BENTON - Brandon Burks is still single.
During a January lock-in, the 27-year-old youth pastor's flock changed the lettering on the Spring Creek Baptist Church's sign to read: "Youth pastor desperate for wife call us now."
It has long been replaced with typical church announcements. But Burks' celebrity and search for love, however riddled with self-doubt and sarcasm, continues.
Women have flooded the church with letters, e-mails and photos.
A Pine Bluff woman wants Burks to meet her granddaughter. Several dozen women have contacted Burks on the popular social-networking Web sites Facebook and MySpace asking to be considered for dates. And one woman attended a Sunday service after word spread about the "desperate pastor" to see what he was all about.
Still, he's not gone on a single date, ushering in the fifth year ofhis dating dearth.
He has a reason for declining each woman. He doesn't want to have a long-distance relationship, he doesn't like the idea of dating a woman with children, and some made their pitches too generic, saying they were looking for a good, Christian man. Some are too young, others too old. The list goes on.
Mainly he's petrified of making a move.
"This makes me more nervous than anything in the world,"he said.
Nick Jacobsen, Burks' friend from college, says his buddy's lessthan-polished appearance may be holding him back.
"He needs to cut his goatee, cut his hair ... learn to take care of himself," Jacobsen said.
Burks' beard now hangs a good 5 inches below his chin, and his hair is more shaggy since he began doing media interviews about his lack of love. And he's still sporting hooded sweat shirts and thriftstore pants.
"I'm pathetic," Burks said..
A television news crew is aiming to spruce him up by paying for a makeover.
He went shopping at a high-end Little Rock men's clothing store, and he's set to get contact lenses, a clean shave, a new hairstyle, his teeth whitened and a manicure.
He's scheduled to go on KATV Channel 7 today, and the unveiling is set for May 16.
Burks says he's really not that desperate. He hasn't attended singles ministries or used online dating sites.
But having a girlfriend and getting married would give him some credibility in the church, he said.
"It would give me a lot more respect from the adults," he said, sitting in his cluttered office, where a guitar was propped against a couch and books, papers and other items were strewn about.
What kind of girl is he looking for? Someone who loves children and Jesus, he said. It'd be nice if she played guitar, too, one of his favorite hobbies.
For now, he will continue to "casually" check out the Facebook group his friends created: "Who wants to date Brandon Burks, the desperate youth pastor?"
The group has 102 members, including at least one young woman who thinks he's "kinda like .... really cute."
Arkansas, Pages 13, 17 on 05/09/2008