Senior Pastor Brandon Myers
Brandon Myers was 6 when his family had to cut short a vacation in Hawaii.
His maternal grandfather had died of a heart attack in Tennessee some 30 years ago.
The family flew back to Buffalo Grove.
“There, waiting in his car in our driveway, was Bill Dondit, senior pastor at the church (Our Saviour Evangelical Free) we attended in Wheeling,” Myers recalls. “He wanted to be there for us, to be present, to console. And he didn’t overstay his welcome.
“That’s a vivid memory from my childhood. It had a profound impact on me. Pastor Bill was there to serve as the under-shepherd (of the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ).”
The senior pastor at Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church in Niles?
Myers.
Brandon Myers.
The gregarious-to-the-bone, uplifting 36-year-old—a former interim youth pastor and assistant pastor at Our Saviour Evangelical Free Church—was called to the confessional Reformed Baptist church in October 2020.
The husband of Kaiti and the father of their four children (Eva, Audrey, Patrick, and Haddon, with a fifth on the way in February), Myers likens the appointment to a gift.
“It was a really small congregation when we arrived here,” Myers, sitting at the desk in his office, says. “Between 20 and 30 members in all. People wanted me to revitalize the church, which was something I embraced immediately. It’s been a blessing ever since.
“We were welcomed warmly, and we brought 15 to 20 kids (from families his family knows) with us to the church,” the Arlington Heights resident continues. “It’s now packed every Sunday here, with between 80 and 90 people. What I get to do, to serve, to preach the Good News of salvation to our members, is truly a gift.”
But it’s nothing compared to another gift.
Make that, the gift.
“The gift of God—eternal life through Jesus Christ,” Myers says. “It’s a mind-bending, mind-blowing gift that’s also the true meaning of Christmas. People need to be reminded of its meaning, absolutely; it’s about truth, love, hope. God didn’t send an angel or a host of angels or a judge. God sent his only Son, the word made flesh, the light of the world.”
It’s all right there in John 3:16, termed as “the golden text of the Bible.”
“For God so loved the world,” the verse begins, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The next verse, John 3:17, doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves, Myers believes.
“For God,” it starts, “did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
“God dwelling with people was grace-based,” Myers says. “People don’t deserve God’s kindness, but God gladly gives it to them anyway. What a wonderful message of hope.”
Myers was only 5 when “the Lord convicted me of sin and led me to repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness and salvation.”
“I was stubborn, too strong-willed,” adds the son of Paul and Pam, an elder and a Sunday School teacher, respectively, at Our Savior Evangelical Free Church during Myers’s childhood.
“God was gracious.”
Myers attended Buffalo Grove High School and played baseball for the school’s Bison teams, his last two as a strong-armed third baseman.
He then enrolled at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, majoring in political science and minoring in history at the private, interdenominational, evangelical Christian school. Kaiti, an Indiana native and a tennis player, also hit the books at Taylor. But they did not date at TU. Brandon and Kaiti got married in 2013.
“God got a hold of me in college,” says Myers, who was active in campus ministry, organized prayer groups, and mentored fellow students.
Myers graduated in 2009 and found work, for three summers, as a groundsman at Trinity International University, a private Christian school in Bannockburn.
“I mowed lawns, pulled weeds, and lined the school’s football field,” Myers recalls.
Becoming grounds foreman at TIU came with a perk: free courses. Myers loaded up on the offerings and studied hard in between fulfilling his duties as head of a five-man crew.
“I invested in them, all of them, and got to know my men quite well,” says Myers, who also served as an assistant resident director at TIU.
He then heard, more than once, on campus: “Have you ever considered the ministry?”
Myers earned a Master of Divinity degree at TIU, before returning to his childhood church in Wheeling to enlighten and inspire its flock. Among his favorite verses is Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
His tenure as an assistant pastor—a three-quarter- time position—at Our Saviour lasted nearly four years.
In his free time Myers loves to read, hang out with his family, and compete in pickup basketball games. His parents—“amazing people,” he exclaims—still reside in Buffalo Grove.
His favorite sound in the world, hands (and ears) down?
Laughter. His children’s laughter, specifically.
“Awesome,” Myers says. “There’s nothing like it, nothing like that sound. And they’re all image-bearers of God. Eva (8 years old) is a big reader; Audrey (6) is nurturing; Patrick (4) is so observant; and our 2-year-old, Haddon, you should see his head bobs.”
The couple’s third son, Malachi, (“messenger of God,” in Hebrew), is due on February 10.
Another blessing.
Another gift.
Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church is located at 7339 North Waukegan Road in Niles. For more information, visit christthekingrbc.org or call 224-310-9744.
