
Bryant Franklin Corpening, Jr., associate pastor of The Life Center in Lenoir, North Carolina, died Sept. 5, 2018, at the age of 69.
Corpening was called into ministry at the Bushtown MB Church, now The Life Center (TLC), in 2004 under the leadership of Terry Hunt, pastor of The Life Center and North Carolina District Conference district minister.
“Rev. Bryant Franklin Corpening, Jr., was a close friend and by far one of the best associate pastors that I have ever worked with,” Hunt says. “He was kind to all and would make everyone feel welcomed and at home. He served faithfully until his home-going.”
Corpening was born June 5, 1949, in Caldwell County, North Carolina, to Bryant Franklin Corpening, Sr., and Iretta Kincaid Corpening. He attended Freedman High School until 1965 and graduated from Lenoir High School in 1967. He attended the Atlanta College of Medical and Dental Careers in Georgia and Barclay Career School in New York. A U.S. Air Force veteran, Corpening worked for the New York Department of Correction and retired from the North Carolina Department of Correction.
He died following heart surgery.
Corpening is survived by his wife of 32 years, Martha P. Corpening; three sons, Marcus F. and wife, Valerie; Brian Jeremy; and Ryan K.; daughter Winter Wells; and eight grandchildren.
“His home-going on Sept. 5, 2018, shocked our entire church family,” Hunt says. “That evening we gathered at TLC to reflect on our time with him and shared our loving memories with one another. This was also a time to shed our many tears for the loss of our faithful associate pastor. He would always say these words before he would give his sermons, ‘God is good, and all the time God is good.’
“We all will miss him, but we realize that God has called him home to hear Jesus say, ‘Well done thy good and faithful servant,’” says Hunt.

Janae Rempel Shafer is the Christian Leader associate editor. She joined the CL staff in September 2017 with six years of experience as a professional journalist. Shafer is an award-winning writer, having received three 2016 Kansas Press Association Awards of Excellence and an Evangelical Press Association Higher Goals award in 2022. Shafer graduated from Tabor College in 2010 with a bachelor of arts in Communications/Journalism and Biblical/Religious Studies. She and her husband, Austin, attend Ridgepoint Church in Wichita, Kansas.