Brad Kilthau of Bayard worked in the automotive industry in Scottsbluff for about 15 years before he switched to pastoring full-time. He doesn’t regret the years he worked at the automotive dealerships, though, because he said the lessons he learned there helped prepare him to work in ministry full time – first as an associate pastor at Calvary Memorial Church in Gering and then as the senior pastor at Community Bible Church in Bayard, where he’s been for the last 14 years.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
BAYARD – Before Brad Kilthau of Bayard started serving full-time in ministry, he spent nearly 15 years working as a service manager at auto dealerships in Scottsbluff.
He doesn’t regret going into full-time ministry sooner because working at the auto dealerships, he said, helped prepare him for his next career move.
“I knew all along that ministry is where my heart really was, but during those years I worked at the dealerships, it just wasn’t time yet for me to go into ministry full-time,” said Kilthau, who’s been the pastor at Community Bible Church in Bayard since May 2006. “I’m kind of thankful I was involved in the automotive business because it taught me a lot of lessons about where people are in life. Working in the secular world, I knew where people were at – what they were facing in life, whether it was at work or at home – so that helped me relate to them when I became a full-time pastor. I was able to teach on a level where people were at. I think it was all part of God’s plan to prepare me for ministry – to put me in the working world and learn those lessons before I started trying to teach people about the Bible.”
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