In conjunction with this Sunday’s Council of Churches of the Ozarks 40th anniversary celebration (featuring Shane Claiborne as the guest speaker) and Brentwood’s Celebration Sunday, we will have our annual combined worship gathering at 10 a.m. this Sunday, Oct. 18. Just as we hope Springfieldians won’t miss out on the chance to hear Shane, we’re also very excited to welcome Brandon Gilvin as the guest speaker at Brentwood’s combined service. Brandon is one of the most gifted and intriguing speakers in the Disciples of Christ.

Here’s his bio:
Brandon studied Religious Studies and Creative Writing at Hiram College in Hiram, OH, and received his Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University in 2002. In both his undergraduate and graduate work, he sought to find intersection points between human creativity, a life of faith, and working for justice. In doing so, Brandon found passions for innovative, imaginative ministry and working to ask (and occasionally answer) difficult questions about globalization, human rights, and engagement with grassroots issues. While a student at Vanderbilt, Brandon interned at the Quaker Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa as a Peace Educator, an experience that further helped him develop his sense of vocation. Following graduation, Brandon served as a Pastoral Resident at Central Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. While there, he was deeply involved in the life of the church – teaching, leading worship, providing pastoral care and developing programs. In 2004, he returned to Africa through Global Ministries, serving the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi, Kenya, as the Programme Executive for Communication, leading communication efforts for the network of more than 190 churches, denominations and ecumenical councils. He then served a year as the North American Regional Secretary of the World Student Christian Foundation in Toronto, Ontario, where he worked with students interested in faith-based social activism.

Brandon joins Week of Compassion after serving for two years as the Associate Pastor at Saint Andrew Christian Church in Olathe, KS, where he focused on adult education, social justice programming, and mission.

Brandon is also the author of Solving the Da Vinci Code Mystery, co-author of Wisdom from The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and is co-editor, with Christian Piatt, of the WTF? (Where’s the Faith?) series, which will be available in 2010 from Chalice Press.