Bryce Harrison ’14
Posted on: October 26, 2023
Christian Ministries
Occupation: Pastor, Church Planter
Bryce Harrison cultivated his love for international missions at North Greenville University.
A 2014 alum, Harrison is currently working to plant a church in Nova Scotia, Canada.
“I went to North Greenville wanting to do international missions. I knew I wanted to go into ministry and share the Gospel with people around the world, but it was at North Greenville that the holistic, robust Gospel really captured my heart,” he said. “I began to see the story of the God restoring creation was so much more than, ‘Hey, make a decision to follow Jesus so you can get out of here and go to heaven.’”
While international missions has always been his calling, Harrison said the destination was different than he expected. He thought he would be pursuing sports ministry.
“I thought it would’ve been predominately through sports ministry in the jungles of South America,” Harrison said. “But what I came to realize is that the nations are in our own backyard. We can’t just equate poverty with a need for Jesus and assume the Western world has been reached.”
Through his studies at North Greenville and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Harrison developed a love for the church.
“I knew whatever I did needed to be centered around growing and building local churches. That seemed like God’s ‘Plan A’ for bringing the nations to himself,” he said.
Harrison completed a pastoral residency and joined the staff at Ridgewood Church in the years that followed his graduation.
Along with his wife, Elizabeth, and three sons: Coleman, Gilbert and Lewis, Harrison departed for Canada in 2021 with a small team from the Upstate.
He emphasized the importance of getting involved with a church and supporting missions at home and across the globe.
“For fear of missing the obvious, the first thing you can do to get involved is love and invest in your local church,” Harrison said. “We have been able to plant here because of healthy local churches in the state and local churches on the ground in Canada wanting to help with missions and church planting. Not everybody will have connections to go and be on mission, but all of us can invest in our local church.”
Harrison said the mission field also needs more Christians who are willing to go.
“It’s important for churches to be thinking about sending laborers,” he said. “Even if you haven’t necessarily felt a call to international missions, I would ask that you seriously pray about it. One of the things we significantly lack in Atlantic Canada is church members who are steeped in good theology and committed to the local church.”
