Team
Byron Harvey is our pastor. You can email him directly at byronharvey@gmail.com.
Byron spent his boyhood years in Roanoke, Virginia (the “Star City of the South”), playing baseball, courting young ladies (solid, committed, Christian young ladies all—or at least, mostly), and studying quantum physics (can you spot the falsehood in this line?). He maintains to this day a fierce loyalty to the Virginia Cavaliers.
He and his wife Karen have been married for almost 25 years, and have three children, two who remain at home: Brent and Chiannon (say “Shannon”). Karen is very talented in working with her hands, be that preparing meals, making the home a hospitable place for family and friends, altering clothes, doing crafts, or working in her business of creating lovely baby shower items. Brent is a teenage boy; need we say more? Chiannon is, according to her father, practically perfect in every way. Swee’Pea is the family dog, a Jack Russell Terrierist.
Byron’s Education: B.S. in Christian Education from Tennessee Temple University; M.R.E. from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
Byron’s Ministry Experience: After several years in youth ministry (not the best fit, honestly), Byron became interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Bassett, Virginia, a wonderful fourteen months working with some of the finest people on God’s green earth. He then pastored a small Southern Baptist church in North Carolina for three years, moving to Fellowship Community Church of Mercer, Pennsylvania for over thirteen years. This was his first experience in the Evangelical Free Church—and you know how John Denver sang “comin’ home, to a place he’d never been before” in “Rocky Mountain High”? It was like that for Byron, coming into the EFCA. He was ordained to Christian ministry by his home church in 1986, and transferred his ordination into the EFCA in 2001.
Famous people he’s met personally: Mean Joe Greene, Little Debbie (yes, she is a real person!), Chuck Woolery, Amy Grant. Not a terribly long or impressive list, huh?
Best recent reads: Slouching Towards Gomorrah, by Robert Bork; Searching for God Knows What, by Donald Miller; A Peculiar People, by Rodney Clapp; Unfinished Business, by Greg Ogden; Rumors of Another World, by Philip Yancey.
Flicks he never gets tired of watching: The Princess Bride, Gettysburg, Field of Dreams, Braveheart, and the last half-hour of Tin Cup and A Few Good Men
What he’s probably listening to: The Corrs, Alison Krauss, MercyMe, Michael W. Smith, The Eagles
A random fact or three from his youth:
His first childhood crush was Agent 99 (with Marcia Brady a close second).
His high school nickname was “Bunny” (don’t ask).
He’s never gotten over his fear of snakes.
You can access printed copies of his sermons right here.
