George Brookover was ordained in 1966 by the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and called to service by the Board of American Missions of the denomination in that same year. He was assigned the responsibility to develop a new congregation in the area northeast of Houston’s Intercontinental Airport.
The mission congregation he helped to organize ultimately reached a membership of more than one thousand members. At that time he coordinated a staff of twelve program specialists, including clergy, laity and administrative support staff and several dozen persons in two early childhood programs. Brookover served Holy Comforter from its founding in 1966 until 1996.
For fifteen years Brookover was the manager for the jurisdiction’s parish planning and development project in more than one hundred thirty congregations in Texas and Louisiana. In the past decade he has provided services to congregations for staff development, lay leadership training and program specialty committees. Since 1993 he has been a denominational consultant for the Kennon Callahan design for congregational development: Twelve Keys to an Effective Congregation. He has participated in several of Dr. Callahan’s training events since 1992, including a weeklong event in 1995.
Brookover has completed course work for certification as a Pastoral Care Specialist through the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. He trained for this professional recognition at the Samaritan Center for Counseling and Education in Clear Lake City, a suburb of Houston, Texas. He is also participating in ongoing training in family systems theory under the leadership of Rev. Terry Germann, a disciple of Rabbi Edwin Friedman.
In 1996 Brookover accepted a call from the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America to serve as its first pastor under call as an Intentional Interim Minister. He completed the sixty-hour training course under the auspices of the Interim Ministry Network (Baltimore, Maryland) and received his certification in the fall of 1997. He has served several congregations as an Intentional Interim Minister: St. Paul’s Lutheran (Brenham, Texas), Covenant Lutheran (Houston, Texas) and St. John’s, United Church of Christ (Rosenberg, Texas), Alvin Lutheran Church (Alvin, Texas), Christ Lutheran Church (Lake Jackson, Texas), Peace Lutheran Church (Pasadena, Texas) and briefly in a transition position for Our Saviour Lutheran (College Station, TX) . He has been a member of the Interim Ministry Network and the Association of Lutheran Interim Pastors (NALIP).
In the summer of 1997 he started Brookover Leadership Development & Consulting, Inc. He has been conducting professional development workshops in congregations of several denominations and offering career assessment assistance for clergy and other church professionals. He has also delivered the staff development training for senior and mid-level management for a school district in a Houston area community. He has done extensive work in congregations of several denominations to assist in the assessment of their internal culture and external environment.
Brookover has served as a member of the Board of Regents (1982-2004) at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. He has served as chair of the Admissions and College Relations Committee and served on the Committee on Regents and the Community Life Committee. Currently he serves as an appointed member of the Corporation Board for the University.
Brookover also has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. On the Wartburg Board he has served as chair of the Development Committee and the Committee for Centers (Youth Ministry and The Land). Brookover has also served as a member of the steering committee for the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest (Austin, Texas), a joint venture of Wartburg and the Lutheran School of Theology-Chicago. His tenure on the Wartburg Board began in 1987 and concluded in 2004.
During 1998 Brookover affiliated with The Association of Lutheran Development Executives. Through this membership in ALDE he has been trained to serve clients with resource development needs in not-for-profit organizations in several categories.
He and wife Claudia married in 1960 and parented four children and are now enjoying being grandparents for eight energetic and curious grandchildren.