BROWN ON GREEN | Somewhere Between Tucker and New Edinburg

Every time a person is born, he or she becomes an extended part of two families. In my case, it was the Brown family centered in New Edinburg and the Richardson family centered in Tucker, both small towns in Arkansas about 60 miles apart.

I was blessed that my immediate family only lived an hour from both these communities, and growing up, we visited both sides of the family often. When we visited the Browns, the conversations I overheard were more serious—mostly about the work my dad’s brothers and sisters were doing. The Browns were more goal-oriented and set on accomplishing things. I learned hard work is important, and I also inherited a Free Will Baptist history dating back more than 125 years.

Mom’s family, the Richardsons, were more about relationships. Conversations revolved around how family members were doing, and anyone hurting was encouraged. They always wanted to have fun, and the house echoed with laughter. Please understand, I’m not implying the Browns didn’t like to laugh and have fun or the Richardsons didn’t work hard, but these were the differences I observed at family gatherings.

I have been influenced by both families to balance serious hard work with the importance of caring about people, building relationships, and enjoying laughter in my life. As the director of the Foundation, I quickly learned a big part of my job was traveling and getting to know my Free Will Baptist family. Sometimes, my job involves hard work, but it is about building relationships.

Growing the Foundation has been hard work, but I quickly realized the reason I wanted to work hard was not to brag about how big the Foundation has become but rather to bless our ministries.
Over the decades, as the Foundation assets have increased, we have been able to do more for ministries. We developed an estate planning ministry that will one day generate over $35 million for ministries. We developed a grant program that has given more than $4.4 million to various ministries over the last six years.

Having an effective ministry among Free Will Baptists includes the hard work of both building our asset base and developing relationships with individuals and ministries to learn how we can help them further the gospel.

During my early childhood in Malvern, Arkansas, it took about the same amount of time to travel to New Edinburg as it did to get to Tucker. Lately, I’ve also come to realize I have lived my life somewhere between the family characteristics of the Browns and the Richardsons.

Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad. I’m happy to live somewhere between Tucker and New Edinburg!

About the Columnist: David Brown is director of Free Will Baptist Foundation. To learn more,
visit www.fwbgifts.com.