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McBee follows path to First Christian
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By JODI MYERS
Daily Globe Staff Reporter
SHELBY — A winding road of possibilities led Pastor Brad McBee to the First Christian Church in Shelby where he has served for the past four years.
He was in his early 20s when McBee finally heeded the call from God to go into the ministry. “I think I always felt a calling to go into the ministry even as a boy,” McBee said. “I grew up going to a big Methodist Church and the pastor would walk down the aisle and stand up at the alter. I never saw myself in that light.
 “I felt like I wasn’t worthy,” McBee said. “I also had a speech impediment back then and I never saw myself in a public speaking role.”
However, in his 20s, McBee said he felt a constant nagging that God was calling him to be a minister. “And that calling was confirmed in may ways,” McBee said, noting once such incident happened back at his home church in Mineral Ridge, Ohio.
“One of the church elders came up to me and said ‘Brad, I sense you have a calling from God to be a pastor and how you’re struggling with it.’ He told me he had the same calling when he was in his 20s but he ignored it and ran away from the calling. He told me that was the biggest mistake he had ever made and he told me to not do the same.
“The calling was persistent and if I wanted it to go away I had to do something about it one way or another,” McBee said.
McBee attend Youngstown State College and Kent State University before going to the United Methodist Pastor School and the Appalachia Pastor School in Kentucky as well as worked at the Trinity Episcopal Seminary.
November, 2008 marks McBee’s 20th anniversary as a pastor.
“I served for 13 years at United Methodist Church in Ohio and West Virginia and the last seven years at Disciples of Christ Churches.
He and his wife Tammy have been married for six years and came to Shelby four years ago for different reasons.
“We were looking to raise our family in a small community and we were just drawn to Shelby,” he said. “Shelby has some economic and social issues — like all communities — but Shelby is a nice little community and we were also drawn to the church.
“This is a wonderful group of people. The church has been here 150 years and they are still striving to do ministry. This is a great group of people.
“I love being with God’s people,” McBee added. “That’s what the church is all about. Your relationship you share with one another and with God.
“As a minister you hope you’re making a difference in the lives of your congregation and also your community and that you’re doing something positive in a world that is sometimes negative,” McBee said. “I really enjoy what I do.”
McBee and his wife are also drawn to the needs of children.
“We have four of our own children and five foster kids we are in the process of adopting,” he said. “We started fostering about three years ago. My wife and I just have a love for children.
“The plight of children is sad,” he said. “What kids are going through in society over and over. They are so often the forgotten victim of the drug battle we are facing. Fostering is just something we have a heart for.”
Looking towards the future of the church, McBee said members of the congregation recently started Prayer Triplets, a group of three people who gather on a weekly basis for pray for the church, the community and the world.
“We’re also looking at different ways on how we can serve the community,” McBee said. “We want to be a place where people can find love.
“We have a food pantry that is so widely used now,” he said. “We work with Help Line and FISH to get people food they need. Sometimes there is a gap between what FISH can provide and we fill the void. We provide a box of food that will feed a family of four for four days. We’ve definitely seen the need for that increase as we’re serving four times as many families now that we did just last year.” |
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