Boston Church Planter now IMB Euro Missionary: An interview with Dan Byrd

Boston-region church planters, Dan and Tara Byrd, now serve as IMB Church Planting Catalysts in Manchester, England. They are well known and loved by many New England pastors. Sam Taylor, BCNE Global Engagement Mobilizer, asked them to report on their work in the UK: 

Dan, you and Tara have a significant history of ministry in New England. Tell us about your call to New England. ”Tara and I were students at Southeastern Seminary. Our school had a partnership with New Hampshire. We came up for a look, but New Hampshire didn’t seem to be a good fit. We then had a conversation with David Jackson about planting a church in Greater Boston and decided that was the right place for us. In 2001, we planted Gateway Baptist Church in Quincy. After 3 years at Gateway, we moved south and led student ministry for 8 years. We returned to Boston in 2011. Matt Chewning and his wife Beth were planting Netcast Church (Danvers, MA) and he asked us to help. I had been Matt’s pastor in Quincy and then he became mine. Those were eight of the sweetest years of ministry we’ve ever known. Later, we moved to MetroWest and served at Milestone Church (Natick, MA) for 2 years.”

What are some highlights of your time in New England? “We served almost 13 years in New England. We noticed that, as long as people agree on primary issues, they work together better than in the south. Being a part of the Send Network, bringing church planters together for support and encouragement, and seeing that network of churches in Greater Boston grow was very fulfilling.” 

What is your ministry like in the UK? What challenges do church leaders face there? ”We moved to the UK in September 2021 and expected to find many cultural similarities with only subtle differences. Of course, there are obvious differences, like driving on the left side of the road and different electrical plugs. But, what we found is actually the opposite: a thin veneer of similarities and a big well of differences. We are learning a completely new approach to communicating the gospel. It is more challenging that we expected and we see it takes a longer time. We are grateful for the relationships we’ve built, but we’ve seen only two people come to Christ in the past two years.

Pastors here say it takes 7 years from first hearing the gospel until someone comes to Christ. When they buy into this idea, pastors can lose their zeal for evangelism. My goal is to encourage pastors and train church members to become more active in sharing their faith. That is what moves me. We have three E’s: engage, encourage and equip. Two years in, we are still in the engagement phase of the missionary task. Our goal is to see healthy pastors, which leads to healthy churches. 

We are also helping to plant churches. City Church in downtown Manchester has already planted one church in the suburbs and plans to plant another. We hope to support churches like City Church and connect them with US churches that can also support these efforts. Grace Church, has also planted a church called Redeemer Church, which is where my family have been members these past two years.”

How can churches in New England assist in your work in the UK? ”Pastor JD Mangrum (Christ’s Church, Charlestown, MA) came and helped with an evangelistic outreach. Pastors Jonathan Moseley (King’s Hill Church, Boston) and Tim Owens, (Mission City Church, Rutland, VT) have also been over. UK pastors were moved to tears that these American pastors came over to get to know and understand them. Last year we had 3 summer interns from Gordon College. Going forward, we want 8-10 students who will spend 10 weeks during the summer doing ministry in churches here.” 

If they want to help, how can New England church leaders contact you? ”They can contact me at: dbyrd@imb.org  If a college student is interested in being a summer intern with us, I will email the information to them.” 

Thank you, Dan and Tara, for being missionaries from New England to the nations!

Sam Taylor serves as the Boston area regional coordinator at the Baptist Churches of New England.