Historic Happenings at our Recent BR-KC Semi-Annual Meeting You Need to Know About

By Gregg Boll, Executive Director of Missions

I am writing this for those of you who couldn’t make it to the BR-KC Semi-Annual meeting held on October 6.  Please see the link to the book of reports which includes the reports from our ministry partners and Associational Committees, the approved 2025 budget and the business acted upon and approved by the gathered messengers.

First, we were blessed to welcome Greater Faith Missionary Baptist pastored by Atwood Williams.  Brother Wiliams shared about the need for churches to partner with them to reach the urban poor around their church with a coat and food drive.  Next, we discussed the best stewardship of the gift from a person’s estate given to us.  We voted to put it with our other account managed by Steve Cox at Providence Financial Advisors.  We approved using 90 percent of the earnings each year for church planting and other vital church needs that arise.  This would allow us to reinvest 10 percent of the earnings each year to allow the account to increase its potential to fund Kingdom ministries.

Then, the Personnel Committee, led by Doug Schildknecht, presented Brian Grout for approval as the next Associate Director of Blue River-Kansas City Baptist Association. He was approved unanimously by secret ballot.  Brian has spent the last 6 years serving as a Multiplying Churches missionary for the Missouri Baptist Convention.  In his first 3 years with the MBC Brian helped identify and catalyze numerous church plants in both the urban and rural context.  For the past three years, he has been working with Associational leaders, pastors, and churches statewide to identify and engage the ethnic people groups in the state of Missouri to see disciples made and churches planted.

While in this capacity with the MBC, Brian has also been serving as lead Pastor at The Church at Three Trails in Independence, MO.  Brian has pastored the church since 2013. He led Three Trails through a revitalization process casting a new vision to reach the city of Independence. Under his leadership, the church began serving the community and partnered with other churches to plant a Hispanic church. The church has since maintained steady growth by reaching the lost. They have also seen over 75 baptisms during his tenure. Three Trails has become a vibrant part of the Independence community by serving local schools and teachers, and through various community outreach events.

Brian is passionate about seeing churches multiply disciples and sending them out to engage the lost in our communities. He desires to see healthy churches multiply and loves working with church pastors and leaders to help each church become a vibrant part of the multiplying process within the SBC.

Prior to his leadership at Three Trails, he served as a youth pastor in Springfield, MO, and DeSoto, TX. Brian holds a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a B. A. degree in Christian Ministry from Southwest Baptist University. He was born and raised in Cheyenne, WY, and served in the United States Navy aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68). He and his wife Sarah have three children.

Brian will begin serving the churches and pastors of BR-KC on January 1 formally, but he has already begun helping with various events and sitting in on staff meetings to get oriented to his new duties.  I am personally excited about Brian coming on board to serve alongside me.  I feel that his presence will allow us to minister to our churches to a much greater degree.

Finally, there are two people who I want to publicly thank for their service to BR-KC.  First, Doug Schildknecht, Personnel Committee Chairman, has led our Association through some truly significant events.  First, he and his committee were tasked with helping Dr. Hammer make his transition from Executive Director of BR-KC to his new role of President of Rehope.  Next, they had to find an interim director until another director of missions could be called.  Most recently, they were tasked with finding the next Associate Director of Missions.  Doug wisely led the Personnel Committee through all of these crucial events and brought about the best outcome possible.  Doug gave countless hours and prayerful consideration to every situation his committee faced, and I am so grateful to him for the competence and Christ-likeness with which he led us.  Secondly, I want to thank our outgoing Moderator, Gregory Washington.  Greg is a busy guy pastoring a growing church and serving on the board of Calvary University, but he found time to be at nearly every committee meeting we had as an ex-officio member and helping oversee the work of our various committees through some historically important work over the past two years.  Thanks, Greg for going above and beyond in your role as Moderator!