John Bryant
John Bryant was born in Arkansas and grew up in a small rural community in southern Minnesota. He graduated in 1982 with a Master of Divinity degree from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul after which he pastored evangelical churches in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In 1999 John completed one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education at Good Samaritan Hospital in St. Paul followed by three units at Luther Hospital in Eau Claire. He has been a staff chaplain at the Sacred Heart for the last six years. John is married and has two grown children and two new grandchildren.
Read on to learn more about John in his own words:
“I grew up in a home where medicine was a common topic of conversation. My father was a small town family doctor and my step mom a registered nurse. Watching my dad as he genuinely cared for his patients (sometimes with house calls on cold winter nights, with bag in hand) undoubtedly impacted my decision to pursue a career in chaplaincy work.
In addition to my pastoral experience, I worked for ten years as a nursing assistant in both nursing home and home care settings. This period of my life, although unplanned, was of great help in seeing first hand the emotional and spiritual impact of illness upon patients and their families.
I have come to see in retrospect that my family background, theological education, personal faith journey, along with my experience as a pastor and health care worker have prepared me well for hospital chaplaincy.
One of my greatest joys as a chaplain comes from being used by our Lord as an instrument of encouragement and hope for people who find themselves at the end of their own resources. Through personal experience I have found this a place not to be feared, but embraced. For it is just here, at our point of greatest vulnerability, that living, vital faith is born. It is a beautiful thing to see the wings of faith carry patients through some of the most difficult times of their lives; not without struggle but with a deep abiding peace.”
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”
II Corinthians 12:9