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Line 6: − '''Bethany Baptist Church in Lubbock'''+ − '''Song leader, pianist, preacher'''+ Line 20:
Line 20: − '''Heartland College'''+ − '''Personal life'''+ − + − '''Tributes to O'Brien''' + Line 45:
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==Bethany Baptist Church in Lubbock==
After graduation from Baptist Bible College, O'Brien joined the staff of Bethany Baptist Church, 4402 40th Street (the intersection with Quaker Avenue), which first opened in September 1973 under the founding pastor, Ross J. Spencer (born June 12, 1933) of Lubbock, originally from tiny Detroit in Red River County near Paris in northeast Texas. The associate pastor, J.D. Young, later ministered in Corpus Christi and is now based in Stinnett, the seat of Hutchinson County in the northern Texas Panhandle. O'Brien was, first, the music and youth minister, then associate pastor, co-pastor, and full pastor on Spencer's retirement from full-time ministry. Spencer thereafter served for nearly three years as an interim pastor in Andrews near Midland, Texas. Under Spencer, Bethany church conducted three week-long revivals per year and observed homecoming and various other special events. The late Louisiana Governor James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, a gospel singer, addressed one of the early homecoming ceremonies.<ref>http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/030208/obi_252869562.shtml</ref>
After graduation from Baptist Bible College, O'Brien joined the staff of Bethany Baptist Church, 4402 40th Street (the intersection with Quaker Avenue), which first opened in September 1973 under the founding pastor, Ross J. Spencer (born June 12, 1933) of Lubbock, originally from tiny Detroit in Red River County near Paris in northeast Texas. The associate pastor, J.D. Young, later ministered in Corpus Christi and is now based in Stinnett, the seat of Hutchinson County in the northern Texas Panhandle. O'Brien was, first, the music and youth minister, then associate pastor, co-pastor, and full pastor on Spencer's retirement from full-time ministry. Spencer thereafter served for nearly three years as an interim pastor in Andrews near Midland, Texas. Under Spencer, Bethany church conducted three week-long revivals per year and observed homecoming and various other special events. The late Louisiana Governor James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, a gospel singer, addressed one of the early homecoming ceremonies.<ref>http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/030208/obi_252869562.shtml</ref>
==Song leader, pianist, preacher==
O'Brien's singing abilities were considered to have been exceptional for both traditional hymns and more contemporary Christian music. He was also a pianist and a piano technician. He was particularly adept at reaching young people and preached frequently at summer camps. Bethany Baptist Church under O'Brien's direction dispatched several men into the ministry and to the mission field. The church gave some $1.2 million to world evangelism. O'Brien, and Spencer before him, supported a bus ministry that brings persons from all backgrounds to church services, many being children of a lower socio-economic class who otherwise lack ready transportation.<ref>http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/030208/obi_252869562.shtml</ref>
O'Brien's singing abilities were considered to have been exceptional for both traditional hymns and more contemporary Christian music. He was also a pianist and a piano technician. He was particularly adept at reaching young people and preached frequently at summer camps. Bethany Baptist Church under O'Brien's direction dispatched several men into the ministry and to the mission field. The church gave some $1.2 million to world evangelism. O'Brien, and Spencer before him, supported a bus ministry that brings persons from all backgrounds to church services, many being children of a lower socio-economic class who otherwise lack ready transportation.<ref>http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/030208/obi_252869562.shtml</ref>
==Heartland College==
O'Brien committed his last years to Heartland Baptist College, which forbids non-fundamentalists from speaking and teaching at the institution so as not to create heretical divisions and doubts within conservative biblical circles. O'Brien said that ministry students did not need dissenters from Scripture but reinforcement of biblical truth. The school, which uses the slogan "Love Never Fails", is unaccredited and does not seek accreditation from government or regional educational associations. Therefore, it cannot issue degrees, but it offers diplomas to students who complete the instructional program. Education majors at Heartland can teach only in Christian institutions, not public schools.<ref>http://www.gibf.org/bapt_times/0208.pdf</ref>
