Tribute to a Bridge Builder, a woman of God, who sacrificed her life as a servant leader. She was born the daughter of a Master Mason to Ben Griffin Sr. Of New River Florida. She is the daughter of Olivia Reynolds-Griffin.
She was always different. At the age of 16, she married Henry Crowell-Jr. Moving from Martin Florida to Ocala Florida. She raised 12 biological children in the city of Ocala Marion County. She began having church in her home on S.W.Second Street. Her children were her first members, later her mother and many others. She built her first church on S.W. Third Street in 1969.
She followed in her father, Brothers and Husband’s footsteps in a life of service as a Heroine of Jericho and then the Order Of The Eastern Star. She served this community as a female preacher from 1970 until this day. She endured racial discrimination and gender discrimination in her spiritual journey of service to this community. She never allowed that to stop her from the work of service that God gave to her.
As Dr. Brown-Crowell completed her present edifice, many male pastors rode by looking.
I remember one time as we sat in front of the building going up, a deacon who lived three doors down from the church walked down to the church and admitted to Dr. Brown-Crowell that ” you are making all the male preachers upset in Ocala, they are angry with you. I am a baptist deacon, I am an old man now and our church has a building fun for as long as I can remember and the church has not changed. You have lit a fire under the male preachers, you have them scrambling I just want to admit to you, when you put that steeple on top of your building, you had members coming back to church board meetings saying (how can this woman pastor build this nice edifice and we have had a building fun for years, with our large leadership and have never upgraded our building?)
I remember this because he said to Dr. Brown-Crowell “if you say I said all of this, I will deny it but I simply had to confess this to you. I am proud of you. I live in this community and I have watched you for years make my neighborhood better, you ran those drug dealers out of here I admire you.”
I had to come back because my inspirations comes from the Lord.
She led from the front for all women preachers and pastors who came after her. WHILE I am sure she is not the first woman called by God to lead his people. I know that she is the first woman of color in Ocala to build a temple to the Lord, sacrificing much abuse verbally from her male counterparts. She is as flawed as David and the other Apostles, but she remained a faithful willing vessel spreading the good news of the Kingdom.
She is a woman chosen by God, she is our Senior Star in Queen Of Sheba #104 Order of the Eastern Star, returning after Bethlehem Grand Chapter split and following her heritage of Prince Hall Affiliation.
She graduated from the Theological Seminary under her husband’s cousin, the Reverend O.V. Pinkston Sr.
Upon discovering that the seminary was not accredited at the time, she went Back to school and graduated from the Thomasville Theological Seminary.
She preached many funerals not being able to go into the pulpit but she stood proud and brought the Word of God. Her philosophy was Jesus rarely preached in a synagogue his mission was saving the lost and as long as she did that she was fine.
She was shunned by many men and most women because she preached the water Baptism in Jesus name, rather than the father, son and the Holy Ghost.
As a child, I observed her strength, I watched as she shed tears in the house from the task she had which was not easy.
Many things I look back on today, and I am thankful that she taught her children how to suffer for the Kingdom. Many times, she took the Bible literally, but I watched as she grew in her ministry.
Recently, she have sat and talked to me. One year ago, she sat in her living room and said to me daughter, if there is anything between you and me that would cause me to miss Heaven will you forgive me?
That is humility, that means more to me than anything because at that moment, she taught me how to forgive.
This is the day before her birthday and I say thank you to God for giving me this time with my mother who had all of my life put God’s service in front of everything.
Thank you mom, if I could, I would give you back what you gave to so many others, everything life has to offer. Since I cannot, I can publicly say that I love you and you taught me how to be a lady, you taught me how to lean and depend on God for everything.
You gave the Love that you could coming from a slave family but you are still here because God kept you because you yielded to Him.
I love you and hope that this birthday weekend is all that your heart can stand. Dr. Brown-Crowell is a woman of distinction, a woman used by God for her time. She built a bridge for other women pastors to walk over into the call God placed on them.
Help me honor this “Woman In History.”
To our Senior Star, I will not stop until the MWUGLFL put a cornerstone on your building and give my father, his last rights.
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