REV. EARL BROWN
Assistant Pastor

Born in East Rochester, New York on June 28, 1947, Earl spent his youth in Syracuse, New York until receiving a "Greeting" from Uncle Sam. Getting a jump on the draft, he joined the army and took both the basic and advanced courses in medical technology.

He served at Madigan General Hospital in Tacoma, Washington and then at the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Cu Chi, Vietnam.

Earl pursued medical technology after an honorable discharge from the military in 1970. He jumped at an opportunity to matriculate at Eastern Baptist College in St. David's, Pennsylvania where he studied the biological sciences and received his bachelor's degree in 1975. While in college, he met his future wife, Katharine (Liz) Hirst. They were married December 27, 1975 and have three children, Joshua, 27, Justin, 23 and Rebecca, 21. Joshua is married and living in New Jersey; Justin and Rebecca are attending college.

He was confirmed in the Presbyterian Church but sought for a church home in other denominations. After many years of finding inconsistencies in teaching and doctrine, he became a "Christmas and Easter" Christian until he met Liz. She was confirmed in the LCA (Lutheran Church in America), and began attending services there. Shortly after Justin was born, they moved to an apartment that was located close to an LC-MS church in Blackwood, New Jersey. The preaching and teaching was purely Scriptural, with no picking and choosing or juggling of words to fit a preconceived notion. That became their church, and all of their children were confirmed there.

Liz and Earl spent all of their married life before attending seminary in New Jersey. He has been a medical technologist, owned a photo studio, and became an Administrative Authority for the implementation of state and federal safe drinking water regulations in Gloucester County, New Jersey. He served in that position for seventeen years before attending seminary.

In 1999, after two years of Saturday classes, Earl became a Certified Lay Minister in the New Jersey District of the LC-MS. In 2001 he was moved to apply for admission to Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was accepted for the beginning of the 2002 academic year. He completed the academic studies in 2004 and served as vicar at St. John's Lutheran Church in Kimball, Nebraska until 2005, then at St. John's Lutheran Church in Effingham, Illinois, where he was ordained and installed into the public ministry on June 25, 2006.