed experience that I was introduced to the Brethren Church tradition, which I love. Much of my professional life was spent living in Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Since 2000 we have lived in Hampshire County, WV.

When we moved to Hampshire County, we started attending Tearcoat COB. I was called to serve in the local church, and later to serve the West Marva District COB in various capacities. I have been involved in the Covenant Brethren Church since the beginning and serve on several CBC committees and in the Central Allegheny Region leadership. I am pleased to be a member of three churches, serving as leadership at two.

I am encouraged by the old saying, “God does not call the equipped; He equips the called!”