After founding Pastor Chris Hodges announced Sunday that he’s stepping down as lead pastor of the Church of the Highlands, attention turned immediately to his successor, Pastor Mark Pettus, the new lead pastor.

Hodges founded the Church of the Highlands in 2001 and it has since become the largest religious congregation in Alabama, with a main campus on Grants Mill Road in Irondale and more than 20 branch campuses across the state, plus two in Georgia, in Columbus and Newnan.

Hodges will continue in his duties as chancellor of Highlands College in Birmingham on U.S. 280, which he also founded.

Hodges, 61, announced Feb. 2 that the Rev. Mark Pettus will be the new lead pastor of the Church of the Highlands.

Pettus, 43, will turn 44 on April 4.

He got involved as a college student at UAB, soon after the Church of the Highlands launched with services in 2001 at the Mountain Brook High School fine arts center.

“I did come here when I was 19 years old,” Pettus said Sunday. “Jill and I walked in as college students at UAB.”

Pettus, who grew up in Lineville, attended UAB from 2002-2006 and got his bachelor’s degree in history. He and Jill met Hodges at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes event, and they soon started working as volunteers with students at the church.

Hodges immediately pegged him as a leader, and Pettus and his wife were avid volunteers for the Dream Team, which does mission work, and other projects including student ministry.

“The moment we walked in, the lid was lifted off our faith,” Pettus said.

Hodges asked Pettus to join the staff in 2006 as a youth pastor. In 2009, Pettus started the annual Motion Conference for students, now one of the nation’s largest Christian gatherings for high school and college students that aims to spiritually prepare students to live out their faith.

When Highlands College launched in 2011, Hodges tapped Pettus as president.

“This man really built Highlands College,” Hodges said. “I gave him the vision for it, but I turned him loose. I gave the vision, he did all the work.”

Pettus oversaw rapid growth that included moving to the former HealthSouth headquarters on U.S. 280, which was renovated and adapted to accommodate college students, including newly built student housing on campus.

Pettus is stepping down as college president and the board will conduct a search for a new president of the college, Hodges said.

Now Hodges has asked Pettus to spend this year working on his vision for the church.

“This church does need to be led by a younger generation, and I believe you’re the man, with all my heart,” Hodges said as he turned the reins over to Pettus during a Sunday morning worship service. “I don’t even believe it; I know you’re the man.”

Pettus said Hodges had already cast a vision for what he wants Pettus to oversee.

“PC (Pastor Chris) already said these next 25 years are going to be about more people knowing God,” Pettus said. “That’s our mission. To take what God has done in us, to a world that needs it, desperately.”

For Hodges, Pettus represented a leader poised to take the church to a younger generation.

“Mark is my spiritual son and a product of Highlands,” said Hodges. “I’m excited about where we’re going.

For Pettus, it’s a tall order to follow Hodges.

“Highlands is our home, and the core of our passion is the work of God taking place here,” Pettus said. “It’s so humbling to follow in the footsteps of my mentor and my pastor. Pastor Chris instilled values and a vision into Highlands, and I can’t wait to see how his impact will multiply as he pours into more and more leaders at Highlands and around the world. Because God is always good, we know the best is yet come.”