Briarwood Church Family,
Grace and Peace to you in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! It is with great joy that we are able to announce to you that our Lord has graciously led our Session to unanimously call Dr. Dan Doriani to serve as our Intentional Interim Pastor beginning December 1, 2023. Once again God has proven Himself faithful to our church family, providing an experienced and gifted Interim Pastor to shepherd and lead us through our time of transition. Dr. Doriani very much desired to be with us this Sunday but in God’s Providence is not able to join us until Sunday, December 3. We have however attached a brief video greeting from Dr. Doriani for you. We look forward to having him with us for the first three Sundays of Advent (December 3, 10 & 17) and we thank the Lord for providing such a blessing.
Dr. Dan Doriani has faithfully served the Lord as a Pastor and Teacher since earning his Masters of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary and being ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America in 1982. Presently he is a Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary where he has served in numerous capacities for over two decades. This coming Spring semester Dr. Doriani will be dividing his time between Covenant Seminary and Briarwood as he honors his commitments as a professor. Beginning in May, we will have the blessing of him being with us on a more full-time basis.
Dr. Doriani previously served for over a decade as the Senior Pastor of Central Presbytery Church in St. Louis, and also has been called by the Lord to serve as an Interim Pastor or Preacher in ten churches. He is widely known for how the Lord has used him in numerous churches, but he will be quick to tell you that his experience and excellent track record as an Interim Pastor are by the grace of God. He was highly recommended to us by several pastors and church leaders including, but not limited to, Sandy Willson, Rick Phillips and Randy Pope. Each of these men have served with him on denominational study committees, ministry boards and multiple ministry endeavors.
Dr. Doriani is the founder of The Center for Faith and Work in St. Louis, which focuses on engaging the world through a Biblical understanding of work and vocation seeking to transform the workplace for God’s glory. The Center also trains and coaches pastors to equip Kingdom-minded leaders in their congregations to walk with God faithfully through their particular work context.
God has also gifted Dr. Doriani as an author and speaker. He has provided tremendous contributions through his writing of numerous books and commentaries along with his articles for Table Talk, blogs for
The Gospel Coalition and the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals and various podcasts. To put it simply, Dan Doriani loves to pastor and to teach to the Glory of God and the eternal good of others!
He has been married to Debbie for 47 years and they are blessed with three daughters and five grandchildren who all live in the St. Louis area. As Mark Cushman wisely encouraged us in his recent sermon, we certainly need to be praying for Dr. Doriani and his family as he embraces this unique role for such a time as this.
As your Search Committee for Interim Pastor, we want you to know how grateful we have been for your faithful prayers, support, encouragement and patience as we have together with you waited on the Lord and trusted Him to identify the man He has been preparing and has now called to serve as our Intentional Interim Pastor. As a committee, we look forward to our church family benefitting from his God-honoring ministry and getting to know Dr. Doriani as we have during this process.
May God and God Alone be Glorified!
Interim Pastor Search Committee
Billy Ball, Kevin Gush, Mike Mungenast, Bruce Stallings, Ethan Tidmore, Bryan Word