Brewton-Parker president coauthors new book for churches undergoing pastoral transition

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. — Dr. Steven Echols, President of Brewton-Parker Christian University, has recently coauthored a book entitled Transforming Churches in Pastoral Transition. Echols and his coauthor Reggie Ogea wrote the book to help churches view the time between pastors as an opportunity to move the congregation forward.

The book was printed by the Jim Henry Leadership Institute of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. This work is the first in a planned series of resources that the institute is committed to providing to give practical help to local churches and their ministers. 

Unfortunately, churches often approach the interim time between pastors with an expectation that the church will regress. At best, the attitude may be that the church can hold on and keep the status quo. In their book, Echols and Ogea give practical steps that churches can take for it to be a positive time in the life of the congregation. An intentional plan can help the church deal with some issues that would have been difficult to handle previously. The impetus for action is that the church can feel more of a sense of urgency during an interim period, and a sense of urgency is necessary for real change to occur. 

In addition to exploring positive steps the congregation can take to further church health, the authors discuss the process for searching for a pastor. Foundational to the search is a passionate commitment to prayer. The authors also emphasize the importance of the establishment of a methodology to facilitate the best possible match of the church to the candidate. 

Prior to this book, Dr. Echols coauthored Catastrophic Crisis: Ministry Leadership in the Midst of Trial and Tragedy as well as published numerous articles on leadership and ministry topics.