Family Ministry Team Update: November 8, 2020

Published November 11, 2020 by SMBC

In June of 2018, we welcomed Brandyn Adney as the inaugural member of the newly formed Youth Ministry residency program at South Main. The program was set up to provide practical, hands-on work, mentoring, and development opportunities in the first two years. Then in the third year, the focus turns to clarifying a call and transition into full-time ministry for the resident. As Brandyn entered his third and final year of the residency, God made it abundantly clear it was his original sense of call to military chaplaincy that was to be Brandyn's full-time ministry and next step. Since the summer, Brandyn has been endorsed by the BGCT for chaplaincy and is currently in the final stage of being commissioned as an active duty officer in the Air Force Chaplain Corps. We anticipate Brandyn will begin Air Force officer training in the first quarter of 2021. He will continue serving full-time in the Youth Ministry until that time. We are thrilled for Brandyn and Josie and have been blessed to be a part of this journey with them.

The residency program was conceived to have two concurrent residents offset by approximately a year-and-a-half to establish a seamless transition within the Youth Group between residents. We were very fortunate to find Tyler Ballard who started the residency program in August of 2019. A purpose of our program is to prepare new seminary graduates to succeed in full-time ministry, and we are excited to announce that Tyler has been called to the position of Minister to Youth at Tallowood Baptist Church, here in Houston. We trust that congregation will overwhelmingly affirm Tyler's call and we are overjoyed for Tyler and Tallowood. An exact start date has not yet been determined, but we anticipate Tyler continuing with us into December.

We are currently discussing go-forward plans for the residency program and the next team member of the Family Ministry team responsible for Youth ministry. Please join us in congratulating both Brandyn and Tyler. We know that God has plans to grow His kingdom in Houston and around the globe through Brandyn and Tyler and we are so grateful to be a part of this work.