Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Browns Join Baptist Missionary Board

The Rev. Phillip C. Brown and Karen S. Hogan Brown have joined the nearly 4,200 Southern Baptist International Mission Board workers sharing Christ in 126 countries among 336 ethnic people groups.

The Browns were among 45 people appointed by the Internatinal Mission Board July 31 during a service at Glorieta (N.M.) Baptist Conference Center.

These missionaries are the first group appointed by the International Mission Board since changing its name from Foreign Mission Board in June.

The missionaries will fill diverse job assignments from starting churches to using student work, education and business as tools of ministry.

In 1996 International Mission Board missionaries helped lead 283,674 people to Christ and baptism. They and their overseas partners started 2,367 churches and reported a record 4.10 million members in 39,876 churches overseas.

As missionary associated the Browns will live in Senegal, where 92 percent of the population is Muslim. Baptist work in Senegal remains strong with new work among four unreached people groups as well as several ongoing human needs projects. He will start and develop churches and she will be involved in a variety of outreach ministries.

Since 1994 he has been a staff evangelist with Third Street Baptist Church in Arkadelphia. He also is co-founder and president of Brown Family Ministries Inc., president of Arkansas Baptist Evangelists, music director for Red River Baptist Association in Arkansas and associate pastor of New Hope Mission of Third Street Baptist Church.

Born in Gurdon, Phillip Brown is the son of Harvey and Marguerite Brown of Hot Springs. He also lived in Shreveport, La. He considers Gurdon his hometown and Third Street Baptist his home church. Bethlehem Baptist Church in Gurdon also influential in his Christian growth.

He was pastor of Calvery Baptist Church and staff evangelist for Pleasant Lane Baptist Church in Crossett. He also was owner and operator of Dove Conversion Cabinetry in Gurdon. He made four mission trips to Central America.

Born in Enid, Okla., Karen Brown is the daughter of Sue M. Hogan of Fort Worth, Texas, and Don L. Hogan of Snohomish, Wash. While growning up she lived in Altus, Okla.; Bedford,England; and Shreveport, La. She considers Enid her hometown and Third Street Baptist her home church. New Testament Baptist Church in Shreveport, New Hope Mission and Calvery Baptist Church in Crossett also were influential in her Christian growth.

Formerly she was the receptionist and secretary at Third Street Baptist Church. She was self-employed with home Transcribing Business in Hamgburg, and an office manager and bookkeepr at Leisure Lodge Nursing home Center, also in Hamburg. She made three mission trips with her husband to Centeral America.

The Browns, who have two grown children, will go to the International Mission Board's training center in Rockville, Va., in August for an eight- week orientation before leaving for overseas.

With more than 15.4 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest evangelical denomination in the United States, and the International Mission board is the largest evangelical missionary-sending agency.

A missionary associate is a person appointed for a renewable four- year term to do a particular job for which he or she is equipped by education and experience.