By Peggy Welker
If you do a friendly Google search of Brandon Hammonds, you can learn quite a bit. Pastor Brandon has been a teaching pastor at Grace Church since January 2022 and has built a strong foundation for our Sunday School classes. He attended Asbury Theological Seminary and has a Masters of Theology in Biblical Studies. The core focus of his studies was a deep dive into original biblical languages, a proficiency in Hebrew and Greek in order to properly read, understand and interpret scripture. Coursework centered on rigorous textual analysis and historical exposition or interpretation of scripture. In other words, Brandon has a wide and deep knowledge of scripture in the language it was written and an understanding of its cultural and historical context. The few times I have reached out to him with a nuanced theological question, he has been humble and knowledgeable. I’ve come to trust his perspective because of his humble spirit.
So, when we recognized a storm brewing in the political landscape in Missouri that is a mixture of misrepresented Christian patriotism, a temptation to be dissatisfied with the progress we’ve accomplished and a cynical, it’s-never-gonna-change mindset, we knew we needed God’s perspective. We needed to recalibrate our perspective.
At our August United Meeting, Brandon acknowledged our humanity and Christian conservatives’ collective failings, yet he pointed us to the tangible hope we have in God’s plan, God’s ability to overcome the giants and God’s ability to move powerfully. For our part, we only need to focus on doing One Thing. To find out more, I hope you will take 30 minutes to listen to Brandon’s perspective on our One Thing HERE.
