VITAL Conversations with Pastor Tillman & Brenda Branson
Vital Conversations: Lessons Learned from the Margins
Name: Tillman G. Branson Sr.
Spouse: Brenda S. Branson
Kids/Grandkids: Tillman G. Branson Jr., Kristi Leigh Branson (deceased) /Grandkids: Tillman Taylor Branson, James Everett Branson, Lily Faith Branson
Church: Rose Hill Church Of God
How long have you pastored this church? 21 years
Other churches you have served? Coeburn Church Of God.
1. How has God confirmed His calling on your life?
Spirit led guidance on development of appropriate and/or timely sermons, not asking for churches but allowing the Lord to direct and open doors, his anointing to preach, and Spirit led guidance on preaching and pastoring.
2. How has God proven His faithfulness in your ministry?
Always providing the needs, blessing the churches financially, answered prayers, seeing souls saved and filled with Holy Ghost.
3. Why do you enjoy pastoring your local congregation?
Dedicated people that love God and are willing to work and share in the burden of fulfilling his will for the church. We have a Sunday evening 5:00 pm business meeting once every month and/or every other month to discuss upcoming ministry events such as VBS, Annual Bonfire & hayride etc., or other vital ministries we want to do. Today we had a workday to deep clean the church in preparation of an upcoming revival and had ten adults show up with a mind to work and completed the tasks we needed to do.
4. Why is your local congregation vital to your community?
We have a monthly community outreach from March through November in which we serve a free meal to whomsoever shows up. As we are the outskirts of town where it would be difficult for people to walk to, we set up in the parking lot of Holding Funeral Home in downtown Rose Hill. We generally serve 65 to 100 meals per event. We also purchased a church van to provide transportation to people in the area who do not have transportation and want to come to church. We also have an annual Bonfire and Hayride event in October in which the attendance is usually very good and includes quite a few who do not regularly attend any church. We also have either a VBS or youth events or sometimes both and do have bounce houses we have purchased to enhance the events.
5. What is one valuable lesson you’ve learned from a misstep or mistake in handling a situation?
Used a local minister to preach some services after interviewing him and him addressing all issues brought up without any questions. Soon found out he had lied to me and quit using him after he left town with another woman other than his supposed to be wife. Found out he was not legally married even though his supposed wife thought she was. Learned to be more careful in who I used and to do a lot more thorough investigation even though they might preach locally. This presented our church in a bad light to some locals.
6. Have you had to think “outside the box” to accomplish a task or mission in the church and what was it?
COVID presented a difficult time for us in trying to adhered to local mandates and meet the needs of all our congregation and also participate in our annual community revival we were having with several local churches. We had to rethink our ministry and purchase a mevo camera, go online and provide livestream services to our area. This also required us to eventually retain broadband internet services. It took a little while to get used to it. We also participated with some of the local churches to retain our community revival, but eventually this dissolved due to the fear of other churches.
7. What are some of the future ministry goals for your church?
We need to better develop Sunday School and youth teachers and leaders. We are currently having a twenty-four-hour prayer chain once a month, a prayer only service on Thursday night, as well as our regular Sunday School, Sunday Night Service, and Wednesday Night Service. We are having a revival with Evngelists D J and Jessica Wilder June 5 through June 7. We need more quality teachers and an increase in our congregation. We do have one of our members who has begun a class that addresses needs of some autistic youth that has recently started attending church.
