Bishop Henry Levi Brown is the founder and Pastor of the First Trinity Church of God in Christ-Fridley, Minnesota. Since 1976, he has successfully pastored the church which had become a landmark in the Selby-Dale area of St. Paul. There are few in the community who do not know of or whose lives have not been touched by “The church on the corner of Marshall and Chatsworth.”

 

Bishop Brown is a Graduate of Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas with a major in Mathematics and minor in Economics. He is very proud of his Southern upbringing. The son of native Texans who loved farming and ranching, Bishop Brown still loves the things he enjoyed in his childhood.

 

First Trinity Church of God in Christ started in the Whittier Community Park Building in South Minneapolis, where services were held from September 1976 until April 1978 when the congregation purchased the church building at 981 Marshall Avenue in St. Paul, Minnesota. In March 2018, the congregation sold the building on Marshall Avenue to Fridley, MN, where the ministry is still impacting lives.

​

In his early years he was employed as a Senior Systems Analyst for the Control Data Corporation. Bishop Brown enjoyed a fruitful career in the computer arena but later left to pastor the church full-time. He knew then that he needed more training as pertaining to ministry.

 

So, he did coursework at different colleges and always put his training to work. Bishop Brown loves to read and has a special quest for more knowledge and received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from Concordia College in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is quite an accomplishment for Pastor who is always busy with one project or another.

 

Since the days of the Model Cities Programs in Minnesota, he has worked within his community and feels that the church should be the greatest community source/resource of all. It is the place where community meets Jesus Christ. First Trinity Church of God in Christ is a church with a big heart and a winning mission's program. Bishop Brown has a servant’s heart. Service is what makes him smile (and he is always smiling). The more he gives, the more he wants to give, and he is always thinking of ways to make things better. It is just in him to be progressive.

 

Having served on the Board of Directors of the St. Paul Council of Churches, he is a minister’s friend. Whatever he can do to assist the work – he does. Always encouraging and inspiring the members of clergy to continue in the work. “The work is too great, we cannot come down, we must build.”

 

For 30 years of his Ministerial Career, he served as the Superintendent of the Capitol City District Churches in St. Paul, Minnesota where he built the district to the largest in Minnesota. Bishop Brown is a very smart and innovative man who like the eagle meets challenges head on with supernatural strength. He is a quiet, humble, meek man who loves people and is fascinated by unusual tasks. He thinks that everything in doable and is fascinated by the “improbable”, stating that the “improbable just takes a little longer”. He often states, “The world has yet to see what the Lord can do with one man that is totally committed to him”, a quote by D. L. Moody.

 

In January 2009, Bishop Brown started the Minnesota Second Ecclesiastical Fellowship, a COGIC fellowship under the covering of the Wisconsin First Jurisdiction. He served under General Board Member, Bishop Sedgewick Daniels, as Overseer for this great body of churches for 15 years and is excited about what God accomplished through the Fellowship, also known as, “MN 2nd”.

After the passing of Bishop Daniels, Bishop Brown remained in the Wisconsin First Jurisdiction, but in 2024 decided to release the Minnesota Second Fellowship and join together with Administrative Assistant, Apostle DeWayne Hill and the Wisconsin First-MN District. This union is under the leadership of General Board Member, Bishop Darrell L. Hines, Jurisdictional Bishop of the Wisconsin First Jurisdiction. 

 

Over the years, Bishop Brown has served in many different capacities in the church and excels in them all. He often quotes Jeremiah in saying “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, or the strong man glory in his might, or the rich man glory in his riches, but, let him that glorieth, glory in this that they understand and know me, for I am the Lord who exercise judgment and righteousness in the earth. In these things I delight.”

Bishop Brown is married to his high school sweetheart and wife of 61 years, Evangelist Donna Gale Brown. She is a gracious lady, and a true Proverbs 31 woman. She is also an anointed prayer warrior, and founder of the Interfaith Prayer Network. He is the father of one, Evangelist Kimberly Brown Massenburg, the grandfather of five, and great-grandfather of three.

 

Bishop Brown's character and integrity come from his southern upbringing. He gives credit to God and his parents, Deacon Fred and Mother Mary Brown for teaching him the ways of the Lord. He now declares that “I am all of these things, rich, wise and strong because God has touched my life and caused me to strive to be more like Jesus and continue the work that he has called me to do. “What a blessed man I am, to be able to serve!”