Servant Leader Series: Stephen Brown

Stephen is currently serving his second year as Sunday School Servant Leader. Last year he was only responsible for youth Sunday School, but this year he is also responsible for adult Sunday School. The role of this position is to plan the curriculums for the adult and youth Sunday School classes, and make sure there are capable teachers for all classes. Before looking further into his role, here is a brief introduction of himself.

Stephen Brown volunteers for Habitat for Humanity last Summer

Stephen Brown comes from a semi-Christian home and has been a believer of Christ all his life, but a follower of Christ for only about 5 1/2 years. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Philosophy and a minor in Christian Theology from the University of Alberta, and has been working full-time as a self-employed home renovations contractor for about a year working with his father. He enjoys debating philosophy and theology, and frequently spends too much time doing so online. He sees his role as his personal ministry, where he defends the faith to challenge Christians to have good answers and non-Christians to be seekers of truth. He is competitive in nature, and love to play sports and video games. According to how he views his faults, Stephen is "humble enough to admit that I'm arrogant enough to claim that I'm smart enough to know how humble I am."

For 2008, Stephen would like to rework the youth Sunday School curriculum. It is currently a three-year repeating curriculum, which is in its third year of operation. He would like to go to a six-year curriculum with more focus on Bible study over topical lessons. The goal is to provide a curriculum that will teach the majority of the Bible throughout the six years, but with the important points of the Gospel covered in every year so that newcomers will not be neglected. For the adult Sunday School, he would provide courses on a variety of topics that are of interest to our adults (input is always welcome), as well as a systematic Bible-study based curriculum. In the process is trying out an eight-year curriculum that goes through the whole Bible; this class will be continuous. Additional 4-12 week classes will be offered according to availability of teachers and the needs of the congregation, with occasional seminars by lecturers from outside ECBC.

The 2009 theme, "Growing in Christ" is perfectly suited to the Sunday School ministry, as growth in Christ is the main focus of the Sunday School ministry. In this role, Stephen hopes to help equip believers with biblical knowledge that will help them grow closer to God and that will help them be strong witnesses to others; boldly proclaiming the reason for the hope that they have (1 Peter 3:15).

Stephen and wife Carla Brown

If he could swap his role with another servant leader, he says that he "wouldn't take any other position than the one [he has] because [he] would do them poorly." Serving in the past has given me a deeper appreciation for those who make ECBC run. A lot of hard work goes into running the church, and he observes that most of it is unseen.

Because Stephen is teaching on Sundays, he misses the adult Sunday School classes in general. But on the other hand, he says, teaching the high school Sunday School class is very rewarding. He finds that he learns just as much through teaching Sunday School as he did by attending Sunday School. In addition, he finds this very encouraging to see the spiritual growth of our youth.

As a passage that best describes his servant leader role, Stephen gives out a verse from 1 Peter 3:15, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Concluding his comments, he rephrases Phillippians 4:8, "Whatever is awesome, think of such things."