Mike’s teenage brother was tragically killed on his way to Mass on Super Bowl Sunday. At the early age of twelve, this event launched Mike’s exploration of our faith, questioning why his brother chose Mass over a superbowl party. It was through this quest that Mike encountered the living Christ through the beautiful and rich teachings of the Church, as well as miraculous experiences that draw him ever closer to our Lord and Lady.
Mike is a passionate and enthusiastic Speaker and Recording Artist whose abilities effectively draw youth, young adult, and adult listeners alike into experiences that range from laughter, to provoking thoughtfulness, to intimacy, allowing those who are ready to receive Christ’s redemptive love an opportunity to dive into His ocean of mercy.
Mike C. Brown achieved his MA in Philosophy from Franciscan University of Steubenville and BA in Theology from Barry University, FL. He released his music album, “See Into Me”, in May 2018. With almost two decades combined experience in youth, young adult, and adult ministry, Mike continues to serve The Church as an evangelist, catechist and worship leader. Currently, he is a full-time national speaker and musician seeking all opportunities to serve; all for the glory of God.
Testimonials:
“Mike is thought-provoking and idea-inspiring, leaving his audience with a desire to hear more. His way with words is articulate, well thought out, and extremely relevant to his audience. Mike's captivating style of speech will grasp the attention of even those who are reluctant to listen.” - Mac, Diocesan Youth Rally Keynote
“I thought mike brown’s presentation was thought provoking. It will challenge you and give you new perspectives giving you an opportunity to go deeper in your faith." - Young Adult, Our Lady of the Presentation Parish
“Mike C Brown is very thorough. By that I mean he is always prepared and his skills as a catechist of adults improves every time I see him speak. His evaluations are always very positive and I plan to invite him back again.” - Dr. Gonazalez, Former Director of Faith and Formation
“Mike speaks with empathy, authenticity, and fearlessness. He speaks from our perspective, keeping everything interesting and easily understood. He shows his authenticity in his speaking, being completely himself, connecting with people in the audience." - Aislinn, High School Student
“Thank you for sharing your gifts with our young adults. I was inspired and impressed with your message during the time I was there. Blessings to you in your ministry." Fr. Tom Holder, Pastor at Our Lady of the Presentation Church
“He speaks with a passion that allows for his listeners to become enraptured by his words. The diction in his teachings and the tone in his voice encompassed me and allowed for me to apply Catholic Social teachings to my own life. His presence and use of parables only add to his natural speaking ability.” - Hollen, Diocesan Youth Rally
Speaking Topics:
No Man Is An I-Land (Teens, Young Adults, Parents and Catechists)
Refuge and healing amidst the loneliness and despair he faced after suffering from tragic loss early in life, Mike recounts how he fell into the common norms of an “I” culture, leading to a life of attachment and emptiness. With a desire to fill the void, powerful relationships and miraculous events in his life came about to heal the false lies he had believed to be true. This culminated in a realization that we are never alone in the battle of life. “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” - Mt. 28:20
Topics covered include:
- The hope of new life in death
- The problems of an “I-land”
- The Church – A refuge for sinners
- Basic Necessities for life – Right Relationships
Who Am I? (Teens, Young Adults, Parents and Catechists)
Who is Jesus? And what if He’s not who He says He is? Archbishop Fulton Sheen shares in his text, “Life in Christ”, four reasons why Jesus Christ is different from any other man that has ever lived. Deep conviction for believers, through a method of apologetics and logical progressions of truth, reach the hearts of individuals, bringing them to a pivotal point where one must ask, and answer personally, the question: “Who do you say that I am?”
If we conclude that He is who He says He is – The Great I Am – it follows that we must give Him our all and our everything. Mike engages his audience through questions that probe the mind in order that his listener’s answers might connect with their innate interior longing for God. After all, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.” - St. Augustine
Topics covered include:
- Different images of Jesus
- History and Logic
- Four Reasons why Christ is distinct from any other man
- We, then, must give him everything
I Choose Life! (Teens, Young Adults, Parents, and Catechists)
The Catholic Church has never wavered in its stance to protect life from the moment of conception to its natural end. In a culture of moral relativism, Mike C. Brown defends the Church’s teachings through the use of reason (Natural Law). Mike directs his audience to logical conclusions concerning what John Paul II termed the battle between “the Culture of Life vs. the Culture of Death.”
This talk is catechetical in nature as it aims to bring its audience to an understanding of the bonding relationship between faith and reason, dispelling the tides of modernity that pull us away from “The Way, The Truth, and The Life.” - John 14:6
Topics covered include:
- Moral Relativism vs. Moral Truth
- Freedom and Responsibility
- The Contraceptive mentality
- Redemptive suffering
- Empowering a Culture of Life
Let's Talk About Sex (Teens, Young Adults, Parents and Catechists)
Chastity is often thought of as ‘not having sex until marriage’. In this talk, Mike starts with the basic and daring question: What is sex? One of the last answers generated is sex in reference to gender, “male and female He created them” (Genesis 5:2). Chastity – “the total integration of human sexuality” – is a concept lost in the training of modern ideologies that have disconnected who we are and what we do.
Society has deformed man and woman alike with lies. Mike contrasts modern society’s concept of what men and women are with the original Divine image. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is highlighted in the talk as it focuses on a redemptive view of the body, which is most profoundly found in the communion of persons.
