Coy and Jean Brown’s Story: Riches of the Gospel

“I didn’t have a megachurch, but I had a mega heart.”

For 40 years, Coy Brown was the pastor of Greater New Hope Baptist Church in the small, inner-city Oak Cliff community of Dallas with his wife, Jean, by his side. It was, and still is, a neighborhood marked by widespread poverty, but the Browns introduced people to the riches of the gospel and shared a message of hope against a backdrop of socioeconomic despair. They walked with their people through births, deaths, weddings, sickness and seasons of both sorrow and joy. “Through all of the years of pastoring, I wouldn’t change them. I wouldn’t change the suffering. I wouldn’t change the happiness. I wouldn’t change anything about it.”

When it came time to retire in 2011, Coy and Jean found themselves at a crossroads. The modest retirement account that had been set aside with GuideStone^® by their church was depleted in just three years. Fortunately, the Browns heard about Mission:Dignity and were approved for a financial grant.

The Browns recently wrote to us, “Sometimes, our food gets low, but we make it. Our finances run tight from month to month, but we make ends meet by the help of God.” Mission:Dignity is one way God is helping Coy and Jean Brown today. The check they receive each month not only allows them to buy groceries but also assures them of God’s love and care for them through their Southern Baptist family — brothers and sisters in churches large and small, whose gifts make this ministry possible.