Young Brady Cooper McElhenney, Family Discipleship Pastor at Lake First Baptist Church, grew up in Union, Mississippi, and with his family attended Union First Baptist. He was born April 10, 1996, to Jason and Cherie Sistrunk McElhenney. His father is a Lt. Col. at Meridian Key Field, where he serves in the Mississippi Air National Guard. His mother is the former school nurse at Union High School, who now works part time for Robinson Family Dental and R. & T Tours.
Brady’s older brother Eric Jason McElhenney, Jr., is a police officer for the Department of Public Safety. Eric is married to Bristina Gibson McElhenney from Sebastopol, a stay-at-home mom for their three children. Brady’s sister, Ali McElhenney, is at Mississippi State, working on her Air and Space Engineering degree, as she prepares to be a pilot in the military.
Brady graduated from Union High School in 2014, earned his A.A. at East Central Community College, in 2016, meeting his bride-to-be Lalah McMullan of Hickory in his sophomore year. He worked two summers at Fuge camps for Lifeway. After entering William Carey University in 2017, he was there during the destructive tornado of January 21. He interned at Main Street Baptist Church in Hattiesburg those two years. He and Lalah were married May 13, 2017, and in 2018 Brady was awarded his B.A. from WCU in History, with a minor in Religion.
The couple moved to Poplarville where Brady served two years as youth pastor for Oak Hill Baptist Church, while working at Lifeway in Hattiesburg and attending classes at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. In September 2020, they moved to Quitman, where Bro. McElhenney served as Youth and Associate Pastor at First Baptist Quitman from September 2020 until April 2024, when he took the position at Lake FBC. He finished his seminary degree while at Quitman, and the redheaded couple’s precious redheaded Brinleigh was also their best blessing while there, born August 5, 2022.
Lalah McMullan McElhenney is the daughter of Shannon and Lori McMullan, of Hickory. Her father works as the engineer for the railroad, while her mother works for the Scott County School District Central Office. She has an older sister, Haley, and a brother Zack, an electrical engineer.
Lalah graduated from Newton County High School in 2014, from ECCC in 2017, and from USM in 2019. After teaching one year at Pearl River and four years at Quitman, this is her first year teaching third grade at Newton County Elementary.
When Brady was in fourth grade, he reported that he was obsessed with basketball. One night he heard his teammates at Upward Basketball ask questions about God. This got him thinking, so as an eight-year-old, after talking to his parents, he left the balcony and walked to the front to profess Christ as His Saviour. He was helped to a better understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus daily in junior high. Then in his first year at ECCC, his church youth group went to a Passion Conference. Upon returning, the youth pastor pressured him to speak about their experiences. A lady approached him afterwards and spoke of his possibly becoming a preacher.
That same year, his church had a visiting speaker, David Addy. He asked,”What is the legacy of our church?” He invited more to go into ministry, asking some to hold up their hands. Brady, resisting still, did not, though the pastor and his mother both expected him to do so. He talked to Shaun Selman, who led him to scriptures of men in the Bible who had been called to minister. I Timothy 4 spoke directly to Brady. He surrendered to the ministry and immediately began filling in wherever there was an opportunity. His youth pastor decided to move to a position at ECCC as the electrical trade teacher, saying it was a mission field, so Brady took over that position at Union FBC his last year at ECCC. Lalah also grew up in church, and was saved young. Youth ministry was important to her as well.
It was such a sweet experience to see the diplomas on the wall, the books in the shelves, and the family pictures he showed me, all testifying of his love and devotion to God, his family, and his ministry, now at Lake First Baptist Church.
People get ready! Jesus is coming soon!
You may contact me
at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
