The Rev. Clint Pressley, 40, delivers his sermon during a Sunday morning service at Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte. It was Pressley's debut as co-pastor and a return to the church he once served as associate pastor.
The longtime pastor of North Carolina's largest Southern Baptist church has begun turning over the reins of leadership to his much-younger heir apparent.
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The Rev. Joe Brown, 61, who has led Charlotte's Hickory Grove Baptist for 25 years, says he'll keep preaching at two services most Sundays and retain the post of senior pastor, at least for awhile.
But the Rev. Clint Pressley, 40, a Charlotte native who made his debut Sunday in the newly created job of co-pastor, will now be the one in the pulpit during some of Hickory Grove Baptist's most popular Sunday services. Increasingly, Pressley will take charge of running the megachurch's daily operations.
And eventually, if all goes according to plan, he'll become the senior pastor.
"Some folks think that I'm retiring; I think I'm just shifting gears," Brown said Sunday. "I'm going into the last third of my life and I think the biggest thing for me right now is to empower the people. Rather than do it (myself), teach others to do it."
This sharing and gradual shifting of responsibilities at Charlotte's largest Protestant church - with 16,500 members, two campuses and 20 pastors - will give Brown more time for other things. He mentioned mentoring, focusing on the big picture at the church and traveling the world as a missions ambassador for the Southern Baptist Convention. Brown said he expects to spend about 25 percent of his time working with budding churches in other countries.
The new setup also gives 55-year-old Hickory Grove Baptist a young co-leader at a time when newer Charlotte churches are sprouting up and drawing thousands of young people to their contemporary services.
Among them: Elevation, a Southern Baptist church pastored by 30-year-old the Rev. Steven Furtick that has become one of the fastest growing evangelical churches in the country.
"I think he will be able to speak to the next generation in ways that I can't," Brown said of Pressley, who attended Hickory Grove Baptist as a teenager and became associate pastor there in 1999. He left in 2004 to pastor Dauphin Way Baptist Church in Mobile, Ala.
Pressley's youth played a big role in Brown's decision to ask him to return to the Charlotte church.
"It's a young man's game," Brown said of the job. "It takes a lot of energy. You're going to be the senior pastor at Hickory Grove? The way I do it, you come in on Monday morning and Sunday's coming. On top of that... you have staff and outreach and programs."
The Rev. Clint Pressley, center, shakes hands with Leila and Russ Jones after the service at Hickory Grove Baptist, where he now is co-pastor with senior pastor Rev. Joe Brown.
On Sunday, that youthful energy was on display, as Pressley preached at five different services, the first one at 8 a.m., the last one at 6 p.m. A driver picked him up after his sermon at the 10:30 a.m. service on the North Campus, near Concord Mills, and got him to the Main Campus, in northeast Charlotte, in time to do a sermon late into the 10:45 a.m. service.
An Independence High School football player who had wanted to be a preacher since seventh grade, Pressley is now an animated speaker, punching his finger in the air, walking around the stage, gripping his black-bound Bible. On Sunday, he found ways to inject humor into his otherwise serious sermon.
"It's my first Sunday preaching, and you want to come across nice," he said, pointing to the stylish handkerchief peeking out of the pocket in his pin-striped suit coat. "My wife, she talked me into these Clark Kent glasses that I've got on. You want to make a good impression, right?"
In an interview Sunday, Pressley recalled how he reconnected with Hickory Grove. Shortly before Thanksgiving, he texted Brown that he'd be in Charlotte visiting his parents, and wondered if he could come by and hear Brown preach.
Why don't you preach? Brown asked, and Pressley did. Then Brown invited him to breakfast the next morning. That's when the talks began about his possible return.
Pressley said he felt God's call to come back to Hickory Grove Baptist; he also felt "a sense of indebtedness" to the church.
"Joe Brown baptized me, and my father and my sister," Pressley said. "He ordained me to ministry... (I) served as an intern at Hickory Grove. Came back on staff at Hickory Grove. When I am cut, I bleed Hickory Grove blue."
Like Brown, he said he's committed to making sure one of the pastors is physically present and preaching at every Hickory Grove Baptist service. Other multi-campus churches, including Elevation, will bring the pastor to some of the services via video.
"Charlotte is a big enough city, with enough people, that the way we do church doesn't have to mirror somebody else's way," he said. "We're not going to be somebody else."
Chris Harrington, 25, made his first visit to Hickory Grove Baptist Sunday. He liked what he heard from Pressley and said he plans to return.
"I loved it," said Harrington, a chemistry grad from UNC Charlotte. "He was very sincere. I've been to a lot of churches, and too many of them seem wishy-washy. Not him."
SOURCE: The Charlotte Observer
Tim Funk | tfunk@charlotteobserver.com
