Stepping out into the vision! This is what Pastor Henry Eustace Browne and his New Life Ministries Church are doing. The vision begins with the Cathedral followed by a school about to be opened, and will be followed by a hospital and a bank and other commercial activities. There is also the residence at Happy Acres, which some described as palatial, but which accommodates overseas guests of the church and where the children of the members of his church can go to swim and play basketball among other activities.
The idea, Pastor Browne and his wife Donna said in an interview with Current Affairs is for the church to be a blessing to the nation and to its members. According to Pastor Brown, before he got into the ministry and in time of prayer and preparation for the Lord, the vision came to his heart relating to the next season in his life. "Which is like being a blessing whether (it is to) a village, a city or a nation. Getting into business so you can employ people and all these areas that the vision of the Lord laid upon me is basically to be a blessing to people. And as the ministry began to grow in me you see clearly the avenue whereby the vision can become a reality by working together with people in the church and outside the church."
Faith
Pastor Browne says that he has started all his projects by stepping out in faith. Donna Browne explained that it is not a matter of stepping out blindly but having something which the Lord can work with. "It can be a little amount because God works with what you have."
Donna Browne explained that we decided to build the church "we were looking for costing $25 million and we only had a $1 million in the bank" But she said that people kept giving and pledging and they kept working with what they had.
The New Life Ministeries Catherdral, Queens Town
The Cathedral
The cathedral, opened in December 2000, is the first element of the vision and was built according to Pastor Brown by faith and gives "a joy and makes us happy". Donna Browne recalls the torment of knowing that there were bills to meet and wages to be paid and not knowing where the money will come from to meet the expenses. "Sometimes a member comes and says that the Lord says that I should give you this $60000."
She recalled too the travails of dealing with contractors, particularly those like the one who was to install the air conditioning that backed away when he guessed that they hadn't a deep pocket.
She says that they changed a number of contractors with Pastor Browne ending up as the contractor. "When we opened this building the front doors weren't even on. It was just hooked on. Nobody ever knew because the men walked off (the job) because they felt that they had us at a point where they could squeeze us and we said no. They wanted to call all sort of exorbitant prices."
We trusted God and for about two weeks people had to sleep in the church just behind the doors, she recalled. But, she said with a tinge of amusement that one night while they were sleeping behind the front door thieves entered through the back and carried away a quantity of paint.
She recalled that at times they wrote cheques by faith but thankfully none ever bounced. Also she said that they managed to obtain some of the materials on credit and thankfully were able to make the payments on time. Where they needed an extension of time to pay, they never shrank from asking for it As a consequence Pastor Browne said the Church has established a reputation for paying its debts on time and would have no difficulty getting credit should the need arise.
So Donna Browne says there were pain and discomfort and anxiety but you feel a sense of gladness about the achievement, which is soon forgotten if a member comes with some problem that needs urgent attention.
So we can teach people about doing things in faith. However, she cautions, faith without works is dead. "Don't say you have faith and you are not doing anything except saying you are praying to God for money and not venturing out."
She stressed that you have to stretch your faith. "The Bible says God has given to every man a measure of faith. But your little measure can grow once you stretch it. Your faith is like a rubber band - the more it is stretched it is the more that you can use."
Moreover she says God will never give you a project that you can handle. He always gives you something bigger than you can handle so that you will need his assistance so that He can be glorified through you."
New Life Ministries School
He said too that having accomplished the building of the cathedral, the next move is to educate the people both spiritually and secularly "because we want to get more into the community and more involved in the nation. We understand that education is very, very important because knowledge is power. So the first drive is for a school and then we are looking ahead to building a hospital and then next we want to get into commerce. We really want to be a blessing."
The school, which will offer classes at both the primary and secondary levels, will be housed temporarily at 230 Almond Street. A member of the church has made this building available until the school is constructed. The school is to be built on a plot of land the school has bought at the corner of Crown and Albert Streets. However, building permission has the project stalled but Pastor Brown says "We are trusting God that it will be ready for January." About the building permission Pastor Browne says "We have been locked there for months running round and round in circles hoping to get the OK. I would have thought the government would have been eager to support the church in a venture like this which would provide children not only with an education but provide jobs as well."
With the school coming on stream, he says that there are lots of applications for work at the school even for work as cleaners and he says it would be a joy to himself and wife and the church family to really be a blessing to the people whereby they could be a blessing to their homes and to their communities and their village.
"So with the school in operation, having people being blessed (and) employed, it will be a tremendous blessing. So it is not only rearing the children with the right morals and a sound academic education but you would find that people will be employed too, even the parents of some of the very children attending the school"
For Pastor Browne's wife, the school and the knowledge that will be imparted there is very important. "Years ago people tended to think that you only serve God and you don't worry about education. You have to let them know that there must be a balance. You can have both"
She explained that being a Christian does not mean you do not have to make an effort to help yourself as the Lord cannot provide if you don't have a skill and she cited the parable of talents focusing on the servant who hid his talent and whom the Lord described as wicked for doing so. "So when we don't utilise the ability God has given us we are termed as wicked because we must bring forth profit."
She said too that Christians also have to decide what is faith and what is foolishness, explaining that some are living by presumption - giving up their jobs and saying that the Lord will provide. She explains too that if you have a good education and you do not have proper morals a person's future could be blighted. So the church needs to touch every area of life. She says that we have to teach people how to think since as a man thinketh in his heart so he is. "So if you have a poor outlook towards life regardless of what education you have or how strong your God is you can still be messed up."
The early days
Pastor Browne explained that his ministry started at his then home at 128 A Carmichael Street and because of the blessing those who attended the prayer meetings received the gathering was soon too large to comfortably accommodate at his home. "At the prayer meetings some were getting blessed; some were getting healed; some were getting a word of direction - a prophetic word that was a blessing. So they flocked the house. So it is not that we had to fight to get this thing started. It just burst forth."
This prompted a move to Park Hotel on Main Street where he and his wife Donna, also a pastor, rented one of the conference rooms to hold services. These facilities after about six months soon became inadequate and they moved to Bently's building at Forshaw and Oronoque Streets, from where they moved to the Cathedral.
The call
The Brownes have been married for twenty years come December and have three children two girls and a boy. All are doing well academically. The youngest child will be attending Queen's College when the school term begins next month. The eldest child, a girl, was successful at her CXEs and is taking some time off studying and the middle child, a boy, is awaiting his results from the CAPE. He will be following his father into the ministry, a prospect that swells his father's heart with joy and pride.
The death of their first child was the turning point in their lives. Pastor Browne before taking up the ministry was a fairly successful businessman. He came from a family of businessmen. His father Fitzalbert Browne had a cattle business and owned a number of butcher stalls in the Stabroek Market, a brother still operates one there. But the Christian influence was also there as his father conducted the choir at the Ketley Church.
Donna Browne recalls that they were doing well, had their own home but the death of their child made them reassess their lives and gave them over to the Lord. But she says that her husband still felt that he could be both a pastor and a businessman and because there was not the balance the business went down. He felt that it was sign and he gave himself over to the ministry full time. Pastor Browne says that he spent three years at the Assemblies of God Bible School and considers Pastor John Smith as his mentor. "We have a father and son relationship." After finishing Bible School, Pastor Browne says that he spent four years undergoing pastoral training in California and part of that training included "pastoring" a church.