• By MARK H. HUNTER
• Special to the Advocate
• Published: Jul 25, 2009

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The barefoot man bridged his taut body between two folding chairs, his heels on one and his shoulders on the other.

With a towel carefully wrapped around a concrete block on his stomach, the counting began.

“One. Two. Three!”

A muscular teenager swung a sledgehammer and the audience gasped as chunks of the smashed block clunked onto Trinity Lutheran Church’s red sanctuary carpet.

Applause followed as the Rev. J. Brown slowly got to his feet, took in a large gulp of air and dusted himself off.

Flexing his muscular arms, he shouted, “Bless the Lord who is my Rock.”

Today, the 40-year-old Lutheran minister wears a red and white striped belt, signifying his seventh degree black belt in karate, and travels the nation presenting biblical lessons with a demonstration of his martial arts skills.

However, his initial motivation for learning karate wasn’t spiritual, and, in fact, he would resist the spiritual leadings in his life for many years.

Brown grew up in Erie, Pa., and took up karate at age 8 as a way to lose weight and get physically fit.

“I was a big fat kid,” he explained. “I needed the exercise to keep in shape and to focus my attention and it did just that.

“I was surprised to find out there is much more to it than I thought,” he said. “As I grew interested in the art of martial arts, I stuck with it and wanted to teach others and experience what it is that it had given me.”

Brown’s Web site describes his journey: He studied with Tae Bo founder Billy Blanks beginning in 1978, earned his first black belt under Blanks and operated two locations of the Billy Blanks Karate Academy.

When Blanks closed his academies and moved to California, Brown reopened one of them, at Conneaut, Ohio, in his own name and opened another in Girard, Pa., in 1988.