A Brick in the Valley

My blog is now at www.chrisbrauns.com . . .

Fundamentally, I am about this truth.  Following Christ is both right and best.

Following Christ is right.  God is God and he deserves our obedience and He alone is worthy of all glory.

Following Christ is best.  In Christ, we find maximum joy.

My central passion in life is, to be persuaded and to persuade others that following Christ is both right and best.  Borrowing from Piper, there is no tension between God’s glory and our joy.  God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. 

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

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.