Dr. Rene F. Brown Delivers Final Chapel Message of Fall Semester Nov. 18

November 18, 2020

Dr. Rene F. Brown, pastor of Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, delivered OBU’s online chapel address Nov. 18. The service marked the final chapel for the fall 2020 semester. Brown delivered the virtual chapel message from his office in Baton Rouge.

Brown discussed wisdom, elaborating on the theme for the fall chapel series, “Christ, the Wisdom of God.”

“As we think about wisdom in this day in time, when traditions are being changed and religious trappings are being thrusted out of the window,” he said, “when fake news is the agenda of the day, where church is done virtually, when schools and bars are open but churches are closed, where evangelicals are saying one thing and mainline denominations are saying something else, it makes one think.”

Brown noted there are four ways of looking at wisdom: higher wisdom, lower wisdom, worldly wisdom and spiritual wisdom.

“Christ does have the wisdom of God, he has both lower wisdom and he has higher wisdom. He has worldly wisdom, but he also has spiritual wisdom.”

Brown suggests that when we say, “Christ the wisdom of God,” we are suggesting that Christ possesses godly wisdom. Brown goes on to share a passage of scripture from Mark 6.

“Ministry in this season, not just because of COVID-19, but ministry can be life threatening, ministry can be difficult, and you have to exercise wisdom in order to protect yourself, but at the same time, to be able to carry out the mission and the work of Christ.”

Brown closed by challenging OBU students to understand what the Bible says so they can share what God thinks instead of simply sharing their own personal views.

Aside from being a pastor at Mount Zion Baptist Church, Dr. Brown leads the Fourth District Missionary Baptist Association of Louisiana, where he is president and moderator. The Association represents over 200 Missionary Baptist churches across six parishes in south Louisiana. The Association is the largest group of African-American Missionary Baptist congregations in the National Baptist Convention USA.

Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts in theology at Western Baptist Bible College in Kansas City, Missouri; a Master of Divinity in biblical interpretation at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kansas; and a Doctor of Ministry in church administration at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Prior to his call to full-time ministry and his formal theological training, her earned a Bachelor of Science in plant and soil science from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge as well as a Master of Science in plant pathology from LSU. He worked for many years as a marketing representative for DuPont, the fourth largest chemical company in the world at that time.