David Brown

My family did not attend church when I was a child. I attended a couple of different churches with other families. After moving to the Sacramento area in 1962, my family started attending Florin First Southern Baptist church in the town of Florin, California. At the age of 12, I made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized in that church.

As I grew older, there were views within the Southern Baptist church that were difficult for me. I attended several other congregations as a young man before going into the military in 1969, grappling with various issues of my faith.

After being discharged from the military, I was married and attended a small Disciples of Christ church in Long Beach. A year later, God saved my life during a fall that broke my back in two places. However, instead of thanking and praising God for this life-saving gift, I turned to a drug habit acquired in the military to try and ease the chronic pain on my own.

Fast-forward ten years through the birth of a son and daughter, a miserable divorce, and a broken man. My life was in a tailspin and I withdrew from almost everyone and everything, trying hard to stay involved with my children but avoiding the rest of the world.

Then, God sent a woman into my life, Elizabeth. She showed me patience, kindness, and love. I had been broken by my first marriage and didn’t really want a new relationship, seeing it only as a way to pain and heartache. But, through a tumultuous seven-year courting relationship, this lovely woman allowed me the time and space to resolve my grief and eventually consented to marry me.

Through these later experiences, my walk with God was occasionally reading my Bible. I didn’t feel the call to a church. I felt too dirty from my walk apart from God. As I have subsequently learned, God will step out of the way when you don’t want to relinquish control, and that is just where I was in my life.

After our marriage, Elizabeth and I bought a home in Elk Grove. She visited a small Presbyterian church within walking distance of our home. I felt compelled to join her in visiting this church. We fell in love with this church and its congregation, only to find out that it was being forced into closure within six months by the ruling Presbytery. We decided to join this congregation, even given the impending closure. This started a two-year experience with home church and a deepening and lasting friendship with the pastor, David Sharp and his wife, Linda.

Elizabeth and I started looking for another church, once our home church dissolved. We struggled with the different denominations and doctrinal belief systems of various churches throughout Elk Grove and the surrounding area. I became very frustrated and eventually gave up looking, while my wife continued.

During this period, I had grown stronger in my faith, but had never really made that transitional step to walking by faith in Jesus Christ. One evening, I was alone, driving home from a friend’s home and had a distinct impression. It came to me that, “you profess to be a Christian, but you don’t walk with me”. I drove on for a while, but this thought/impression kept returning to me. Eventually, this became so strong in me that I pulled over to the side of the road and decided to have it out with God. I let loose with everything: my hurts, my fears, the last thirty years of pain, and all the rest. And, through all the tears and anger, I kept hearing the same thing, “you profess to be a Christian, but you don’t walk with me”. I finally realized it was time to listen instead of being angry. That night, I committed my life to walking by faith in all things with my Lord, Jesus Christ. And, I know that He has faithfully walked along side me since. That night was in September of 2000.

I didn’t relate this experience to my wife, at the time. We were having difficulties in our marriage. A couple of years later she was seeking professional help for some personal issues and through a series of events, was brought to Antioch Progressive Church, in Sacramento, California, meeting with Reverend Odom (III) and Sister Azalea Mosely. A year later, we started to regularly attend services at Antioch, subsequently sought membership with this body of believers, and have both continued to grow in our Christian walk and faith.

Since that fateful drive, my life has turned to a very different course. I have felt a much greater calm and peace in my life, by turning over everything in prayer to God. Life hasn’t been perfect and I’ve stumbled on occasion. I have come to understand that my chronic pain is a reminder from God for my lack of trust and faith. As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, it is my ‘thorn in the flesh’ to keep me humbled and in prayer and it is in Christ that I have found sufficient grace. Today, I understand that my place is on my knees, praising and thanking God for His many great works in my church, my family, my wife, and myself.