Brad Neel

Senior Pastor

Year hired/appointed

July 2007

How long have you attended Concord?

Since 2007

Favorite Bible verse:

“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

Best/most touching/happiest experience on the job:

Watching one of my spiritual children become a pastor.

Weirdest/funniest/strangest thing you’ve had to deal with in your career:

One Christmas Eve after everyone had their candle lit at the service, we looked up at the Nativity and sang “Silent Night.” As we I turned and looked up at the beautiful Nativity scene so carefully set up, I saw that baby Jesus was gone. I realized that I had put the baby Jesus in a “safe” place until the Christmas Eve service. While the congregation sang, I strolled down the aisle, asked an usher to get the ladder and meet me at the back of the church. After retrieving Jesus from the safe place, I took the ladder, carried it up front and climbed it in my clerical robe and put the Christ Child between Mary and Joseph. As I came down off the ladder, the song was ending and with the silence of that moment and with every eye and heart opened wide, I said, “We tend to put Jesus in a safe place and only bring him out at certain times, but he needs to be with us on the streets where we live all the time. That’s the good news of the Gospel, ‘God is with us.’” We then sang, “Joy to the World” with smiles, laughter, and tears having experienced some of the mystery of his grace.

Biggest food vice (Be specific: Don’t say “chocolate”; say “chocolate lava cake”):

Cheese

If Hollywood were making a movie about Concord and casting everyone in cartoon characters, which cartoon character would play you?

Owl in Winnie the Pooh

Favorite superhero:

He's more of a hero than superhero. Cecil in “Beany and Cecil”: “I’m comin’ Beany-boy!”

What do you like on your pizza?

Meat, lots of meat, and sliced tomatoes

Favorite book (besides the Bible):

“The Singing Wilderness” by Sigurd Olson

One person you would like to meet in Heaven:

My ancestors, Peter and Benjamin Fell. They were tanners and gave their hides to a cobbler in town to make shoes and boots for Washington’s army at Valley Forge. They eventually became Methodist and had family members enter the ministry. They were good friends with Francis Asbury.

One thing you would like Concord to know about you:

While studying for two degrees in chemical and nuclear engineering, God called me into ministry. The call to ministry that I received in the spring of 1977 was to “Equip Disciples for Ministry.” It still drives me today.