Panelist

Bryan Collier is the Lead and Founding Pastor of The Orchard Church that began in Tupelo, Mississippi, and has grown to five sites located throughout the region. Planted as a United Methodist Church in 1998, The Orchard left the denomination in 2017 in order to increase its focus on helping people Grow Deep in the love of Jesus and Branch Out to others with that love.

Prior to planting The Orchard, Bryan served four pastorates in The Mississippi and Kentucky Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church. In 1991 he earned a B.S., cum laude, in Education from Mississippi State University, and he earned his Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary in the spring of 1994. He began his doctoral studies as a Beeson Pastor at Asbury in 1997 and focused his research on systems theory and its impact as a tool of the leader. In 2023 Bryan began his 32nd year in pastoral ministry. His interests include leadership issues, church for the unchurched and cultural dissection. He is passionate about helping people at all stages of faith Grow Deep and Branch Out, and his passion extends to helping leaders and organizations facilitate this growth. To that end, he is the author of Becoming an Orchard, Xulon Press, 2006, and The Go-To Church, Abingdon Press, 2013. In addition, Bryan recently joined with pastors of four other former United Methodist Churches to form the Foundry Network, aimed at networking leaders of large, independent churches in the Wesleyan tradition for greater Kingdom impact.

Bryan is a sports enthusiast, a voracious reader and enjoys baseball and the outdoors. He has been married to Wendy for 31 years, and they have two grown children — a daughter, Olivia, and a son, Houston.