The changing of the guard at Brockport’s Christ Community Church is now complete. Associate Pastor Mark DuPré stepped down December 31, Senior Pastor Bruce Plummer’s last day in the office was January 31, and new Senior Pastor Brad Kahler was installed in the middle of January.
“We’d been praying for years about this upcoming transition,” said Pastor Bruce, “and we wanted to do it right. We let the congregation know a long time ago that this was going to happen at some time, and when things started to get put into place, we kept them in the loop as much as we could.”
Both pastors felt that their time was coming to an end, not as ministers, but in their pastoral roles in the church. They felt that God had other things for them to do, and believed that there needed to be new, younger, fresher leadership at the church. “Bruce and I had no one in mind in particular,” said Pastor Mark, “but as we prayed individually, we came to discover we had the same vision for the next senior leader: someone in his thirties, someone who wanted to be here in Brockport and didn’t look at it as a steppingstone, a family man with a solid marriage, and someone with leadership gifts.”
The pastors met with the other church leaders, developed a succession plan, and began to scout out various possibilities. But even as Pastor Bruce announced his own retirement date, no one was on the horizon. Then last February, out of the blue, he decided to text Brad Kahler, whom he had gotten to know when they worked together at Elim Bible College. “I just texted him to find out where he was and how he was,” explained Pastor Bruce. “It never crossed my mind then that he might be the guy. I just wanted to catch up. It turned out that after spending 14 years at Elim, as a student at the Bible College and also as the Creative Arts Pastor at Elim Gospel Church, Brad had taken his family down to North Carolina in 2018 to work at Elevation, a multi-site megachurch.”
All three pastors agree that the transition has been nearly ideal. “From the very first conversation,” said Pastor Brad, “I knew that Pastor Bruce and Pastor Mark were healthy, secure leaders who would not be threatened by my leadership in the transition. On the contrary, throughout the whole process they truly saw my success as their own success, and they sacrificed greatly to make sure I was effectively established as the new senior pastor. That is the very definition of healthy succession and the evidence that generational connection is happening here.”
Pastor Brad has been married for 12 years to wife Erin, and they have three young boys who all attend Brockport Central Schools. They settled in quickly to Brockport, bought a house in the village, and have made what he calls “quick and deep” friendships already. “For us,” Brad said, “this whole experience has been a dream come true. That includes falling in love with Brockport and the surrounding areas.”
Pastor Mark, who had been teaching one film class at RIT for more than 20 years, now teaches four classes. He is also the assistant director of the I am Rochester documentary film, is co-writing a book, and working on a musical drama with others in the area. Pastor Bruce is currently on leave and looking for his next assignment, still living in Brockport where he and his wife Robin have raised their six children.
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