Scott Wesley Brown, a singer-songwriter who was part of the early beginnings of contemporary Christian music, has spent his career ministering both in the U.S. and on the missions field.
Brown began releasing albums in 1974 and was part of the Jesus music revolution. However, after retiring from touring last year, he has a new focus — his three granddaughters. Two live in California and one lives close to Brown in Daphne, Alabama.
“For me, grandparenting has become my No. 1 missions field. Just seeing them come into a relationship with the Lord is the most precious thing I can imagine — just your own little grandkids.
“My daughters are both walking with the Lord and that excites me, but there’s something special about seeing that little grandkid get excited about Jesus. That’s my No. 1 prayer, No. 1 passion. We’ve done so much on the missions field but now the missions field is these sweet little granddaughters of ours,” Brown said.
‘Different world’
Brown has seen a lot of changes in contemporary Christian music since he started. The technical end is of much higher quality. State-of-the-art studios are readily available. There are a multitude of talented musicians in the field.
Some Christian artists today are rivals to those in secular music by playing in the same huge stadiums and having the same high numbers of records sold.
However, for Brown it was much simpler.
“For me, it was a little more grassroots. It was playing in a little more intimate settings. I did play some of the big Jesus Festivals back in the ‘70s and the early ‘80s and that was really exciting but, for the most part, it was just putting your stuff in your car and taking off.
“I kept always thinking this is a great way to share the gospel. I’m not saying that kids today who are starting off don’t have that passion, but it seems today it’s become a whole lot more commercialized.
“It was a whole different world back then,” he said.
Challenging times
Though an exciting time, it wasn’t without stressors. Brown would often have to remind himself not to complain about the long hours, the layovers and not being able to see family and friends or go to church for long periods.
“When people see a Christian artist, they see them on the stage and think, ‘Gee, that must be such a great life.’ Well, yes, for that hour, hour-and-a-half. They don’t see all of the in-between,” he explained.
Because Brown did more than play in nice U.S. venues, he has lived through some scary situations — like border crossings that included guns being stuck in his face.
Once he went with American Leprosy Missions to India.
“To be able to lead people who are leprosy patients — who don’t have any arms or legs and just their faces are sunken in — to be standing there in this chapel with my guitar and just singing worship songs … Seeing them worship was something that just dumbfounded me. It took my breath away. I was starting to cry in the middle of all these songs because I thought these people have had so much taken away from them, barely surviving, but yet they want to worship so much,” Brown said.
A personal favorite from his songs is called “Things.” He’s proud of both its musicality and how it reflects his struggle with letting go of his things, even though it was not a fan favorite.
“Seeing people just sleeping on the floors of their dirt homes, I realized how materialistic I was and really felt like I was the rich young ruler, so I wrote a song about my possessions,” he said.
Still learning
Calling it a “glorious journey,” Brown said that he wouldn’t change anything about his life, even if at times it was hard.
Though he’s still learning, trusting God is what has gotten him through the tough days as well as his transition into retirement now.
“For me, I’ve always been excited about grace and how God’s grace shows itself in different ways,” Brown said. “To know that everything that happens, we still receive grace to get us through, grace to heal us, grace to protect us, grace to encourage us.
“When I look to God, I still pray for God to ‘just let me realize Your grace. Help me not to complain but to see things in a different light — in the way You see them.’”
With his recent retirement, Brown and his wife moved to Alabama from California. One of his granddaughters and her parents moved with them.
Winning the next generation
“For us as grandparents, I think that’s what Larry Fowler of the Legacy Coalition meant when he came up with the phrase ‘intentional grandparenting.’ I think we need to be intentional. We just can’t be la-de-da and take it easy. We need to focus on our grandkids.
“I love the idea that there’s 30 million Christian grandparents in America and if we all were to do intentional Christian grandparenting, we would raise a whole generation of some pretty solid people who love the Lord and walk with Him and have an impact.
“I really think that’s the hope we have for our country — by investing in their lives.”
To find out more about Brown’s ministry, go to his Facebook page. To learn more about intentional grandparenting, go to legacycoalition.com.
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