American Missionary Fellowship

When Bryce (known to some by his middle name, Duane) was a little boy, people would sometimes ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer, after he outgrew the cowboy phase, was always the same: “I want to be an American Sunday School Union missionary.” (American Sunday School Union is AMF’s former name.) The reason was simple: the work of the mission provided all the excitement a boy could want.

Bryce’s parents were missionaries, and each week the family went to two or more of the Sunday schools or churches for which his father was responsible.  “It seemed our house was always filled with volunteers,” he says. “With over two dozen active mission points, lay pastors often stopped by for advice, youth workers came for direction, and staff for summer camp and Vacation Bible Schools needed guidance.  Helping others gain the same love for Christ we enjoyed was the focus of our family, and I thrived on the excitement of meeting new people, being a part of change, and the constant activity.”

While in college Bryce became the youth director at one of the AMF churches and later, during graduate school, he served as the area director for nineteen churches on what had once been part of his father’s mission field. After graduation he was invited to start the Ministerial Education and Training program in the Home Office, a program on which he worked for fifteen years. Since that time he has been involved in a number of ministries through his local church and with an area youth program. His business experience in the pharmaceutical industry and knowledge of the mission led to the opportunity to serve on the Board of Trustees for AMF as the chairman of the Policy Committee and on the Development and Audit Committees.

Today, Bryce is charged with the responsibility of managing the operational aspects of the mission he has loved so much since childhood. His primary assignment is to work with the management team to see that AMF’s missionaries have the programs, structure, and resources needed to bring the Gospel message to those in America who are otherwise unreached.  Acts 20:24 describes well the focus of Bryce’s life and ministry today: “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (ESV).