Brett Baddorf graduated from Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta with a Master of Divinity degree in 2006. His career has involved youth and collegiate ministry work, mission work, writing and speaking engagements. He and wife Sarah have lived in Asheville, North Carolina, since December.
Here are five things to know about Brett:
1. He served as a chaplain in Antarctica.
Sarah, an emergency medical physician, had long dreamed of doing research for the United States Antarctic Program, and Brett accompanied her on an assignment at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station from January to November 2017. Brett served as a logistics staff member in the inventory department and also the unofficial chaplain for the 46-person crew.
He led Sunday church services and was available to anyone who wanted to talk. An article he wrote about his experience as station chaplain was the cover story for the January/February 2018 issue of Christianity Today. With Brett’s service in Antarctica, McAfee School of Theology now has had alumni serve on every continent.
2. He is interested in a variety of ministerial work.
Brett served as a youth minister in Memphis, Tennessee, for four years and collegiate minister for the Baptist General Assembly of Virginia in Norfolk for two years. He’s currently connecting with local churches, doing speaking engagements and writing in Asheville.
When Sarah’s job takes them to new locations for assignments – which could be a few weeks, months or years – he always gets involved in mission work there.
He’s done a lot of mission work overseas. His first trip was a month-long stay in Pakistan while he was an undergraduate student at Samford University. He’s also visited Ecuador, Panama, Cuba, Belize and Honduras and spent five months in Guam and a year in New Zealand.
3. McAfee gave him the tools to succeed.
“One of the things I loved most about McAfee is they really challenge you to think outside the box instead of some very traditional mindsets about how to approach ministry,” Brett said.
His professors prepared him to minister wherever God might call him, whether in a church or elsewhere. He left McAfee with the tools and confidence to address challenges that might come his way.
4. He loves open conversations.
Wherever he goes, Brett loves meeting new people and hearing their perspectives. He became a Christian when he was a college freshman, so he didn’t grow up in church and talks about things differently than a lot of people in ministry, he said. This style has helped him to bridge conversations and keep an open mind.
“Seeing how God has used who I am individually as we travel has been really exciting,” he said.
5. He’s proud of the relationships he’s built.
“When I was a youth minister, I made some great relationships with some of the young men. For whatever reason, God put us together. Some of the guys, we still communicate today. That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of.”
