North Cook News

Pastor describes path that brought him to Brownwood

It was early in 2022, and Eric Jordan couldn’t imagine why God would be calling him to pastor a church in Brownwood.

Jordan, who pastored a church in Round Rock called A Breath of Praise Community Church, had no ties to Brownwood — he just passed through the city when traveling from his home in Round Rock to visit his brother in Abilene. But Jordan believed God was directing him to Brownwood.

 “’Brownwood?'” the surprised pastor asked God. “‘What’s in Brownwood? Why do you want me to come to Brownwood?’ The compelling on my heart was so strong that I was compelled to come.”

Jordan 58, has been in Brownwood for 10 months, where he is pastor of a church bears the same name as the Round Rock church — A Breath of Praise Community Church. The church is at 711 Bailey St., the former home of Emmanuel Chapel United Methodist Church, which recently dissolved. The sanctuary can seat about 100, and about 45 are regularly attending Sunday services.

Jordan continues to oversee the Round Rock church, which has a new pastor in Jordan’s absence. He is maintaining dual residencies in Brownwood and Round Rock. His wife, Faith, remains in Round Rock. The two are the parents of three daughters ages 33, 22 and 16.

“This is exactly where I’m supposed to be at this moment and time in my life,” Jordan said. “I feel really, really good about it — making a difference in the community, that’s the thing. My main priority is to win souls for Christ. Everything else is secondary.”

Jordan was born in Houston, the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was 5, and he went to live with his brother in Abilene. His dad worked for Amtrak and traveled between Houston and Chicago. “He couldn’t really raise me with that kind of job so he sent me to live with my older brother and he raised me with his family,” Jordan said. “Every summer I went to Chicago to stay with my dad.”

Jordan enrolled in Wayland Baptist College on an athletic scholarship, but left after a year.

Jordan began living in Round Rock in 1991, where he worked in sales and owned a shoe store. 

“I was a certified pedorthist,” Jordan said. “A pedorthist is a person that works hand-in-hand with doctors to develop diabetic footwear, shoes, artificial foot orthotics, those sorts of things and so that’s what I did. After that, when I started my ministry in 2007, I sold cars for a living. I worked for Lexus and Mercedes. So for awhile there I was bi-vocational — pastor and salesman.”

Jordan spent spent his initial time in ministry as an unpaid associate preacher at a Baptist church. 

In 2006, Jordan’s wife and newborn daughter were hospitalized with some complications, and Jordan spent time in the hospital’s chapel, praying for his wife and child. “I was already a preacher,” Jordan said. “As I was praying about the health of my wife and child, I heard God tell me ‘it’s time to leave.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about at first. I thought he was talking about leaving the chapel.

“He came back a second time. He said ‘it’s time for you to leave your church.’ So I  was a member of the church and I was one of the preachers there at that church, and I was having a good time. I said, ‘what do you mean?’ He said ‘it’s time for you to leave and plant a new church. I’m calling you to plant a church in Round Rock.’ And that’s how I was called.”

That led to the founding of A Breath of Praise Community Church in Round Rock.

“Our mission and our vision is to plant churches,” Jordan said. “So as we began to pray in Round Rock and ask the Lord where to plant another church. He started putting on my heart Brownwood, Texas, which was odd because I didn’t know anybody in Brownwood. I’m not familiar with Brownwood. So after we prayed about where to plant another church, God began to pull my heart this way. Once he started to do that I began to pray about it. I made a few trips down here just to kind of get a feel for the city.”

The pastor of what was then Emmanuel Chapel United Methodist Church allowed Jordan to have Wednesday night Bible studies. The church had split from the denomination and was down to about five members, who gave the church over to Jordan.

“The moral to that story is, our church stepped out in faith and came to Brownwood, and God just opened up doors for us to plant a ministry here,” Jordan said. “It’s been just unbelievable, the things that have been happening. Nine people have given their life to Christ, 15 people have been baptized. We performed a wedding.”

Jordan said residents of the neighborhood “are hungry to learn God’s word. I just thank God for them. They have been a blessing to me and I have been real encouraged about what I’ve seen here.”

Jordan said at some point he will train another pastor who will take over the pulpit at the Brownwood church. 

Jordan wants the church to make an impact on the community. He was the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. observance in Brownwood on Jan. 16, and said he had met with Howard Payne University president Dr. Cory Hines and Brownwood City Manager Emily Crawford. He also planned to meet with the city’s police chief and mayor.

Jordan said he teaches his church members “when you find your true purpose, that’s when you can really have the abundant life that Christ has promised. He said ‘I came that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly.’ But you’ve got to know what your purpose is, and if a person doesn’t know what their purpose is, not just in life, but even more importantly in the kingdom of God, you can never truly be fulfilled.

“So when I found my purpose and my calling, that’s when I began to really have that abundant life that Christ promises us. And we’re not talking material things. I’m talking about peace, joy, contentment — Galatians chapter 5 —  longsuffering, patience. That’s abundant life. So when you’re walking in your purpose, you’re fulfilled.”

Original source can be found here