Cedar Hill Baptist Church in East Brewton welcomed a new pastor about three weeks ago.

Pastor Steven Dresen, his wife, Heather, and their three children, John (5), Joel (4), and Johannah (2) come to East Brewton from Memorial Baptist Church in Sylvania, Ga. where he was the pastor for more than three years.

“My ministry is based on prayer, preaching and pastoral visitation,” Dresen said. “We don’t have a large congregation at Cedar Hill. but we hope to be able to add to that number.”

Not only has he taken on the job as pastor at Cedar Hill, but Dresen is working on an outreach program with the Baptist Collegiate Ministries for the Alabama Coastal Community College.

“Different churches take turns furnishing lunch for the students on Thursdays,” he said. “After lunch we have a Bible study. Right now we have 90 to 100 students are taking advantage of the program. We want to make it grow, but the numbers are pretty good that we have now.

“We hope to build the church congregation, too,” he added. “Our numbers have us in the upper 40s, but we can do better.”

Dresen was born in Augusta, Ga., and raised in Russell County. He graduated from Russell County High School in Seale in 2003. While in high school he enrolled in the delayed entry program and went to boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Base in Chicago. While there he picked up a Gideon’s Bible and began to read.

“That is when I came to Christ through reading a Gideon’s New Testament. I still didn’t know what He was preparing for me. But then I found out that I had some health issues that would keep me out of the military. Due to those medical problems, I was separated from the military. So I came back to Russell County. I realized I needed to be in a church so I joined a Southern Baptist Church  and knew that I had been called to preach.”

He attended the Brewton Parker College in Mt. Vernon, Ga. During this time he also got involved in Baptist Collegiate Ministries and went on mission trips throughout the Southeast, Alaska, California and Mexico.

Upon graduating from college he attended The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ken., where he got his master’s degree, in church ministries and also met his wife.

He spent the next one and one half years as minister of students at First Baptist Church of Sylvania, Ga. before deciding to look for a smaller church that needed a pastor.

“I saw this listing on Alabama Baptist Church Job Board and found that Cedar Hill was looking for a minister,” he said. “Everything fell into place and I came here three weeks ago.”

He and his wife married in 2011 and they now have three children with another one on the way.

“I couldn’t do anything of what I do without the support of my wife,” he said. “She is always there for me and the kids. She is a full-time mother and wife and and gets paid no overtime.”