Itinerant Pastor David Brown Given Standing Ovation
Staff Photo by Herb Nygren Jr.
NATIONAL EXPOSURE: The Rev. David Brown was catapulted from obscure circuit pastoring and preaching to a PBS network appearance and a guest-speaker invitation at a packed Marvin United Methodist Church on Wednesday. The Louisiana circuit pastor was featured in August by correspondent Lucky Severson of PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. The result was a capacity crowd of more than 1,000 who came to hear Brown speak on “seeing Jesus.” A PBS crew filmed the event and plans a follow-up show later this year.
By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor
The Rev. David Brown faced a sea of faces at Marvin United Methodist Church on Wednesday and literally did not miss a beat. The black itinerant pastor of seven small churches in Louisiana and Mississippi has suddenly been thrust into a national spotlight, and he’s handling it well.
Religion Editor
The Rev. David Brown faced a sea of faces at Marvin United Methodist Church on Wednesday and literally did not miss a beat. The black itinerant pastor of seven small churches in Louisiana and Mississippi has suddenly been thrust into a national spotlight, and he’s handling it well.
Brown, a Baptist, calmly took the platform from the Rev. Dr. John Robbins and looked up into a balcony crammed with congregants eager to see why Brown had been brought to Tyler. A camera crew from PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, the show that “broke” the Brown story in August, was on the main floor. Soundmen from PBS were poised on the side of the sanctuary to catch every word this “extraordinary and humble man” from Monroe, La., would say.
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Brown began to speak. Forty minutes later, a thousand people were on their feet giving a sustained standing ovation, agreeing with Brown that they “wanted to see Jesus.”
“A prophet has come among us,” said Mary Dale Thomas, a longtime member at Marvin. “Rev. Brown was a missionary to the Methodists tonight.” Her husband, Pat, agreed.
Staff Photo by Herb Nygren Jr.
The Rev. David Brown and his wife Gwendolyn react as they are being introduced by the Rev. Dr. John Robbins on Wednesday. “I want to make one thing clear,” Robbins joked, “this is MY pulpit.”
“I attended a church in New York for five years where Norman Vincent Peale was the speaker,” said Thomas, “and this was as good tonight. Maybe better.”
HOLY IMAGINATION
Peale wrote the book “Positive Imagining: The Powerful Way to Change Your Life.” Brown took positive imagining and put it into practice, kicking visualization into high gear with what he called “Holy Ghost imagination.”
“What a mighty God we serve,” said Brown as he began. “I want to see Jesus. Our ultimate desire is to see Jesus for ourselves.”
Taking his text from the Gospel of Luke — the account of tax collector Zacchaeus who climbed into a tree to see Christ over the crowds, Brown touched on stories from the Gospels; Water turned into wine at a marriage feast; a bleeding woman healed; a man named Lazarus raised from the dead, and back to Zacchaeus who “sought to see who Jesus was” (Luke 19:3).
Staff Photo by Herb Nygren Jr.
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly producer Phil O’Conner (left) stands by his cameraman as the PBS crew tapes a follow up to their August segment on David Brown. The segment, written by correspondent Lucky Severson, was seen by Dr. John Robbins, senior pastor at Marvin.
Moving deliberately from the pulpit to the sanctuary floor while speaking, Brown sat in two chairs and “imagined” a one-on-one conversation between Zacchaeus and Christ. Speaking in rhythmic cadences similar to sanctified “rap” verse, Brown gained momentum as “Zacchaeus” offered excuse after excuse to Jesus why he could not “give his all.”
“I’m the president of the Rotary and I don’t have time,” said Zacchaeus to Christ. Changing chairs, “Jesus” replied, “I can see I’m not getting through to you, Zacchaeus. I can see you don’t understand.”
Perhaps most remarkable were the looks of a thousand attentive or enthralled faces; the singular expressions of witnessing something not perceived beforehand. The old, old Bible stories became new, some said afterward as they filed out.
“He made the Bible come alive,” said Connie Seale. “It was great to see his enthusiasm.”
“I’ve never head anything like this,” said Gaye Schoenburn, a 10-year member at Marvin. “I was ready to hear it, though.”
Tom Russell, a 20-year member, said, “This was really interesting and different. I’ve haven’t seen anything like it before.”
Robbins reiterated what he had said about Brown. “This is a man I’d like to have as my own pastor. Pastors don’t have pastors, but I’d choose him.”
The offering plate that went to Brown that night was “piled with money,” said Billy Hibbs Jr.
HISTORIC EVENT
The black community did not turn out in great numbers to see Rev. Brown. There may have been less than five of them in the sanctuary. One of them was former County Commissioner Andrew Mellontree.
“This was an historic event,” said Mellontree, who attends Miles Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. “I wanted to get to know this man, who has such a commitment to the Lord.”
Sitting quietly on the side of the sanctuary was Joy Everhart, 69, of Englewood Church of God in Christ.
“I read about Rev. Brown coming about an hour ago in the paper,” she said just before the service started. “I just had to come out and see him.”
From where Ms. Everhart sat, the only other blacks visible were Brown and his wife, Gwendolyn. She was not uncomfortable about it, she said.
“I go to all kinds of churches and hear all kinds of speakers,” she said. “This is fine.”
Perhaps it was just as well. A cross-cultural American experience was taking place. The more people unfamiliar with the power and perceptions the black community has experienced for years, was good. That’s one reason Robbins took a chance to invite Brown to speak. He wasn’t sure how many people would come, he said a week before the meeting.
“I’d like to pack this place like for Christmas and Easter,” he said in an interview last week. “It’s inconceivable that we do anything in Tyler separately anymore. We wouldn’t stand for racial separation in the schools, civic or sporting events or even at the mall. But church is something else. It’s often separated along racial lines. We have to change that.”
Standing in front of the packed church before the meeting, he told the Tyler Paper, “I’m busting my buttons with pride for this church. I hoped and expected it would be this way.”
It may be that Wednesday’s meeting will help to make the changes Robbins hopes for. A door seemed to open at Marvin United Methodist Church at this “historic” meeting of cultures, where one race met another in unity of purpose, spirit and desire. The realization of what one has to offer the other and how long it’s been denied, may be the most lasting impression Brown made.
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