About Rich

Rich Brown is a writer and editor, husband and father and brother, minister and former pastor, gardener and news junkie in Blue Springs, Missouri, on the outer suburban fringe of Kansas City.

August 2009 brought an early and unexpected retirement after 23 years as an editor for Community of Christ and its publishing division, Herald Publishing House, when the church eliminated his position along with several dozen others. Most recently Rich served as managing editor of the church’s monthly magazine, the Herald. He previously was senior editor (in charge of book production) and editor of the devotional guide Daily Bread, the testimony magazine Restoration Witness, the scholarly journal Theology, and the spirituality quarterly Face to Face. Rich also authored more than a half dozen Herald House books, including Temple Foundations: Essays on an Emerging Concept (1991) and the two-volume text, Studies in Romans (1986).

Rich’s next project is creation of an independent publishing house, Isaac’s Press (named in honor of the Herald‘s first editor, Isaac Sheen, by its last), to serve the progressive wing of the Community of Christ. He is currently writing an eight-session study text for adults, What Was Paul Thinking? A New Approach to the Letters of Paul, to be published by Isaac’s Press in early 2010.
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Rich received a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, engaged in graduate studies for two years at Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, and eventually received a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Park University (when it was still affiliated with the then-RLDS Church; the program more recently was incorporated into Community of Christ Seminary).