Church Plant Residency & Elder/Staff Update
Continue reading for updates on the following areas.
CHURCH PLANT RESIDENCY
BRIAN MCLAUGHLIN
We are excited to announce that Brian McLaughlin is now a Church Plant Resident here at New Eden. Brian and his family have been a part of New Eden for over 3 years, and they have served faithfully during this entire time.
More recently, Brian began processing with the elders of New Eden regarding a desire to plant another Jesus-centered, gospel-proclaiming church in the North Alabama area.
TRUE LIFE COMMUNITY CHURCH
To this end, he will enter a residency aimed to equip and support he and others as they look to begin True Life Community Church toward the end of 2026.
You will hear more from Brian and the elders in the coming months about ways to serve and be involved, but for now, we just wanted to share and celebrate together what God is doing.
ELDER UPDATES
STAFF ELDER ROLES
As a reminder, New Eden currently has three elders (Joel McCarty, Kevin Perry, & Mark Carpenter). All elders hold the same amount of functional authority and level of responsibility when it comes to the ways that elders are called to serve the church (shepherding the members, protecting faithful doctrine, and exercising the ministry of the word and prayer).
However, as the elder team sees fit, certain elders can receive compensation in their role, so they have more time and energy to dedicate to certain areas of ministry. You will sometimes hear these elders referred to as “staff elders” or “pastors”. Non-paid elders are typically referred to as “lay elders”. (*The terms “pastor” and “elder” are used interchangeably in the Scriptures and mean the same thing.)
Up to this point, this is how the current elders have functioned. And following are the updates and changes for the forseeable future.
Joel McCarty • Staff Elder
Pastor for Preaching & Oversight
Full-time staff role up until earlier this year, then scaled back to 4 days/wk
Kevin Perry • Staff Elder
Pastor for Shepherding
Part-time staff role fluctuating between 1-3 days/wk
Mark Carpenter • Lay Elder
KEVIN PERRY
As many of you know, Kevin has been flexible in his part-time staff role from the beginning, working in other capacities vocationally while still serving part-time for the church.
Due to budget constraints, Kevin has transitioned off of staff beginning this month. He will continue serving as an elder in a “lay elder” capacity. He still plans to have one day a week to dedicate to Pastoral Counseling from The Garden in Decatur, where he will see clients inside and outside the body of New Eden Church.
We will still refer to him as the Pastor for Shepherding, as that designation is still in line with his primary areas of service as an elder. Our desire is that our budget will allow for restoring that part-time compensation in the near future. Please be in prayer with us regarding this.
JOEL MCCARTY
In the spring of this year, Joel transitioned from a full-time vocational role to being 80% supported by New Eden, and began supplementing his compensation outside of his staff role. This was a bit of an experiment, as we were not sure this was sustainable for he and his family.
Starting this month, Joel has transitioned back into a full-time vocational role. It was important to us to make this change before he began his sabbatical, so he would not have to spend as much energy supplementing his compensation through outside efforts during this time.
FUTURE DESIRES
Our prayer and hope is that God would give us wisdom as we work toward sustainability as a church. We are already seeing Him move and we are hopeful for the days ahead. The raising up of deacons, members and volunteers taking ownership in service and leadership, the provision of sustainable vocational efforts for staff and elders outside of the New Eden budget, and the ordinary faithfulness of us all to support and equip each other in our varying capacities - these are all ways that we anticipate God providing for us as a body as we look to 2026 and beyond.
STAFF ROLES
DIRECTOR FOR MUSIC
COMPTON MCMURRY
Compton McMurry has served in a part-time capacity as our Director for Music since January of 2024. For those that don’t know, Compton and his wife, Meredith, also make up a singer-songwriter duo called “Common Man”. Due to their ever-increasing touring schedule, he will transition out of the Director for Music role at the end of this year.
We are very grateful for Compton and his wife, Meredith, as they have served New Eden with faithfulness, generosity, and humility. While we will miss their presence and leadership in the days ahead, we are celebrating with them the opportunities in front of them.
ANDREW CALVERT
Beginning January 1, 2026, Andrew Calvert will begin serving in a part-time role as the Director for Music. Many of you know that Andrew served in this staff role previously, along with serving as a volunteer Music Leader many times this past year. We are grateful for his willingness to step back into this role and serve in this capacity.
MINISTRY ASSISTANT • MEDIA & EVENTS
ANNA BAILEY
Earlier this year, we moved some staff responsibilities around to create a small part-time Ministry Assistant role for Anna Bailey. She will serve with a focus on media and events. Her responsibilities include tasks like setting up lyrics for Sunday morning, communicating upcoming events, and managing social media.
MINISTRY ASSISTANT • TECH & GATHERING SETUP
BRIAN MCLAUGHLIN
We recently hired Brian for a small part-time Ministry Assistant role to help with Tech and Media Setup for our Sunday Gatherings. His responsibilities include tasks like setting up the Livestream, ensuring our displays and sound are working properly, and troubleshooting tech issues as they arise.
If you have any more questions regarding the above, please reach out to the elders at elders@newedenchurch.org or contact one of them directly.
For those who are members or regular attenders of New Eden Church, we will be talking about some of this as it relates to the budget at our end-of-year Family Meeting on December 7.