NEOSHO – Alan Brock has retired as the director of missions for Shoal Creek Baptist Association. He plans to move to Bolivar, where he is hoping to offer classes and training conferences for area bivocational pastors.
He has served in several locations in Missouri as a pastor and DOM. Those locations included pastorates in Belfast Baptist, Neosho; Fellowship Baptist in Neosho and Calvary Baptist in Chillicothe. He served as DOM at the Linn-Livingston Baptist Association, Meadville; North Grand River Baptist Association, Trenton; and the Shoal Creek Association.
The Shoal Creek Association sponsored theology and ministry classes for pastors and preachers while Brock was serving as DOM. He has always enjoyed the role of teaching and training preachers. He said he enjoyed teaching New Testament Survey, Expository Preaching, Church Identity and Pastoral Ministry classes. He also served as a volunteer consultant and as the Southwest Missouri area catalyst for the MBC Resound Network.
Brock was able to return to his hometown of Neosho in recent years as he had aging parents there, enabling him and his wife, Janet, to provide care for them. He moved to Neosho from the Linn-Livingston and North Grand River Associations in 2019. He had served both the North Grand River and Linn-Livingston associations concurrently for a few years.
Brock is a graduate of Southwest Baptist University (1983), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1987) and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Doctor of Ministry, 2008, and Doctor of Philosophy, 2023).
Although plans are still being formed, Brock is going to make himself available to help pastors in the Bolivar area with training needs. He has a heart for bivocational ministers. In the Shoal Creek Association, there are 40 churches and 26 of the pastors are bivocational. The two counties that are served by the association are made up of smaller towns and villages with Neosho being the largest (population 12,000).
“I have to give credit to my wife, Janet,” Brock remarked. She served as a postal worker in several locations helping make a living for the family. She was appointed postmaster in the towns of Braymer and Chillicothe.
Asked about his key passions and accomplishments, Brock said he really engaged with the Resound Network when it was formed to advocate for church revitalization. He likes the whole process of helping churches make disciples and engage their communities with the Gospel.
Asking key questions and helping churches make renewed commitments to share Christ has been a joy of his.
“How do you know if you are leading (a church) to God’s vision?” is a question he often asks pastors. And “What are the measurements of success?” is another.
He said some time back he consulted with a pastor of a church that had gone through conflict and had a “church split.” A portion of the church members left the congregation. Brock was able to walk with that pastor and help him grieve the loss and move forward. A few years later that church has recovered, and they are baptizing people and growing again. That is the kind of ministry that Brock believes associations and DOMs can effectively do as they serve in their role.
Alan and Janet have children and grandchildren in Chillicothe and Bolivar, so their family will be on their radar screens also.
But for now, this retired DOM and pastor is going to make himself available in his retirement years for training and encouraging pastors of small churches. He will continue to serve in the Resound Network, and he will be able to preach, teach and consult.
He said he looks back on 40-plus years of ministry and feels a sense of satisfaction for where God has led.