Rev. Bryan D. Day
8267 Jellison Ct.
Arvada, Colorado
80005
Hi, I'd like to take the time to tell you a little about me, my family, and my background.
I was born in Lubbock, Texas in 1958. My father was in the U.S. Air force so we traveled for several years. But in 1963, Dad and Mom, decided to leave the Air Force and move our family to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I grew up in Albuquerque (and I still miss the Mexican food!), along with my older sister and 2 younger brothers. I attended elementary, junior and senior high school in Albuquerque. After that I went on to attend the University of New Mexico where I majored in Humanities. From there I moved to Fort Worth, Texas where I attended Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary.
My parents were churchgoing people who loved the Lord and loved the church. We came by this mostly from my mother's side of the family. According to cemetery records, proudly kept by my grandparents, my mother's parents were 5th generation Southern Baptists. My parents are 6th generation Southern Baptists and I the 7th generation and my children the 8th.
My father was a deacon, Sunday school teacher and faithful committee member, etc. My mother wanted to be a deacon but this was unacceptable in our denomination, she was, and still is however, a wonderful Sunday school teacher, choir member, committee member, etc.
I attended my first Sunday School class probably within days of my birth. Our lives revolved around church. We spent a lot of time at church. Sundays were always a busy day for us. Sunday School at 9 A.M. worship at 11:00. Sometimes after church we would have a pot luck lunch. Choir practice, Building Committee meetings, Training Union, as it was called in the old days, and evening worship services. Wednesday evenings were also busy starting with Supper, Teachers meetings, GA's, RA's, the churches equivalent of boy scouts and girl scouts, and the prayer meetings.
As a teenager we would add to that schedule a Friday night Bible study and prayer meeting at someone's house. The occasional weekend retreat, weekend conference, or week long revival meeting. During this time we had so much fun, learned of the principles of the Lord's Word and made many lasting friendships. It was a wonderful time.
I became a Christian when I was 12 years old. We had been attending a week-long revival service each evening. I remember that the evangelist dressed in the typical shining leisure suit, white belt and the white patent leather shoes. He was a real screamer. I don't remember much of what he spoke about except for the last night when he nearly scared me to death by preaching on Hell. At the conclusion of all good Southern Baptist services there is what is called an "invitation". This is the time in the service, after the preaching, when people are invited to make some type of decision for the Lord.
Others come forward for a quiet time of prayer at the altar, to make a rededication of their life or maybe even to commit themselves to full-time Christian service as pastors, youth pastors, children's ministers, missionaries, etc.
I knew that God called me to be a Minister when I was 13. I loved His church and His people. I loved the thought of working for the Lord. When I was 16 a group of 4 other young people and I started a Youth Revival Team. We would travel to various churches for a weekend revival meeting. We had a wonderful time. When I turned 18 I became the Youth Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Grants, NM. I lived in Albuquerque, attended UNM and traveled to Grants twice a week to work in this wonderful church. I spent 4 years there. I did everything from Preaching to cleaning. It was great!
Next I went on to start Life and Light Ministries. I started this ministry to help lay people to participate in short-term partnership evangelism missions projects. During these two years we conducted over 15 partnership missions trips, with over 200 different people participating, and spoke to over 500,000 people and saw many accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.
During the early 1980's I had the privilege of working for the Sagamore Hill Baptist Church, FTW, TX. During this time I worked as the Single Adult Minister in a very large church. I had hundreds of single adults involved in this program. Many were Single parents, College students, and 200 were local seminary students. I did a lot of seminars ranging from Spiritual Growth topics to Single Parenting.
On December 8, 1984 I married the girl of my dreams in Fort Worth, Texas. I hope that you will get to meet Trish someday. She is a delightful person. We have 5 wonderful children: Meagan, Bryan Jeffrey, Jonathan, Bobby and Joshua.
In 1984, I had the opportunity to move to the Applewood Baptist Church, Wheat Ridge, CO, as the Minister of Education. I moved to Colorado to work with a dear pastor friend, Tom Elliff, who is now the President of the Southern Baptist Convention, who had just moved here after serving in the mission field of Africa. The church doubled in size. For 3 years Tom and I conducted a 2 hour live radio call-in talk show each Sunday night on a local Christian radio station.
In October 1988, my wife and I began the Foothills Community Church, Arvada, CO, with one other couple in our kitchen. The church grew from 4 to 1,000 within 4 years. We rented a large middle school each Sunday. 70% of the people who became members of this church came to know the Lord and where baptized in the church. We conducted partnership mission trips, a daily television ministry, and worked together to reach our community for Christ. What Fun! The church is still growing and doing a wonderful job. Check them out at www.fthills.org
In September 1995, Trish and I felt led of the Lord to begin another new church in this area and so we started the Cityview Community Church. With God's help we will continue to reach people for the Kingdom of God and help them develop into fully devoted followers of Christ.
During my years of ministry I have enjoyed working with people. Helping them to know God and follow Him through all of the different stages of life. It has been delightful to be involved in the lives of so many families during important times like: weddings, funerals, hospital visits to pray for the sick and greet the newborn, graduations, and moving parties. The Bible, the Church and God can and will make a wonderful difference in your life and home.
I hope that God will lead you to Himself and to a Church where you can grow and contribute to building His Kingdom. This is some of my story. I would like to hear yours sometime. Please come and visit us at Cityview Community Church this Sunday and make sure that you stop by and say 'hello" to me before you leave.
