- General Superintendent
- First Assistant Superintendent
- Second Assistant Superintendent
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- World Missions Director
- Mission USA Administrator
- Women's Ministries Director
- Men's Ministries Director
- Missionettes Director
- Royal Rangers Director
Bishop Charles Hanson
Bishop Charles Hanson was born in Piedmont, Alabama, on November 9, 1952. He was the fifth of eight siblings born to Rev. and Mrs. Cecil Hanson. He accepted Christ and was called into the ministry at the young age of eleven. Bishop Hanson believes in teaching and preaching the Word of God just as the Bible teaches, and believes the most important thing one can do in life is to win a soul to Christ. Bishop Hanson is a devoted man of God and believes one must live the Word.
Bishop Hanson graduated from Spring Garden High School in 1971 and graduated from Gadsden Business College in November 1972, where he obtained an Accounting Degree. He and his lovely wife, Susan Smith Hanson, were married on June 16, 1972. From this union, they were blessed with two beautiful daughters.
In 1980, Bishop Hanson was ordained with the Congregational Holiness Church. Bishop Hanson served on the Youth Board in the North Alabama District from 1978 to 1980. He served on the Home Missions Board in the Central Georgia District from 1982 to1983, was District Superintendent of the Central Georgia District from 1991 to 1997, then elected again as District Superintendent from 2002 to 2009. He also served as General Evangelism/ Home Missions Director from 1997 to 1999.
Along with his other positions and responsibilities, Bishop Hanson also pastored three churches during thirty years of his ministry. Plainview Congregational Holiness Church in the North Alabama District, 1979 to 1981, Living Hope Congregational Holiness in Macon Georgia, 1981 to 2003, and Living Waters Congregational Holiness Church in 2004 to 2009, both in the Central Georgia District.
Bishop Hanson served on staff at the Central Georgia Medical Center in Macon, Georgia, as Chaplain from 1999 to 2008. He currently serves as a Death Row Minister at Jackson Diagnostic Center, in Jackson, Georgia, and has since 2004. He has witnessed many death row inmates come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
In 2009, after many years of working with World Missions, Bishop Hanson accepted the position of General World Missions Executive Director of the Congregational Holiness Church. During his eight years of tenure there, the World Missions of the Congregational Holiness Church grew to more than 10,000 churches, missions, and preaching points.
After more than thirty-eight years of ministering the word in youth camps, camp meetings, revivals, conferences, seminars, retreats, homecomings, hospitals, prison facilities, radio broadcast, and more, along with serving in many leadership positions on the local, district, national, and international levels, in 2017, Bishop Hanson was elected to serve the global body of the Congregational Holiness Church, as General Superintendent.
First Lady, Susan Hanson, has served alongside her husband in many different positions during their ministry and has devoted her life to the purpose for which God has destined for her. The First Lady has a true heart for God and the Church. Bishop Charles Hanson and First Lady Susan, have two daughters, Dawn Mullis and Julia Johnson, two sons-in-laws, two grandsons and three granddaughters, and currently reside in Griffin, Georgia.
Rev. L. Wayne Hicks
Rev. L. Wayne Hicks was elected to the General Executive Board in 1977 as General Secretary. He served in this position until 1985, when his father, Bishop Cullen Hicks, was elected General Superintendent. During the tenure of his father as General Superintendent, he served on the North Georgia District Presbytery. When Bishop Hicks retired from office in 1991, Rev. Wayne Hicks was elected as Second Assistant General Superintendent in which he served until the 2013 General Conference. At the 2013 General Conference, Rev. Wayne Hicks was elected First Assistant General Superintendent.
Rev. Wayne Hicks began his pastoral ministry as a young man of only twenty. His first pastorate was at the Corinth Church in Bowman, Georgia from 1967 - 1973. God blessed his ministry, and the church grew during the six years that he pastored there into a congregation of sixteen people to more than eighty. He served the Christian Heritage Congregational Holiness Church, 1973 - 1975 in Graniteville, South Carolina, as Associate Pastor and Minister of Music.
In 1975, at the age of 28, he entered full-time pastoral ministry at the Bethel Temple Congregational Holiness Church in Demorest, Georgia. It was during his ministry there that the present church was constructed. He served Bethel Temple for eight years. In 1983, Pastor Hicks accepted the call to pastor the First Congregational Holiness Church in Gainesville, Georgia. Almost immediately, the church congregation flourished into a congregation averaging 175 people each Sunday. He served there for twelve years. In 1995, Rev. Hicks organized the New Haven Church in which he presently serves.
