Christopher peacefully passed away Saturday January 4 at Baptist Hospital in Lexington, KY surrounded by loving family.

Christopher was born in Madisonville, KY and was the oldest soul on the planet. He never met a stranger and had a special way of befriending the elderly. This was the case since his earliest years and remained so throughout his life.

Since childhood, Christopher was a sports and weather aficionado. He kept notebooks of daily highs and lows, wind chill, heat index, and barometric pressure that he produced from recordings (analogue VHS) of the weather channel. His senior year of high school, the principal conferred with him to determine whether to have graduation ceremonies outside or inside; Christopher then jokingly referred to himself as “an official weather recorder for the National Weather Service.” Thus, his life-long excitement for extreme weather was born as well as his dream to become a meteorologist. Snow literally made him giddy; sleet: effervescent; tornadoes—full-bore childhood glee. His love for the weather and the elderly culminated when it snowed, and he would go door-to-door to the homes of older neighbors and personally, on-foot, fulfilling their grocery orders from the near-by grocer.

He had pretty much any baseball statistic memorized, dating back to the beginning of the sport, with the Cubs, Braves, and Dodgers being his favorite teams. He also loved football, specifically the Bears, Madisonville Maroons, and University of Kentucky (UK), and as imagined, UK basketball.

He attended Madisonville North Hopkins High School, which was formative for his love of the academic team and statistics. He adored so many teachers there, particularly Mrs. Pat Walters, whom he considered a mentor. She invited him to provide peer tutoring in her Humanities class, which he stated gave him his sense of confidence as he moved into higher education. Here his exceptional memorization for statistics propelled him as a member of the Madisonville North Hopkins Academic Team, where he immediately went from being a sophomore junior varsity member, to setting numerous records and being upgraded to the varsity team. His memory was impeccable, and this was apparent whether in banal exchanges, scholastics, or trivia. He was truly a walking encyclopedia and loved geography trivia. With trivia in general, he had a specific talent for quick recall, which made him a particularly menacing contender. He so hoped to visit all 50 states and came very close but lacked a few. A friend recently recalled a related and quirky anecdote, “One time he and I drove to Mississippi, just across the state line from Memphis, ate lunch at a Wendy’s in Southaven, and then drove back, just for Chris to say he had been to Mississippi; also, that trip, we left his driveway exactly at 07:00 a.m. on the dot and the whole way, he had mapped out various checkpoints, like crossing state lines and this was before Mapquest. He did this by hand, and he was precise within one minute.” Throughout his early life, he also stayed committed to the Boy Scouts of America, climbing all the way to Life Scout status.

One of Christopher’s most cherished and lifelong loves was the church. Growing up, he spent three days a week attending First Baptist Church of Madisonville with his grandparents, where he sang in the choir, learned to play the pipe organ (as an old soul does), and returned later as a minister. Though he was deeply invested in meteorology, he read a book called “Exploring God” by Henry Blackaby and this led him to believe he was called to be a pastor.

He then attended Georgetown College, majoring in Religious Studies. Throughout college, he worked at Dillard’s as a shark of a salesman in the men’s department with a specialty in business suit attire; during this time, he also was a member of the Georgetown Academic Team, for which he also set numerous records and his team held victory over Harvard University in a national championship. He went on to earn a master’s degree from Asbury Theological Seminary, where he studied Old Testament Hebrew. Following his time in seminary, he was ordained in 2005 as a Baptist minister and served as Associate Pastor for Worship for Broadway Baptist Church for over four years. During this time, he sang with the Lexington Singers choir, participating in and listening to the oratorio Handel’s Messiah as his favorite. His first son, Isaac Zachariah Brown, was born in 2007. He then served in leadership roles in other churches, including First Baptist Church of Madisonville as a Minister of Church and Growth and Salvisa Baptist Church as Senior Pastor. In all the churches, the congregation grew exponentially, and he occasionally played pipe organ with great fervor, with his most notable accomplishment learning to play Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. His penchant for stats showed up here too, as he could not be stumped on hymn tunes, their composers, or even their page numbers in the hymnal!

Christopher later met and married the love of his life, Meghan. They shared their love for UK basketball and travel; together, they explored the Western U.S. (loving Beartooth Highway at Yellowstone Park), the East Coast (Amtrak to New York City), and Greece (“the trip of their lifetime”). In June of last year, his son James Clarence Brown was born and brought them immense joy.

At the time of his death, Christopher worked for Cartown Kia as a Sales Consultant, earning salesman of the year three years in a row; he was greatly admired and respected by his co-workers and had many return clients who valued his work ethic and integrity. He stated he had “found his community” through his membership with the Good Shepherd Episcopal church. He loved listening to Simon and Garfunkel and reading about current events and politics. He loved spending time with friends, including Ruth Carroll, who is soon to be 100 years old and kept a strong connection to his grandparents.

Most remarkable was Christopher’s love for God, his sons, wife, parents, siblings, and grandparents. His impact on many congregation members will be felt and remembered for decades. He was a truly exceptional human who spread joy and love for all who knew him.

He is survived by his wife, Meghan S. Brown, sons, Isaac Z. Brown and James C. Brown, mother, Margaret L. Brown, father, James Robin Brown, mother-in-law, Lee E. Shropshire, sister, L. Lauren Brown, brother, Wesley H. Brown, sisters-in-law, Sanja Simić and Kimberly K. Lynn, brothers-in-law, Jonathan E. Sewell and L. Christopher Lynn, nieces Zollie M. Sewell-Brown and Sadie E. Lynn, and nephews, Keen A. Sewell-Brown and Chance C. Lynn, and by his beloved fur-companions Farley and Faith. He is preceded in death by his grandparents Marie M. Spencer, Gene Spencer, James A. Mabrey, James W. Brown and Joyce A. Lutz and Artie E. Lutz.

Memorial services will be held in Lexington and Madisonville. Lexington services will be held on Tuesday January 14 at 1pm at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church (533 E Main St., Lexington, KY) and Madisonville services will be on Saturday February 8th at 1pm at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (1030 College Dr., Madisonville, KY).