Remembering Pastor Keith Brown

Yesterday, I attended the funeral service of Pastor Keith Brown (23^rd August 1947 – 28^th April 2023) (see here for details) as I wanted to pay my respects and after which to use these pages to offer my own tribute. I did not know Pastor Keith very well, although it was over a period of many years I did know him.

Our meetings have been few and our more recent exchanges have been over social media. In particular, his Facebook page carried a series: “DON’T LET THESE OLD HYMNS DIE”, where he provided the lyrics to old hymns once often sung in churches but a lot less so these days, along with background information about the hymns and his reasons for posting. The two last posts on this subject were “HE HIDETH MY SOUL” and “DEAR LORD AND FATHER OF MANKIND”, both of which I can claim as personal favourites.

As some readers know, I have had a lifelong association with Coleman Street Chapel (Gospel Hall). What may not be so well known is there were two Evangelical churches (at the low end of the market) in close proximity: Southend Evangelical Church and Southend Seaside Gospel Mission, which some time ago was renamed Southend Full Gospel Church and, as I found out yesterday, Keith has been its Pastor since 1985. I would say, relationships between the churches were cordial but not close.

While we both saw preaching the unadulterated Gospel message to be the priority, I suspect there was much Pastor Keith and I would have disagreed on. The Covid (pan or scam depending on one’s perspective) demic and when in God’s timetable the Rapture of the Church will take place spring to mind, but I found in my dealings with him that he was gracious and, importantly, he was the real deal when it came to practising what he preached. A good example of this was his last sermon titled: “Strength in Weakness”, where he gave a moving testimony of how God had acted in his own life.

I suppose if he had a particular “thing” and something he often preached and expounded on, it would have been the Second Coming of the Lord, with several examples provided on the Southend Full Gospel Church website. It was notable that three of the hymns sung during the service all were to do that blessed hope that Christian believers share regarding the Lord’s glorious return. When it comes to singing, not only did Pastor Keith love the old hymns but he loved to sing them too and it was appropriate that at the end of the service a tape was played of him singing some old hymns.

The service, which was attended by many from his large family, provided a fitting tribute, with as is usually the case on such occasions a lot coming out about the deceased, particularly in Keith’s case as a devoted father, grandfather and husband. It was also appropriate, given Keith’s particular preaching interests, that the text preached on was 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I am sure he would have wanted to add his own hearty Amen to the final words of this text: “comfort one another with these words”.