Rev. Kenneth L. Brown, associate pastor of Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church, will be ordained as a minister in the ECO (Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians) Presbytery of the West at 4 p.m., Sunday, March 19.

Ordaining and installing him will be Rev. Dr. M.J. Romano, interim moderator of the Presbytery.

A reception will follow in the fellowship hall.

Thirty-five years ago, Brown was ordained in a different church family.

He grew up in a Presbyterian Church (UPC) near Detroit, MI, and by the time he was a high school junior, he jettisoned any belief in God.

In college, he pursued Jesus as a philosopher, not as a religious teacher. But he got hooked. He graduated from college with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and religion and attended a seminary in northern Indiana.

After graduation, he spent a year in a pastoral internship at a church in Ashland, Ohio and one year later embarked on his ministry as a senior pastor in several churches in Akron and Columbus Ohio.

Between 1994 and 1996, he served as national coordinator of the Veritas Forum, a lecture and forum/debate ministry to major universities across the country.

Brown is president of Noon Kiwanis Club and was instrumental in fundraising for a children’s feeding program in Haiti.