Our Pastor

Our pastor, Dr. Renè F. Brown, is a native of Newellton, Louisiana.  He was licensed to preach on April 9, 1990 by the Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church of Newellton, Louisiana under the leadership of the late Dr. C.R. Redden. He was ordained by the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas on August 18, 1995, under the leadership of Dr. W.L. Templeton.  Pastor Brown was 30 years old when he became the thirty-first pastor of Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church. He served Ninth Street for 13 years.

Pastor Brown received his Bachelor of Science degree in Plant and Soil Science in 1987 from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and completed his graduate work in Crop Physiology in 1989 at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.  He accepted a position with the E.I. Dupont Company in 1989 as a marketing representative, until he resigned in 2001 to be full time pastor at Ninth Street.  While working for Dupont, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology on May 20, 1991, from Western Baptist Bible College in Kansas City, Missouri.  He also completed his Master’s of Divinity degree in Biblical Interpretation from Central Baptist Theological Seminary, May 18, 1996.  Pastor Brown also received his Doctor of Ministry degree in Church Administration May 11, 2002 from Virginia Union University, in Richmond, Virginia.

While in Kansas, Pastor Brown was very active in the Lawrence community. He was a member of the Lawrence NAACP, Chaplain for the Douglas County Jail Juvenile Detention Center, and the Lawrence Memorial Hospital.  He has served with the Citizen’s Review Board and the Judicial Review Board.  He has served as instructor, board member, and officer of the Kaw Valley District Association, and Missionary Baptist State Convention of Kansas.           Pastor Brown has also served as the treasurer for the Missionary Baptist State Congress of Christian Education.  He served as Dean of the Western Baptist Bible College in Topeka, Kansas and chaplain of the Ecumenical Fellowship.  Pastor Brown served as first Vice President of the Missionary Baptist State Convention of Kansas.  He was also an adjunct professor of Religious Studies for the African and African-American Studies Department and visiting professor in the Journalism Department at the University of Kansas. He also served as a Chaplain and mentor and for the University of Kansas football team.

In April of 2007, Pastor Brown became the eighth pastor of  the 152 year old Mount Zion First Baptist Church. Lead by the Holy Spirit, Pastor Brown began to redirect the church’s focus towards family, introducing Men’s, Women’s, Senior’s, Single’s, Couple’s, and College Ministries.  He also brought with him the Church’s current theme, “Opening their Understanding, Boasting in the Cross”.

Pastor Brown currently serves as the director of the Pastor’s Division of the Fourth District Missionary Baptist Association, secretary of the T.J. Jemison Baptist Student Union Board, and he is also a member of the Board of Leland College.

Pastor Brown is married to the former Diana Lyn Nelson.  They have two sons, Antonio Terrell and Torrey Renè.  Pastor’s greatest and most humbling accomplishment is to have Antonio attending his alma mater and playing in the Southern University Marching Band some 26 years later.  His favorite past-time is raising and showing American Quarter Horses in cutting events in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

Meet Our First Lady

First Lady Diana Brown