Olu Brown said Sunday that he would step down as senior pastor of one of the United Methodist Church's steadily growing congregations in June 2022, more than 14 years after founding Impact Church in Atlanta, Georgia, with only 25 volunteers.
According to Christian Post, in 2019, the progressive Impact Church was recognized one of the top five fastest-growing United Methodist congregations, with weekly attendance of 2,400 in-person and 1,600 online.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta is a member, and on her inauguration day in 2018, she attended an ecumenical worship service.
"With any call that God gives us for our lives, there will always be a vision. And as we move toward realizing that vision, it becomes clear that the call is much greater than we can ever think or imagine," said Brown, 43, in his statement.
"Impact is part of my call, and when God gave me the opportunity to partner with 25 launch team volunteers to start this ministry, I knew there would come a time where God would call me beyond Impact Church."
Brown is anticipated to devote his whole time to entrepreneurial and consulting pursuits after he resigns as pastor of Impact Church. He hopes to kick off a movement called "Normalize Next" that will celebrate and support succession planning, retirement, and pastoral transition.
"I count it an honor to have been the founding and lead pastor of Impact Church and I will always be grateful for my time as a pastor and servant leader in the local church," Brown stated.
"Over the years, I have had the opportunity to serve in ministry with phenomenal people and travel the world. I will always cherish my wonderful ministry experiences and the people I have been honored to know and serve. Life and living is a continuous journey and a series of next and I hope to help people 'Normalize Next' and embrace tomorrow with hope and expectation. When I think about one of the most important themes of my ministry, it has been about helping people change, transition and embrace their next."
Brown will assist the church's next senior pastor in settling in after Bishop of the North Georgia Conference, Sue Haupert-Johnson, makes the appointment.
"It goes without saying that a change like this can be difficult to understand, but change does, in fact, happen, and when it does, we embrace it and move in the direction where that change is taking us," said Sheldon Snipe, Chairperson of the Impact Church's Staff Parish Relations Committee.
"This is a very exciting time for Olu, and for Impact, and we are confident that our plan to transition the leadership of our outgoing and incoming pastors will ensure undisrupted continuity to our ministry."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted Robert M. Franklin Jr., the Laney chair in moral leadership at Emory University's Candler School of Theology and former president of the Interdenominational Theological Center as saying that Brown is a "pioneer" in generating "inspiring" ideas in the 21st-century for urban ministry that have been replicated by others.
