Evangelist Brian Fossett: A trophy of God’s grace

Fossett Family

Brian Fossett poses with children on a mission trip to Africa. Shortly after being saved in 1992, Fossett answered the call to preach. Today the evangelist speaks to a variety of groups about the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Brian Fossett is one of Georgia’s most successful and widely used young evangelists. His messages are delivered with passion and persuasiveness. His personal testimony, which he often shares in church revivals and evangelistic crusades, is most compelling.

Brian Fossett’s mother was not married when he was born, but one night while watching a Billy Graham Crusade on television she prayed, “Dear God make this child look so much like his father that he can’t deny him.”

Fossett declares, “As it turned out, I was the spitting image of my father.” Consequently, Brian’s mother and father married, but it was a dysfunctional family. The Georgia evangelist stated, “My father abused my mother and they eventually got a divorce. There were things I experienced growing up that left me with unpleasant memories and indelible scars.

brianfossett.org

Hearing a preacher’s proclamation about the second coming of Christ spurred Brian Fossett to make a commitment to the Lord. Now Fossett travels to churches and other meetings to spread the Good News.

“When I was 16 years old,” Fossett recalls, “I was the head of our church youth group, but I got an “attitude” and began to drift away from the Lord, the church and the influence of God’s people. Unfortunately, I got with the wrong crowd and started drinking and using drugs. My life was without direction and basically falling apart.”

When Brian was twenty-one his father died and he was devastated. He had always wanted his father’s acceptance and approval, and his untimely death had left so much undone and unsaid that his heart was broken.

However, with the inheritance his father left him Brian purchased a retail store in a mall and soon thereafter a second store, but the business venture was unsuccessful and eventually he lost both stores and had incurred some substantial debts.

Brian began to gain weight. His hair got longer and longer, and he decided to wear it in a ponytail. He was abusing his body and life was going nowhere until one day he decided that he was going to become a body builder. He loved the weight room and began to discipline his body and in the process of dieting and working out he lost 120 pounds.

brianfossett.org

The fledgling bodybuilder entered a contest in Biloxi, Miss. for men who were sculpting their bodies and placed sixth out of six contestants. Fossett commented, “They said I was too skinny, but I began to place higher and higher in succeeding contests and developed a fairly impressive six-pack.”

Someone suggested to Fossett that there was good money to be made in Atlanta as a male stripper and he got a job doing just that. From this rather dubious profession the retail storeowner turned bodybuilder turned stripper became a personal trainer.

One day a woman brought her daughter into the establishment where Brian was working as a personal trainer and he knew immediately that one day he would marry her. Soon thereafter a relationship began to blossom and by Christmas eve Brian got down on one knee and proposed to Amy Sloan and the prospect of holy matrimony came into full view.

Immediately, God began to tear down walls of indifference and rebellion. As Brian and Amy were making plans to get married a preacher told the prospective groom, “Without God, your marriage will never make it.”

Fossett reasoned, “I couldn’t run away from the preacher’s comments. I was under conviction. I was drinking and cursing all the while, but even so, I was under conviction. God began to take me down memory lane and showed me my life. I was not very happy with what I saw that day.

Fossett Family

Brian Fossett stands with his wife of 13 years, Amy, and their children: Macey, right; Kenzey, center; Jacob, left; and Marlee, held by her mother. More information on Fossett’s ministry can be found at www.BrianFossett.org.

“I started going to church,” Fossett recalls, “and one Sunday the preacher was talking about the second coming and I knew that I was not prepared for the Lord’s return. I walked down the aisle of the church and made a profession of faith in Christ as my Savior and Lord. The truth is that if God will save an illegitimate, alcoholic, drug-using stripper He can save anyone.”

Shortly after his salvation in 1992 Fossett was called to preach. He declares, “My goal is to allow God to use me as an instrument to encourage, stir and ignite the church of Jesus Christ.” Brian and Amy have been married for 13 years, live in Dalton, and have four children: Macey, Kenzey, Jacob and Marlee.

Johnny Hunt, pastor of Woodstock’s First Baptist Church, numbers Fossett among the young preachers he has mentored and says, “Brian has the undeniable call of God to preach and does it with great excitement and expectation.”

Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist in Daytona Beach, Fla. and president of the Southern Baptist Convention, recommends that every church have at least two revivals each year. Vocational evangelists, like Brian Fossett, are especially gifted at bringing in a harvest of souls when they preach.

To have Brian Fossett speak at your church or event, contact him through his Web site, www.brianfossett.org; email, brian@brianfossett.org; or by phone (706) 275-9386.