Members of Brookwood Church in Simpsonville are demanding answers after learning that Jerry Sidell, a registered sex offender convicted of child molestation in Georgia decades ago, spent nearly three decades serving in the megachurch's adult worship band, men's ministry, and a separate music ministry he founded himself. Senior Pastor Bryan Jones has confirmed that Sidell first attended Brookwood 27 years earlier and was only removed from serving after Jones learned of his registered sex offender status.
The scrutiny traces back to a scandal that unfolded two states away, as the Post and Courier reported that Georgetown County law enforcement arrested Pawleys Island Community Church's former senior pastor Don Williams, his wife Ginny, and academy director Niki Howard in July on charges including criminal conspiracy and unlawfully placing a child at risk after a registered sex offender was found volunteering on that campus. That case drew a federal class-action lawsuit filed in August seeking $25 million in damages over claims the church allowed a registered sex offender repeated access to minors at its school, according to the same outlet. The fallout from Pawleys Island rippled north, prompting Brookwood members to press their own leadership for details about Sidell.
According to FOX Carolina, Sidell served in Brookwood's adult worship band and a men's small group, led a ministry called The Table, played keyboard on the church's main stage, and acted as a men's mentor. He also played music for The Landing, a Celebrate Recovery subset for students in sixth through 12th grade. The station reports Sidell was not a Brookwood employee or staff member, and The Table reportedly met near a school during school hours and low-security hours.
A Conviction From Georgia's Youth Ministry Circuit
Sidell's history dates to 1983, when the then-26-year-old pleaded guilty in Clayton County Superior Court to four counts of child molestation and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes involving boys from his Georgia youth ministry, receiving a 10-year sentence, per court records. The offenses occurred while Sidell served as a youth minister at First Christian Church in Jonesboro, Georgia. Separately, 1985 reporting on his court proceedings indicated that law enforcement officials said Sidell confessed to molesting nine children during his time as a youth minister in Georgia, according to contemporaneous Atlanta Journal-Constitution coverage archived online. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division registry records, by contrast, list just one victim, a 14-year-old boy, per FOX Carolina's reporting.
Sidell and his wife bought a home in Greenville in the late 1990s and began attending Brookwood around the same time, the station reports. Jones has said that when Sidell joined the congregation, he disclosed his conviction, according to Brookwood Executive Pastor J.C. Thompson in a statement reported by Baptist News Global. That disclosure led church leaders to set internal rules barring Sidell from children's spaces and requiring non-children ministry leaders working alongside him to be informed of his criminal history, per that same statement.
The Rusty Bucket Ministry and Its Deleted Online Presence
Beyond his roles inside Brookwood, Sidell started a separate music ministry called The Rusty Bucket, which held a music festival in Gray Court in 2022, FOX Carolina reports. The station's investigation found photos appearing to show minors at Rusty Bucket events, and the ministry's website and social media pages were taken down after FOX Carolina Investigates reviewed them. Brookwood has said Rusty Bucket was not a Brookwood ministry, was not funded by the church, and was not under its authority or control, even though the station reports Brookwood was involved with the effort despite that separation.
David Walsh, who attended Brookwood for three years and led different groups there, told the station he worked with Sidell for about a year on a project to expand The Rusty Bucket. Walsh said the church was not sufficiently transparent with its congregation about Sidell's past, and Jones has acknowledged personally telling Walsh that Sidell was a registered sex offender. Walsh and his family are now seeking a new church, per the station's reporting.
State Police Point to Case-by-Case Oversight
When Walsh raised his concerns with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the agency told him offender restrictions are handled on a case-by-case basis and that there is no state law prohibiting offenders from being around minors, FOX Carolina reports. SLED referred Walsh's concerns to the Greenville County Sheriff's Office, which the station says has provided no updates. SLED has not responded to the station's questions about Sidell opening the Gray Court ministry or his Tier II registry status.
That case-by-case approach sits alongside broader statutory restrictions on registered offenders in South Carolina. Standard state probation conditions bar offenders from entering, loitering, or working within 1,000 feet of places frequented by minors, such as schools, daycare centers, playgrounds, and pools, and restrict contact with minors without prior written approval, according to the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. Separately, under South Carolina Code § 23-3-535, registered offenders are legally barred from residing within 1,000 feet of the property line of any school, daycare center, children's recreational facility, park, or public playground, per the Probation Information Network. FOX Carolina notes Sidell faces no pending charges in South Carolina.
Brookwood's Security Measures and Policy Response
Brookwood leadership maintains that safeguards were already in place before the controversy surfaced, pointing to a trained security team and nearly 300 security cameras across its campus, along with background checks for volunteers, per FOX Carolina's reporting. The church hosts thousands of members each week along with community support groups, and its Simpsonville complex spans nearly 60 acres along Interstate 385, including a main worship sanctuary, a preschool, an outdoor theater, a playground, and a south campus devoted to youth programs and sports fields.
Bryan Jones, who became senior pastor in 2023, removed Sidell from serving after learning of his registered sex offender status, according to the station. Brookwood has since amplified existing policies keeping registered sex offenders out of designated children's spaces and children's service roles, and now requires first-time registered sex offender attendees to avoid serving roles entirely. Those attendees must also enter through a designated door, check in with security, sit with an assigned protection person, and exit with that person, per the church's policy as described by FOX Carolina. Jones held a community meeting about the matter but did not name Sidell during that gathering, the station reports.
State law adds another layer of obligation for religious institutions running childcare programs. Under South Carolina Code § 63-13-1010, church-affiliated childcare centers and religious centers must conduct fingerprint-based background checks, including state criminal and sex offender registry checks, for all employees and caregivers, and must repeat those checks if someone is inactive for six months or longer, according to Justia Law. Brookwood operates a preschool on its Simpsonville campus, placing it squarely within that statutory requirement as congregations statewide reexamine how they vet volunteers in the wake of the Pawleys Island case.