On August 6, 1995, New Haven Church met for the very first time in a conference room at the Holiday Inn in Gainesville, Georgia. Fifty-two people attended the first service. From that meeting, New Haven Church was birthed. From the beginning, the church has grown. The first sanctuary was constructed in 1998. The sanctuary was quickly filled, and new construction began on a second sanctuary in the summer of 2003. The new sanctuary will seat 650 people. God has brought The New Haven Church to a membership of almost three hundred and an attendance of almost four hundred.
Rev. Stephen D. Phillips
Stephen D. Phillips is the Lead Pastor of Christian Heritage Church in Graniteville, South Carolina (2002-Present). Under his leadership, the congregation continues to healthy growth with approximately 600 weekly in attendance.
Since 1990, he has served the church in a variety of capacities including Youth Pastor, Minister of Christian Education and Worship Leader. He currently serves on the Board of Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia and a member of the Advisory Board of Security Federal Bank in Aiken, SC.
Stephen received a B.S. in Religion from Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia and an M.A. in Ministerial Leadership from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He and his wife, Sherry, have two sons, Caleb and Joshua.
Rev. Jonathan Fitzpatrick
Pastor Jonathan holds a Bachelor’s Degree, Magna Cum Laude, from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee in Ministry Leadership with an emphasis in Pastoral Ministry. He is also a military veteran of the United States Marine Corps where he served four years repairing amphibious assault vehicles. He was honorably discharged in January of 1992.
He and his wife Kristie began dating in the fall of 1994 and were married on August 26th, 1995. They have twin daughters, Jordan and Joshlyn, who attend Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, GA. Pastor
Jonathan preached his first sermon in September of 1996 at the Green Valley CHC in Gadsden, Alabama. Two years later, he entered the nine-month Ministerial Internship Program of the CHC in the Fall of 1998, completing the course and graduating in the summer of 1999. Upon completing the MIP, Pastor Jonathan was called upon to serve as the Youth Pastor at Tredegar Chapel CHC in Jacksonville, Alabama where he served for two and a half years. He was then called upon to Pastor the Pine Grove CHC in Jacksonville where he pastored for three and a half years before moving over 160 miles to Habersham County Georgia to pastor the Bethel Temple CHC where he served for over ten years.
In October of 2015, Pastor Jonathan began his journey as the Senior Pastor of West Sunny Side in Griffin Georgia.
Rev. Danny Jones
Danny Jones grew up in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina where he graduated in 1974 from Fuquay-Varina High School. He has been married to Kathy Pope Jones since 1978. During a ministry of 44 years, Danny has served as a staff youth pastor, Christian school administrator, pastor, and denominational leader. Licensed in 1973 and ordained in 1978, he has pastored churches in Lumberton, NC; Edgefield, SC; Saluda, SC; Clinton, SC; and Forest City, NC. For eight years, he also served on the Board of Trustees at Emmanuel College as the Congregational Holiness Church representative. Additionally, he has been a teacher for 27 years in both private and public schools; and currently is a 10th-grade language arts/special education teacher for students with learning mild disabilities at Gaffney High School in Gaffney, SC.
Within the Congregational Holiness Church denomination, Danny has served as General Christian Education Director (five years); Mission USA Administrator (six years); Editor of the CHC Gospel Messenger magazine (six years), General Men’s Ministries Executive Director (two years), 2nd Assistant General Superintendent (four years), and current General Treasurer.
He received an AA and BA in Christian Ministries from Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, GA; a BS in Education from Lander University in Greenwood, SC; and a Masters of Education from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Christian education brochures that he has written and published include Let’s Get Acquainted: Welcome to the CHC Family; Bible Literacy; Jesus Christ: Master Teacher; America: Our New Mission Frontier; How to Make Sunday School Interesting; The Twenty-Somethings; Simple Steps to Church Growth; Youth: Church of Today-Leaders of Tomorrow; and Winning Muslims to Christ.
He and his wife Kathy have four grown children: John Paul Jones, Elizabeth Jones Brown, Mary Jones Douglas, and Andrew Jones. Also, they have five grandchildren. Danny and Kathy currently reside in Gaffney, South Carolina.
