About Chris Brauns

I have one wife (Jamie), four children (Allison, Christopher, Benjamin, and Mary Beth), and one dog (Mandy).

(Actually: Our dog Mandy’s registered name is “Mandate”: you know . . . from the Creation Mandate; this requires a post of its own).

I am the Pastor at The Red Brick Church in Stillman Valley, IL.

My education is “diverse.”  I have a degree in chemistry from Central College (Pella, IA) and an MBA from the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA).  In a former life I worked in product development in medical diagnostics for Bayer.   I wrote technical materials for new product development and worked in applied statistics, wore a lab coat and tried to act like I understood more chemistry than I ever did.

After leaving the corporate world, I graduated from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree.

Later I received a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary having completed the preaching track under Haddon Robinson.  My doctoral thesis was a manual for helping pastoral search committees evaluate preaching.  (I am convinced this is a cruical area!)

I grew up on a farm in the Great State of Iowa near Keosauqua.