Pastor Dave Brown

Having followed politics for a long time, and seen how the 2000 US presidential election unfolded, I've always had a bit of an 'issue' with Americans. Despite having American cousins, listening to American music and so on, I've seen the country as arrogant, insular and narrow-minded. Christianity in the USA certainly plays a much bigger role in politics than in the UK. High profile Christian leaders in the US always seemed to align themselves with the Republicans when I instinctively sympathized with the Democrats. So when I became a Christian and first started attending Grace Baptist Church (GBC), led by an American, some of my inbuilt preconceptions / prejudices began to be challenged.

First of all, Dave Brown didn't seem to fit the mould I had prepared for him! He was open, honest, humble and much more open to the world than I had expected. His sermons were very practical and inspirational, and not full of an American / Republican world view. As it turned out from private conversations, he was a Republican but I had been so impressed by his character and integrity by that point that I didn't care anymore! I still couldn't understand why anyone in their right mind would support George Bush, but my growing Christian faith was teaching me about things that were infinitely more important than him!

Dave Brown played a huge part in encouraging my spiritual growth, more than he will ever know. I loved his teaching, found him incredibly easy to talk to and saw complete integrity in him. He lived his life without any kind of mask: we knew his wife and his children, we knew his strengths and his weaknesses. As our pastor, he gave Joelle and me our pre-marital counselling, which was short and very to the point. I'll never forget the second session, which took place in the Browns' appartment. Dave was taking us through how to resolve a marital dispute, but he kept on having to get up and order one of the Brown kids back into bed. With four children, family life always seemed a bit hectic for the Browns, but Dave's (and his wife Terrie's) devotion to the children and family was obvious; it ultimately led to his leaving GBC in late 2006.

A church should never be dominated by a single personality, but when combined congregations of 500~600 only have one pastor (and he's quite charismatic) it's inevitable. When he moved on in December 2006 he left quite a big void. It's great that he and his family returned to Taiwan and started a new church in Taipei (Living Springs Church). I look forward to visiting it one day!