St. Mark celebrates 20th anniversary of its beloved pastor

ST. PETERSBURG — The apostle Paul in 1Thessalonians 5:12-13, wrote: “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.”

Paul was in fact speaking to believers about honoring and esteeming the man of God who gives his very heart and soul to us as his congregational flock, that we as believers should allow ourselves to be guided in obedience as has been proclaimed by the Lord. We as contemporary believers are out to honor God’s man and likewise overwhelm him with appreciation and love.

As we come together as one body in this season of anniversary, we his church family approach this time as our opportunity to overwhelm the Reverend Brian K. Brown, our beloved pastor with our genuine love and appreciation of the services he has rendered unto us as the under- shepherd of his home church, St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church.

Our anniversary theme is “A Pastor with a Heart to Serve” (2 Chronicles 31:21). We know without a doubt that our beloved pastor has a true servant heart for his local church and the larger community.

We are thankful to our God that He has equipped the man, Pastor Brown, to labor in ministry for these past 20 years, not only personally growing in Godly knowledge and wisdom, but imparting the same to the flock of his beloved congregation through teaching and preaching the gospel message, not according to his personal philosophy but according to the truth as proclaimed in the written word of God.

Since becoming the sixth pastor, we have witness this young man become a seasoned man of God, growing in integrity, wisdom and more committed to the proclamation of God’s Holy Word. As living proof, the flock has grown by more than 400 members under his tenure.

Because he has instructed us to show the love of God to all whom we meet, we humbly agree to share our joy with the entire community. Twenty years of dedicated, Godly service is not something you keep quiet about; you share it so that others can come to be fed the Gospel message by a humble servant of God.

We the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church family extends the invitation for the wider community to share in the service of love for our pastor next Sun., June 14. We are located at 1301 37th St. S., St Petersburg.