Succession Plan

Future Senior Pastor of Brookwood Church

It’s official. We are excited to announce that Bryan Jones has accepted our offer and call to be the future Senior Pastor of Brookwood Church. Our number one goal throughout this process was for God to reveal His person to replace Perry as our Senior Pastor. God has been faithful to lead us every step of the way in this lengthy journey. On Sunday, December 4, Bryan will share with his congregation that God has called him to Brookwood. We anticipate that Bryan, Stephanie and their three children will be moving to Greenville sometime in late January/early February. This will give Bryan transition time with Perry, let him get acquainted with the staff and congregation and allow him to experience how Brookwood functions before Perry hands him the reins in June 2023. Perry will go on his usual summer sabbatical but will be back in a transitional role in the fall.

We are so grateful and have been blessed by how Perry has led our church the last 29 years. Bryan will have big shoes to fill but we know God has called and anointed him for this role. Bryan’s passion for prayer and seeking God in all things mirrors Perry’s strong leadership style for his personal life and for Brookwood. As your leadership team, we can assure you that Bryan loves God and loves people. As Brookwood turns 30, we will be richly blessed with Bryan’s leadership and Perry’s availability to share wise council.

We are eager to see what God will do in and through our church as we continue to surrender it to Him for His will and glory. We ask that all of you continue to join us in prayer for this transition. We are one body, and it takes the entire body to do God’s work. We ask that you pray for Perry as he transitions from being the Senior Pastor, for Bryan as he leaves one church family to join ours and for JC Thompson and Josh Masters, who are Godly leaders in our church that we love dearly, and know God will continue to use them and their gifts.

God is sovereign, and He has a plan. May we always be in the center of His plan for our future.

Thank you for letting us serve you and God.

The Succession/Advisory Team

Brookwood,

I am so humbled and honored to be called as the next Senior Pastor at Brookwood Church. God, in His goodness, has called us in a way we couldn’t deny, and we joyfully answer Him. Perry wisely said to me that this would be a season of uprooting and that God would be loosening our roots to plant us firmly in our new home, Brookwood. This has been a prophetic picture to me the last few months, as we never imagined we would be leaving our current church and the people we’ve grown to love. However, God has grown my love and appreciation for Brookwood in a supernatural way throughout this journey. When I had the privilege of speaking at Brookwood on October 23, I was struck by the warmth and hospitality of Brookwood. I also told Perry I was deeply moved by the faith and depth of the people I met. The vision of Brookwood is to love God and love people, and I experienced that richly in my interactions with each person.

The staff and the leadership of Brookwood have been people I have been deeply impressed with, as they seek the direction and the voice of the Spirit in all things. As you know, Perry is the real deal. His integrity and wisdom have blessed me richly in our time together and I know we will remain deeply connected in this next season. Daily, I have been praying for the people of Brookwood. During my prayer time this last week, the phrase God takes small things and makes them mighty has been ringing in my head. All throughout the Bible, God takes people with colored pasts, questionable abilities, limited confidence and makes them mighty people through the power of the Spirit. I am marked by the belief that as the culture seems to be pulling away from Jesus and things seem darker than ever before, that like the tide going out, God is preparing to pour out His Spirit in a new and fresh way. To take normal and ordinary men and women and make them mighty in the Spirit. I’m eager to serve, pray and seek the Lord with you all in the future. To Him who is able to do immeasurable more than we can hope or imagine, to Him be the glory (Ephesians 3:20).

Bryan

Brookwood Church has much to be thankful for over the last 29 years. We have a committed staff, a loyal and dedicated membership, a wonderful Pastoral staff, a debt-free building, a beautiful campus and caring servants to our community and the mission field. All of this has happened as a direct result of the strong leadership and spiritual inspiration of our founding Pastor, Perry Duggar. He has led us all with God's truth, transparency, prayer, humbleness, wisdom, a servant's heart and a commitment to God's vision for Brookwood Church.

His obedience to God's word in his messages, his life, his family and Brookwood Church has blessed many people over the years. We've had the privilege to watch him grow and pour himself into each of us, encouraging us to grow in Christ. He has set the ultimate example for us to Love God and Love People.

But now, after much prayer and meditation, Perry has decided to transition from his role as Senior Pastor of Brookwood. When Perry informed the Advisory Team of his intentions and a tentative timetable, we all prayed for the Holy Sprit's leading and direction as to how to move forward. This is how Perry has led us as a church and how we've approached every step of this succession/transition plan.

Once Perry informed us of his plans, a Succession Planning Team was formed of pastors, trustees, staff and the Human Resources Director for Brookwood. The Mission, per our by-laws as a representative group of our congregation, was to determine a transition plan for Brookwood.

In early 2020, the Succession Planning Team began working on a Senior Pastor Role/Job Description and identifying potential candidates for this leadership role. They requested feedback from the Brookwood staff. Once the Role/Description was complete and approved by the Advisory Team, the Succession Planning Team conducted interviews with church members to gain their input.

As with any endeavor we undertake, each step forward has been with much prayer and due diligence to identify God's replacement for Perry. This is how we'll continue to approach this vital role. An overarching goal for new Pastoral leadership will be to build on Perry's legacy and to achieve even higher goals that the Lord has planned.

As we approach this transition and a new season for Brookwood, we realize that it can cause some apprehension, concern and sadness. However, we ask that you, as our church body, join us in prayer for God to identify new Pastoral leadership to take us into the next chapter of Brookwood.

We also encourage you to be excited to see what God has planned for Perry, his family and our Church as we move into His plan for our future. God has blessed Perry with a wonderful family (wife, children and grandchildren) and now he will have the opportunity to spend more time with them. But not to worry, Perry will still be around after the succession and transition period.