Celebrating 2013!

If you’ve been here long you’ve heard it a hundred times. Our church vision is Real People, Finding Real Hope, in the Real World. To me this statement never gets old because year after year we realize it in even deeper ways.

My heart is full as I ponder the year we’ve had and think about God’s amazing work over the past 12 months. Our home for hope has experienced quite an amazing 2013! God has been so good! Here are just a few highlights:

Is It Possible?

Life tends to lead us into routines. Because of the busyness of our world, the natural physical and emotional response is to find stability through predictability. The way we do that is through routine patterns of everyday living. We try to get up from bed, go to work, get the kids off to school, get home from work, eat dinner, get to bed, etc.— all at established times, in a certain order, and according to a certain rhythm. Even spiritually we seek to practice certain spiritual disciplines with pattern and predictability (daily times in prayer and Bible reading, attending worship, serving, etc.). This predictability helps us feel more in control. Or said another way, predictability helps us feel less out of control.

Prayers for The Brook

During this season leading up to the "Immeasurably More" spiritual focus, the most important thing to do is to call our church to pray. Prayer changes things! Prayer makes a difference! Prayer develops our trust in God not self! Prayer activates the hand of God to move, provide and work in miraculous ways! There's just nothing more important than seeking God through prayer.

God is working in our church and has so much to reveal to us about who we are and what we're to do in the years ahead. So in preparation for these 21 days beginning October 27, let us covenant together to pray for our dear church.

How can you pray for The Brook? Below are some key ways and prayer requests that I've outlined for you. In these days ahead we are going to be joined together in spiritual union. It's going to be awesome to know that I am united in spirit with my church family and to feel the oneness with you in prayer! May God bless you and The Brook Church!

Immeasurably More

There is a long history of God’s providential work in and through our church. We’ve seen some amazing answers to prayer in 18 years and times that called for intense faith, endurance, commitment to each other, and trust in the Lord.

Churches must always cooperate with any new work that God may want to do in their spiritual family. If they don’t, in time they become lifeless and settle into ways of doing things that eventually require no faith. Our vision here at The Brook will never change. We will forever seek to be real people, finding real hope, in the real world. However, God’s deepening of our love for Him is always a process. We should never become complacent spiritually and must always be open to respond to God’s leading.

I have sensed for several weeks that the Lord is doing something new in our church. Something that looks unlike anything we’ve experienced in 18 years. It’s been birthed and confirmed in my mind from answered prayer; testimonies of His activity in families, marriages and individuals; key happenings that to others might seem coincidental, but are indeed put together by divine providence; God bringing important ministry pieces and quality people to our church through additional staff we've acquired over the past 2 years; people new to church finding faith and fellowship; new members joining The Brook who, just like our existing church family, possess sincere hearts, authentic spiritual love, and devotion to our church; as well as the spiritual hunger and response I sense in many of you to The Lord's new work in your lives. It seems in God’s timing He is leading us along toward a new day.

For months I’ve been praying about this without any clear direction- only a sense of an undercurrent going on. About 4 weeks ago God led me back to a passage of Scripture that captured exactly what I felt was at work. It is Ephesians 3:14-21…

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from who every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Wow! Isn’t that awesome? This beautiful prayer of the Apostle Paul for the Ephesian church is a prayer that I am praying now for all our church.

What would our church look like if each of us were made strong with power through God’s Spirit in our inner being? What would we look like if we all could fully grasp God’s profound love and be filled to the measure (to the brim!) of the fullness of God?

This would be true: We would all be absolutely changed by the God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!

Beginning Sunday, October 27 (Team Day) I want us to manifest this prayer all throughout our church through a focus and spiritual initiative called "Immeasurably More." This title captures what I pray the Lord will lead us to in terms of our inner love and passion for Him— that we will all experience immeasurably more in a new level of growth, trust, and spiritual awareness.

This is going to be a wonderful experience that will permeate the entire church family. Here are some highlights…

• A special Team Day celebration on October 27 kicking off the whole initiative.
• Unique worship services designed to communicate themes of this emphasis. Worship will include testimonies, video, unique activities and special prayer in worship on Sundays.
• Ministry teams gathering for prayer and discussion around this initiative focusing and celebrating how God is using them in the church.
• Children’s Ministry and Student Ministry participation.
• Men’s and Women’s Ministry applying and celebrating God’s work through this season.
• Bible Fellowship Groups and Small Groups taking part in a Bible study series on Ephesians 3:14-21 and with a prayer focus in these groups.

