Welcome, to the pastor's page!  I am Jesse M. Brown, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Chicago, the oldest Baptist Church in the Chicago metropolitan area.  I attended Chicago public schools and graduated from Rezin Orr High School in 1968.  I completed two years of study at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1972.  I received my Master of Divinity from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois in 1977.  Currently, I am working on a Doctor of Ministry degree at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. 

 

Denominationally, I have served as the President of the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago (ABCMC).  I have also been on the Nueva Vida Chicago Committee, New Church Start Committee, Ordination Commission, Mission Partnership Committee and President of the Black Caucus.  I am member of the Camp Grow Board of ABCMC and its Camp Ministry Chairperson.  I served as the Senior High Camp Pastor at Camp Grow in Markesan, Wisconsin.

 

In 2008, I was a Peer Mentor for the National Youth Gathering of American Baptist Churches USA which met in Estes Park, Colorado.  I am on the National Planning Team for Immerse 2012 the National ABCUSA Youth Event.

 

My community commitments include, 4th Ward Minister's Council, Baptist Theological Union of the University of Chicago, Housing Bronzeville and Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL).

 

I have been teaching Sunday School since I was 19 years old, when my mother demanded that I help her with her Primary Sunday School Class.  Since those first experiences, I have taught education courses at the Baptist General State Congress of Christian Education of Illinois, lead Christian Education workshops locally and in Ghana, West Africa, and taught at the Chicago Baptist Institute since 1994.  I was also a part of a pastoral team that taught a one-day session of the Baptist Polity and Thought Class at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I have also been a presenter at the National Black Christian Education Conference in Columbus, OH., and at the American Baptist Churches USA Biennial in Richmond, Virginia.  In 2009, I was the Local Arrangements Chairperson for the Black Church Conference which met at the Holiday Inn, Matteson in November 3-7.

 

I have lead mission trips to Fairbanks, Alaska, Junction, Jamaica, Santiago, Cuba and Limon, Costa Rica.  Our church has partnered with our Baptist brothers and sisters to do Vacation Bible School for children and teens in each of these cities.

 

I was called in the ministry in 1972, and have been preaching ever since.  Our Lord has allowed me to preach in churches in the city and suburbs of Chicago,  guest lecturer for the Minnesota Baptist Convention, chapel speaker at Judson College, Franklin College and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I have preached at churches in Alaska, Ghana, Jamaica, Cuba and Limon, Costa Rica. 

 

For a significant portion of my pastorate, I worked for General Motors Acceptance Corporation as a Finance and Insurance Consultant, I retired in 1998.

  

I am married to Rev. Carol Jamieson Brown who is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Park Forest, IL.  Our daughter Jasmyne A. Brown works with children and youth at First Baptist, Park Forest, IL.