Oakley Baptist Church Our Pastor      Pastor Brian Sandifer was called to Oakley Baptist Church in August 2005, and he began serving in September 2005. His wife, Mary, is his helpmate and constant companion, and an important part of his ministry. They have four children, Marshall, Sarah, Matthew, and Joshua.     Before entering the ministry, Pastor Brian was a school teacher and school administrator for eight years. God called Pastor Brian into the ministry in October 1998, and within eleven months they were on the mission field in Cham, Germany. Pastor Brian, along with his wife and two oldest children, went to the mission field in September 1999, working as International Service Corps missionaries for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. They were a part of the East Bavaria Team. Their two-year term expired in September 2001, and they sensed God leading them to further prepare for a life of ministry.      Pastor Brian then enrolled as a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Wake Forest, North Carolina, in January 2002. While working on his degree, Pastor Brian served as the Minister of Family Life and Outreach at Pinewood Baptist Church, in Pinewood, South Carolina.      Pastor Brian received his Master of Divinity degree in May 2004. Sensing that God wanted him to continue his education, he immediately applied and was accepted in the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program at Southeastern Seminary. Also sensing that God wanted him to move to North Carolina, Pastor Brian and his family took a step of faith and resigned his position at Pinewood Baptist in January 2005. At the time he had no prospect of employment, but he and his wife knew that God would reward their obedience.      In March 2005 Pastor Brian received his first contact from the search committee at Oakley which led to he and his family eventually being called as the church's fifteenth pastor. About Our Pastor Married: July 16, 1994, in Sumter, SC Hobbies: Running, Golf, Reading Current or Recent Reading: The Bible "What Jesus Demands of the World" by John Piper "Humanity & Sin: The Creation, Fall, and Redemption of Humanity" by Robert Pyne "Rethinking Human Nature" by Kevin Corcoran "Only Human" by David Gushee "Pensées" by Blaise Pascal "Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches," edited by Thomas While, Jason Duesing, and Malcolm Yarnell "Scriptural Freedom from Sin" by Henry Brockett "Five Who Changed the World" by Daniel Akin