Rev. Scotty Poole
Scotty Poole is a gifted minister who loves sharing God's word and enjoys encouraging others to share God's word. Rev. Poole's motto is "There is always one more person who needs to hear the gospel!" With 20 plus years as a senior pastor in North Carolina and Georgia, Scotty currently serves as the Executive Director of World Missions for the Congregational Holiness Church. He holds a Bachelors in Business Administration from Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, a Master of Divinity degree from Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tennessee, and is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Education program at Southeastern University, located in Lakeland, Florida. Scotty has been married almost 35 years, and he and his wife Redenna have two beautiful daughters, two amazing son-in-laws, and two wonderful grandsons.
Rev. William Strickland
Rev. William Strickland has given himself to the ministry since 1994. William serves the Congregational Holiness Church, Inc. full time as the Mission USA Administrator. With a background as a pastor for twelve years, he knows the struggles and challenges that pastors face on a daily basis. Routinely, he lends encouragement and support to local church pastors. Most weeks of the year you will find he and his wife traveling to be with a different congregation each Sunday and maintain regular office hours at the headquarters in Griffin. He also works with local churches to provide necessary resources for church growth, church planting, Bible literacy, and Christian education. William also serves as Editor of our official magazine, The Gospel Messenger. He works closely with our leadership throughout the year to produce a high quality and visually appealing magazine each quarter. For more resources and thought-provoking inspiration, visit his ministry blog, a different perspective.
Rev. Wanda Murray
Wanda Murray grew up in Hokes Bluff, Alabama where she still lives with her husband of 45 years, Rev. H. Michael Murray. They have two sons, Robert and Eric Murray, three grandsons, Drew, Max, and Gage Murray.
Sister Wanda has been a member of the Congregational Holiness Church since January 1977. She accepted the call to the ministry in May of 2000 and became licensed with the church in October 2006. She and her husband have been privileged to pastor four churches in the North Alabama District. Wanda has served on the North Alabama District Youth Board, the District Women’s Ministries Board, and as the District Director of Evangelism and Home Missions. She has also served on the General Women’s Ministries Board from 2007 to present.
A few years ago, in a WM Retreat, Sister Wanda received a Word from God; “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Galatians 6:9).” She has found God to be faithful, just, and rewarding to His children.
I am honored to have been elected to my current position as the International Executive Director of the Women’s Ministries for the Congregational Holiness Church. My plans are to be obedient to the Spirit and allow Him to move us to a higher level of His power and presence.”
Rev. Ronald Cook
I have been a minister with the Congregational Holiness Church for 43 years. During this time I have pastored several churches, evangelized, and served in several different capacities on the district level. I have been honored to serve the past 4 years as the Men’s Ministry Executive Director and am humbled to begin my next term for the following four years. One of my earlier visions was to establish a Men’s Ministry disaster relief program and it has been approved by the General Conference and we are currently working to establish among the districts and get this program finalized and up and running. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I still use this as my goal because when we, as a people, lose our vision toward helping others and winning the lost we will surely perish.
Sister Tonya Cook
Sister Tonya Cook became a pastor’s wife at the young age of 23 and now realizes the importance of training up young girls and ladies to become successful Christian leaders within the church. She urges pastors, teachers, parents and lay members to love and support the girls in the church today.
As you watch them grow in the Lord and become workers in His Kingdom, you can look on with satisfaction, knowing that you had a hand in shaping their lives. Please pray for the Missionettes Department and for me, as well, as I try to set a holy example for the girls to follow. With God being my help and guide, I will work to the best of my ability to see all girls of the CHC grow, be successful and know they have a future in God’s Kingdom!
~Tonya Cook
Rev. Brian Willingham
Commander Brian Willingham is a third-generation CHC minister. After accepting the call to ministry at age fifteen, Brian served as an itinerant evangelist into his early twenties. Sensing a calling into leadership, Brian served as a member of the North Alabama Christian Education from 1999-2005. In 2008, Brian married Rebecca Lyons- also a third generation CHC member. In 2009, Brian and Rebecca moved to the Jacksonville, Florida area where they served a brief stint in young adult ministry at the Sanderson CH Church. In 2013, Brian accepted the invitation to serve as National Commander of Royal Rangers of the Congregational Holiness Church. Today, Brian currently serves as both National Commander of Royal Rangers and as Second Assistant Executive Director of Men's Ministries.