O'Brien committed his last years to Heartland Baptist College, which forbids non-fundamentalists from speaking and teaching at the institution so as not to create heretical divisions and doubts within conservative biblical circles. O'Brien said that ministry students did not need dissenters from Scripture but reinforcement of biblical truth. The school, which uses the slogan "Love Never Fails", is unaccredited and does not seek accreditation from government or regional educational associations. Therefore, it cannot issue degrees, but it offers diplomas to students who complete the instructional program. Education majors at Heartland can teach only in Christian institutions, not public schools.<ref>http://www.gibf.org/bapt_times/0208.pdf</ref>
==Personal life==
O'Brien was a motorcyclist too and often took sojourns with fellow Christian men to the Texas Hill Country and Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. He and Mrs. O'Brien also toured parts of Colorado and Arkansas on his motorcycle.<ref>http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/030208/obi_252869562.shtml</ref>
O'Brien was a motorcyclist too and often took sojourns with fellow Christian men to the Texas Hill Country and Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. He and Mrs. O'Brien also toured parts of Colorado and Arkansas on his motorcycle.<ref>http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/030208/obi_252869562.shtml</ref>
In addition to his wife, children, and parents, O'Brien was survived by two brothers, Ronald O'Brien (son-in-law of Ross Spencer) and wife Patricia of Garland, Texas, and David O'Brien of Dallas, and his sisters, Karen O. Smith of El Paso and Tricia O. Pritchett of San Antonio. Services were held on March 4, 2008, at Bethany Baptist Church. Some sixty pastors, one as far away as Washington State, came to Lubbock for O'Brien's funeral. Officiating were associate pastor Billy E. Prater (the father of O'Brien's son-in-law, Tyler Prater) of the Fellowship Baptist Church of Liberal, Kansas, and pastor Erwin "Bill" Mitchell of Hillcrest Baptist Church in El Paso, which O'Brien had attended as a youth. Prater and Mitchell are both members of the Heartland College board of directors.<ref>http://www.heartlandbaptist.edu/</ref> Interment was in Resthaven Memorial Park in Lubbock.
In addition to his wife, children, and parents, O'Brien was survived by two brothers, Ronald O'Brien (son-in-law of Ross Spencer) and wife Patricia of Garland, Texas, and David O'Brien of Dallas, and his sisters, Karen O. Smith of El Paso and Tricia O. Pritchett of San Antonio. Services were held on March 4, 2008, at Bethany Baptist Church. Some sixty pastors, one as far away as Washington State, came to Lubbock for O'Brien's funeral. Officiating were associate pastor Billy E. Prater (the father of O'Brien's son-in-law, Tyler Prater) of the Fellowship Baptist Church of [[Liberal, Kansas]], and pastor Erwin "Bill" Mitchell of Hillcrest Baptist Church in El Paso, which O'Brien had attended as a youth. Prater and Mitchell are both members of the Heartland College board of directors.<ref>http://www.heartlandbaptist.edu/</ref> Interment was in Resthaven Memorial Park in Lubbock.
==Tributes to O'Brien==
Tim Spradling, an O'Brien friend and Bethany member, recalled in an interview with Beth Pratt, the religion editor of the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'', O'Brien's last Easter sermon in 2007, which celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ultimate victory over evil and death: "His faith was that the Lord is in absolute control . . . Like any of the rest of us, he didn't want to leave his family, his church, his friends, but he had a deep abiding faith in the Lord that became even deeper in the last year and a half. When you face your own mortality, it's different. You have questions, but you get closer to the Lord, closer to each other, and stronger in faith. We still ask why, and a lot of whys won't be answered. That's where your faith comes in." <ref>Beth Pratt, ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' Religion Editor, "In his time here, Kevin O'Brien preached, lived the meaning of Easter", March 23, 2008, p. 2:http://lubbockonline.com/stories/032308/loc_260760659.shtml</ref>
Tim Spradling, an O'Brien friend and Bethany member, recalled in an interview with Beth Pratt, the religion editor of the ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'', O'Brien's last Easter sermon in 2007, which celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ultimate victory over evil and death: "His faith was that the Lord is in absolute control . . . Like any of the rest of us, he didn't want to leave his family, his church, his friends, but he had a deep abiding faith in the Lord that became even deeper in the last year and a half. When you face your own mortality, it's different. You have questions, but you get closer to the Lord, closer to each other, and stronger in faith. We still ask why, and a lot of whys won't be answered. That's where your faith comes in." <ref>Beth Pratt, ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' Religion Editor, "In his time here, Kevin O'Brien preached, lived the meaning of Easter", March 23, 2008, p. 2:http://lubbockonline.com/stories/032308/loc_260760659.shtml</ref>
==References==
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