Our Pastors
Pastor Dean
Pastor Dean is a native to the Androscoggin Valley, born in Berlin and raised in Milan N.H. He is 1975 graduate of Berlin High School. Following high school, he lived and worked in the southern part of NH for three years. In 1978, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Seabees as a Steelworker. It was during his five-year enlistment that he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior in 1980. In 1983, he returned to Milan and held several jobs in the area. Shortly after returning to Milan, he met his wife Emilie, and they were married in 1986. Together they raised a daughter and three sons.
After several years of fighting God’s call on his life, he answered the call in 1991 and served churches as an un-ordained pastor while he completed his undergraduate and graduate studies. He is a 1994 graduate of Plymouth State College and a 2000 graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. In 2001, he joined the American Baptist Churches USA and the Conservative Congregation Christian Conference and was ordained in 2003. He has served as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Berlin and Jefferson Christian Church in Jefferson since 2001.
Pastor Dean is at home in the Androscoggin Valley. He loves to hunt, fish, and kayak. He also loves riding snowmobiles and his Goldwing with several members of the churches as a part of men’s ministry. His passion is studying God’s word and learning all he is able to learn and teaching and preaching.
Pastor Brandon
Brandon has known from a very young age that there had to be something else. Something more than just “being”. After an adventurous youth, a close friend of his introduced him to Jesus. After making his decision to follow Christ, Brandon went on to serve his country in the United States Marine Corps. He graduated from boot camp on September 14th, 2001. Little did he know that the events of 9/11 would change his life forever.
After his 4 years in the Marines and a combat deployment to Falujia, Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom 2 in 2004, is when he realized something was wrong. Brandon didn’t come back the same person. He had been diagnosed with several ailments as well as a traumatic brain injury. During his recovery, he met his wonderful wife of now 13 years.
She has been integral to Brandon’s healing and growth. On one of Brandon’s trips back from the Veterans Administration Hospital he was in deep prayer. During this prayer, he felt as though God reached down and flipped a switch off that was causing so much of his struggles. That was when Brandon recognized the sovereignty of God and then the calling.
At first, the calling was to just learn as much as possible about God and Scripture. This was the start of years of Bible study, online Bible College and book collecting. Brandon believes that as long as there is breath in our lungs, learning will always be important. Through events, friendships, mentor-ships, and amazing opportunities that only God could have orchestrated, he is now a Reverend and an Associate Pastor here at Jefferson Christian Church in Jefferson, New Hampshire and First Baptist Church in Berlin, New Hampshire.
Being a husband and a father of four, Brandon understands the importance of family and that’s exactly what Jefferson Christian Church is Family. His prayer is that he can be an example to others that we are not what the world says we are but instead we are who God says we are.