Busta’s Person of the Week: Pastor and National Guard member deployed to Asheville to help families devastated by Hurricane Helene

By Busta Brown At the age of 12, my Person of the Week felt a deep, undeniable calling to become a pastor. But when God’s call came to fulfill that purpose, he resisted. “It was as if God had to knock me over the head,” he reflects. “I fought it! I ran from pastoring for years, resisting everything He was asking of me.” In 2010, that all changed. “I finally gave in. That’s when it all started. It wasn’t something I was looking for, but it found me. I’ll never forget, it was during a cookout at my mom’s house when the chairman of the deacon board called me over. He said, ‘Hey, do you have a minute?’ And I’m like, ‘Sure, what’s going on?’”  It eventually hit Brandon Smith like a ton of bricks. “The chairman of the deacon board hit me with ‘Well, we just finished the vote … and you won.’ I’m like, ‘What vote?’ He says, ‘to become my pastor.’ And I’m in shock. I didn’t even know there was a vote happening.”  I asked Brandon if his decision to run from his calling was related to not wanting to give up certain personal things in...