Snapshot: Brookhaven UMC

Website: www.brookhavenumc.org

Services: 11 a.m.

Worship: Casual blending of styles with liturgical emphasis

Average Sunday attendance: 85-100

Minister: Rev. Sara Webb Phillips, Rev. Don Shannon

Denomination affiliation: United Methodist

Mission statement:

“A people that is inviting, empowering and engaging for faithful discipleship in Jesus Christ.”

History:

Established in 1922, Brookhaven was the first Methodist church in the area. In the 1940s, members gathered in the evening to build a sanctuary, working by the lights from their cars. That sanctuary is still in use, and the building is being renovated to become more accessible for people with disabilities.

Pastor’s path:

Phillips is a Jackson, Tenn., native and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee-Memphis, and master of divinity from Emory University. Her ministry has led her to serve inner- city churches, something she says has “truly been my blessing.”

Shannon, a licensed local pastor with the United Methodist Church, took a different route to ministry. The lifelong Atlanta resident, who attended the University of the South 1962-66, is a former crack and alcohol addict who has been clean for nine years. Shannon once was homeless and spent a year at the Atlanta Union Mission.

“I was not a Christian then” and struggled with the idea of God, he said. “It didn’t make any sense until I had this life-changing experience, which convinced me that God loved me.”

Ministries:

Brookhaven’s 100-student Child Development Center, the church’s longest-running ongoing ministry, meets needs of working parents in the neighborhood.

The mission-minded congregation supports Habitat for Humanity; the Heifer Project; a missionary in Thailand; Costa Rica and Katrina relief trips; 30-Hour Famine for hunger relief, and has sent health kits to Haiti and flood victims.

On a local level, the church hosts several recovery communities and serves about 250 people each week through AA meetings, Bible study on Tuesday nights and a Soulful Saturday worship every other week. Church members contribute by providing refreshments at the meetings and a hot dog supper for the 75 to 90 people who attend the Saturday services.

Shannon is involved in the recovery outreach and has given away several thousand copies of the Life Recovery Bible in the last five years. “We’re showing how the Bible is relevant in recovery and is the basis of the 12 steps, founded on the wisdom that’s in the Bible.”

According to Phillips, “It’s not uncommon to hear people say this church and Don’s work have helped them become different human beings.”

Thoughts from the pastor:

This church is a gem in the midst of the Brookhaven area – small, but with lots of vitality, children friendly, supportive seniors, very diverse, seeking to serve community, nation and world because God loves us and intends that we share that love with all God’s children.