“I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2
Topics covered include:
- The Question
- The Answer
- Training of modern society derailed
- Redemptive view of sexuality
- Illuminate your heart, mind, and soul
- Perfection by purification
The Essentials of Apologetics (Teens, Young Adults, Parents and Catechists)
In the midst of the battles faced in secular culture, Christians more often than not know what their faith is yet do not know how to defend the faith. In his talk, The Essentials of Apologetics, Mike instructs on the basic rules of Logic and Reasoning, reviewing 5 common logical fallacies, 8 logical arguments for God's existence, and defends the faith against the 2 main positions against God's existence: the problem of pain/suffering/evil and Scientism.
Through gaining an understanding of common defenses used in Apologetics, participants will become more equipped to the defend the faith.
- Topics Covered:
- What is and Why Do We Need Apologetics
- Logic and Reasoning
- 5 Common Logical Fallacies
- 7 Arguments for the Existence of a Creator
- Defense Against Arguments Against the Existence of a Creator
The Command of Christ - "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." - Matthew 28:19
Mask-Era (Teens, Young Adults, Parents and Catechists)
Everyone is trying to be independent. Free. Yet the independence purchased from the marketplace of worldly ideologies leads one to believe falsities to be true, which leads towards an illusory lifestyle. It is then that masks are bought to cover up these self-inflected wounds. The search for true masculinity and femininity leads people to mistakenly find the definitions in the lifestyles celebrated in publications like GQ or Cover Girl, as opposed to models of the holy lives of St. Joseph and Mary the Mother of God.
Mike speaks to the modern lies, illuminating them for what they are: Lies. Truth, then, becomes exposed with the hope that listeners may open their hearts to what reality is, find healing, and grow into a deeper relationship with Christ who IS the The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
Topics covered include:
- Independence, Dependence, or Interdependence
- Purchased from the market place – Redemption
- Men and Women – Identity un-masked
- Lies vs. Truth
- Christ: the Way, the Life and the Truth
His-Story (Teens, Young Adults, Parents and Catechists)
HIS-STORY is an 8 part lecture series that sheds light on the mysteries of our faith through a process of catechizing the faithful in a Scriptural study of His story, enabling an opportunity for deeper conversion of the heart and an ability, through understanding, to better dialogue and defend the Eternal Truths of the faith revealed in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. The series can vary in format as each part can stand on its own individually with an engaging and penetrating message.
Part 1: Back to Basics: In order to dive into the mysteries of Sacred Scripture one must first have a basic understanding of how to read and interpret the Word. Part 1 explores the development of scripture from tradition, methods of interpreting scripture, the relation of scripture to science and history, and the overarching theme of Salvation History.
Part 2: Birth: Man, since the beginning, asks common questions. Who am I? What is man’s purpose? Does God exist? If so, what is God? What’s the evidence?…The list can go on. Genesis 1-12 presents answers to these questions as the creation story illuminates God’s creative act of love, mankind’s origins, the fall that leads to the prediction of victory, and the viral nature of sin. Part 2 is an in depth scripture study. It sets a foundation that is necessary in understanding His-story.
Part 3: Promise: Covenant is the means by which God chose to pursue His humanity. Therefore, tracing the covenantal relationship of God with Israel shows the progression of Revelation, whereby Christ makes all things new. Part 3 surveys the call of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, focusing on a life of faithfulness and how in our frailty God’s mercy reigns–the foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrifice and the ecclesia (assembly).
Part 4: Deliverer King: God heard the cry of His people and had not forgotten them. In response, God equips, frees, and provides, as He is the “Bread of life”, the “Cup of Blessing”, “the Lamb who was slain” for the omission of the oppression of slavery. Part 4 examines God’s providential care and armoring of Moses, the Passover in the Old and fulfillment in New Testament, and the preparations for arrival to the Promised Land.
Part 5: All Things Considered: All things are better understood in hindsight. So too was the story of God’s continual act of redemptive love, understood through having all things gained, and once again stripped, causing interior reflection that leads to the transformation of hope, alive once again for the coming of the Messiah. Part 5 begins with the conquest of the Promised Land and moves to the continual deliverance of Mercy through the Judges, towards the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, the fall, and the rise of a new promise.
Part 6: Great Expectation: A valid claim is at stake when one states, “I am.” Interestingly, the fulfillment of the predictions came to be through human cooperation bringing God into life, crucifying Him, leading only to the dismay that He would rise again. There are over 300 prophecies fulfilled in Christ in the Old Testament. Part 6 focuses of the following 5: Jeremiah’s New Covenant, Bethlehem (the house of bread), Isaiah’s suffering servant, and Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones and God and Israel’s marital union as viewed through the lens of Hosea.
Part 7: On the third day…The Paschal Mystery is the climactic moment of Salvation History. The Bible’s narrative truly is “Good News.” All of Sacred Scripture must be understood from the gaze of the Gospels, as they are the heart of the message. The entirety of the Old Testament anticipates and prepares man’s heart to return to our true and proper origin. In Part 7 the following themes are examined: the Incarnation, the attitude we ought to be (“Be-attitudes”), signs of the eternal Kingdom, “by his wounds we are healed”, and He is who He said He is.
Part 8: Homecoming: Christianity believes in a living God who is infinitely, intimately present. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that we may have life and have it to the full.” He who is Love creates us who have the great and unworthy privilege to receive Love. Hence, the Church is in a time of response. Part 8 delves into the inquiry of what it means to be part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church.
*Topics Can Be Tailored to Serve Your Ministry*
