PASSING OF A SPIRITUAL GIANT PASTOR REV. DR. RICHMOND BROWN
I am saddened to share with you the news of the passing of Rev. Dr. Richmond Brown, Organizer and Pastor for 55 years of the Holy Light Missionary Baptist Church.
He was greatly loved but God loved him best!! God has moved, and lets continue to praise Him for his goodness to us all.
I served under his leadership for 35 of those 55 years and his ministry made a lasting impression on my life. He was truly a faithful man of God whose strength was in his ability to deliver and teach God’s word in a great and mighty way. He was a giant not in stature but in heart. Throughout the years, I’ve learned that though small is a physical state, it doesn’t have to be the state of the heart. I love that David from the Old Testament, (whose height is not mentioned as Goliath’s is, so he obviously wasn’t outstanding in the inches department) was considered by God as the man to rid the kingdom of a giant problem. God bypasses how we look or sound, or how rich or beautiful we are, and zeroes directly into the heart.
And some hearts are BIG. It’s the big-hearted people who get things done. It’s the big-hearted people who have the capacity to reach into other people’s lives and bring love. It’s the big-hearted people who care enough to make the difference without worrying who gets the credit. Big-hearted people build the Kingdom of God in the smallest and darkest of places. Pastor Brown was one of the big hearted people as pastors truly should be.
I learned so much from him, from the moment I first joined Holy Light sitting in his bible study class and just be amazed about his thorough knowledge of scripture. Even in his long illness where his short term memory had declined, he still remembered bible scriptures, still new the church covenant by memory. That all goes back to what is in a man’s heart. I have been able to attend bible schools and get degrees but I learned more from Pastor Brown about the word of God than I learned in any college classroom. Only God could take a man with a limited education and make him a giant in the Christian realm.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
How blessed I am to have had something that makes saying farewell so hard. Let’s not cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. To My Brother, Mentor, Friend and Pastor.
LOVE IS ACTION!! AMEN LIGHT BULB!!
This is not Goodbye. I’ll see you again on the other side. Please continue to pray for Sister Opal Brown and the rest of the family.
HOMEGOING CELEBRATION ARRANGEMENTS
MARCH 27, 2015 (FRIDAY)
VIEWING
Place: Holy Light Missionary Baptist Church
Time: 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
WAKE SERVICE
Place: Holy Light Missionary Baptist Church
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
MAR 28, 2015 (SATURDAY)
HOMEGOING CELEBRATION SERVICE
Place: Faithful Central Bible Church (400 West Florence Avenue, Inglewood, CA)
Time: 10:00 am
INTERMENT
Place: Inglewood Park Cemetery (720 E Florence Ave, Inglewood, CA 90302)
REPAST
Holy Light MBC following the Services