My name is Ed Strickland. I am a former Pastor and Pastor Emeritus of Grace Baptist Church in Watkinsville, GA.
After pastoring for 43 years, the Lord has sent me on a mission to support Independent Baptist Pastors in the Midwest and the Mountain States of the USA.
Testimony
I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior in Jacksonville, FL. in 1972. The following year, I was called to preach while attending Youth Camp, which was also in Jacksonville. In 1974 I began four years of study at Trinity Baptist College. My first pastorate, lasting 17 years, was in Jacksonville as well. The Lord led us then to work with Pastor Preston, at Peachtree Road Baptist Church in Suwanee, GA for three years.
In 1998, the Lord led us to start a church in Athens, GA. This is how Grace Baptist Church, Athens, GA began.
GBC started in Timothy Elementary School. After 6 months we moved to a 7th Day building for one year, and finally, a year in another school building — but then the Lord did something amazing! In 2000, we were able to purchase property in Watkinsville, GA. He gave us 15 acres, a beautiful building, and 22 years of lives changed and souls saved.
Then in 2020, with new health challenges and many other things going on, I felt it best to hand the reigns over to my faithful Associate Pastor, Brother Jesse Bragg. When he became Pastor, I stayed on as Pastor Emeritus to help him with the transition.
However, after a year and a half, the Lord began to lay something else on my heart.
Calling
It all started with a vacation to see a rodeo in Wyoming. There I met people that began to tell me and show me the lack of Bible preaching-churches in Wyoming and the rest of the western states.
By most accounts, there are less than 40 independent Baptist churches in the entire state of Wyoming. The churches in our far Midwest and Mountain States are far-flung, and the pastors many times are under-supported. They feel isolated, alone, and spread thin. There are many small cities with no Bible-preaching church at all.
Many of these pastors are becoming discouraged and giving up on their work. My heart was broken, and over the next year we made a couple of trips out there, to try and help some of the people I had met. Multiple pastors told us of their needs, and how we could help in different ways to strengthen these precious works.
There were so many needs: church plants, church rescue, churches without a pastor, small churches, and even closed churches. This is when the Lord laid on my heart that my many previous years of pastoral experience could be used to support and encourage these good men in their works.
And so: Barzillai Baptist Ministries was born.
Barzillai Baptist Ministries
We began by sending them books: commentaries, study material, theology books, and pastor resources.
This has grown into over 1000 books each year being sent to the region’s pastors!
Since 2022, we have raised over $30,000 to help some of these struggling churches with projects, and the Lord continued giving us a heavier burden to help these dear men. Currently we take multiple trips a year to preach for them, train them in pastoring, help them with door knocking, and anything else that would bless them and their congregations. We must encourage these young men as they are building churches in the most unreached and far-flung areas of our country. The Lord has equipped us for this work. With 42 years of pastoring behind me, I have made the mistakes, taken the blows, and learned a thing or two about the ministry.
We can use this experience to buttress and build these young men — encouraging them to keep on and keep up! I want to use my remaining years in this precious endeavor. We thank the Lord for all he has done, but we also realize there is so much more to do.
Our burden is that churches would be strengthened and multiplied in the unreached parts of the USA.
We covet your help and prayers in this matter.