In the 1850s, a Protestant Methodist Church was built on the grounds in Brooks where the present Brooks Baptist Church now stands. The population began to grow during the next 40 years and building a larger church was discussed. It had now become a Methodist Episcopal Church and was located where Hardy Fellowship Hall is at now.

In 1911, a red brick structure was built and served the congregation until 1997 when a new church was built at the corner of 85 Connector and Morgan Mill Road.

The Town of Brooks needed a larger town hall and purchased the old church, as well as Hardy Hall, a building behind the church building.

The church has known 44 pastors since the 1911 facility and is currently being served by the Rev. Randy Kanipe.

The Rev. Kanipe came to the Brooks United Methodist Church in June 1996. He was born in Spartanburg, S.C., and reared in Hendersonville, N.C.

He is a graduate of Greensburg College in North Carolina and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Graphic Arts. He first began to feel pulled into the ministry about the age of 19 and it took him about eight more years before he answered the call.

He entered the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in 1990, and upon graduation served churches in Stockbridge and Jonesboro and then came to Brooks.

He is married to Marika, and they have a daughter, Rebekah, age two.

The congregation has grown from 155 members when he came to the current membership of 300 persons.

In order to serve the congregants in a manner that would be most beneficial, he recently took a survey, asking them for their most pressing problems. Among the topics he has dealt with are "Why Bad Things Happen To Good People", "How Can You Make Sense Out of Suffering" and "If The Church Has Been Around So Long, Why Is The World Still Bad". The Rev. Kanipe searches out the Bible verses that are appropriate to the issue and even prints them on a sheet inserted into the Sunday morning bulletin.

In that way, people can leisurely go over them at home.

Over the next 10 years, the church anticipates a three-part expansion program. They are working now on a Memorial Garden, that will cover about an acre next to the church. When completed it will have a waterfall, a pond, a Gazebo, walking paths, benches and a 20-foot high wooden cross.

The church has a very busy youth and children's ministry, a handbell choir, and on Wednesday evenings, the minister will be teaching art classes. He was honored recently for designing the town logo that will appear on its commemorative Coke bottles, which are expected to be delivered in a month.