“Immeasurably More” will be a 4 week focus, but I believe our church will never be the same after. It will be filled with personal prayer, introspection, unique worship and a challenge to rise to a new level of spiritual hunger and passion for the Lord.

“Immeasurably More” can mean anything for each individual on a personal and spiritual level—prayers answered, more passion for God, more time with Him, more trust in Him relationally, personally, financially, etc. It also applies to our church to open our shared heart and mind up to the “Immeasurably More” that God has for The Brook in terms of spiritual hunger, love for each other, desire for God’s Word, outreach to the community, and a commitment to be a secure, faithful and healthy church family.

We will all be asked to do something different during this season and I challenge you to even now open your heart to the Lord.

More details will come. For now, pray and consecrate this special season to the Father in Heaven.

Joshua 3:5 ““Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

Yea God!

One of the richest blessings in life is to have those moments when you pause in full awareness of God’s goodness and grace to you. It involves the sublime feeling that all is well in Christ and that regardless of challenges or changes, there is a deep presence and peace because God is within. In those moments we see in hindsight that He has been faithfully at work in our lives and that He is indeed sovereign. As a result, a deep gratitude wells up inside along with an amazement of how rich it is to be fully secure in Jesus. These are times to rest from the pace of life and ministry and simply reflect. A moment to say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Stewardship not Ownership

I recently had lunch with a man in his seventy's whom I respect. He told me, “I don’t know why it has taken me so long to learn the lesson that all I have is God’s. When the Lord took away things I thought were mine I finally learned they don't really belong to me.”  Wow! I then recalled how difficult that lesson has been for me as well. It seems like we all are challenged with understanding that all we have is only on loan from God.

Here’s our tendency....

The Supreme Court Decision and the True Place of Victory

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed by a bi-partisan vote of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It was approved by lawmakers for the purpose of protecting the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and woman. The law was not intended to legislate the kinds of relationships people may choose to enter into, but rather was in response to those who sought to redefine what marriage had been since the beginning of the human race.

With yesterday’s Supreme Court decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, Christians are likely to wonder how to respond. While at this time individual states are allowed to decide the matter, in essence the Supreme Court banned the exclusion of homosexual unions in what will be lawfully recognized as marriages in the U.S.

I’d have to write a book to address all the things going on here. But, here are some quick thoughts for you to consider today:

Our Mission- Pure and Simple

Years ago after the initial invasion in the Gulf War I was watching a news program in which they were interviewing a former military general. The reporter asked, “As the war reaches this stage after a resounding victory in the invasion, what are some things we need to be concerned about?” The general said, “What’s most important as we go on- and this is true not just for the military, but also for the American people- we need to be mindful of mission drift and avoid it.” The reporter asked, “What is mission drift?” The general replied, “Mission drift is when we forget why we’re fighting this battle in the first place.”

I Surrender All

The ideas of the philosopher Plato (c. 428–347 B.C.) that came to be known as dualism impacted early Greek culture and marked a historic shift in Western thought. Dualism characterized the idea of two worlds: one the metaphysical, invisible world of form and reality, the other the material, visible world of appearance. In the allegory of the cave as contained in Republic, Plato speculates that the things seen in the physical world are not real, but are presented as mere shadows that mimic reality. This paradigm changed perceptions of truth in the west from his day forth. Men came to consider that life in mere physical form was a veil that could serve to conceal reality.

God's Continued Work...

In the spring of 2012 we engaged our church leadership in a visioning process along with a church-consulting firm that culminated in a Master Plan for expansion and ministry priorities for the next 8 – 10 years. The plan (information is located in the lobby) includes a children’s ministry facility, a worship center, rooms for Sunday Bible Fellowship Groups, offices, the renovation of the existing building for student ministry, and a beautiful water feature for baptism and retention. While the plans are not rigid expectations of exactly how everything will look, they do provide a template for us and a way to pray into our future. They also help us identify a step-by-step strategy for implementation.

Why We're Switching Bible Translations

The 1984 New International Version has been the Bible translation I’ve used at The Brook in my preaching and in recommendation to others since we began the church. As of this week however, after months of consideration and after prayer and counsel with others, I am switching to the English Standard Version as the preferred translation.

You might be wondering, “What’s wrong with the NIV?” The answer is, “Nothing at all.” I’ve loved the NIV for years and committed most of my Scripture memory from this translation. The 1984 NIV has been a great translation. It's accurate and up to this point it’s been the most popular and most widely used translation in the world.

Temporary Home

I look outside my office window where a huge oak tree stands. If you’re in our church you’ve seen two or three of these trees near our offices. They’re beautiful and large. On occasion when I ponder the tree I remember that this tree was here long before I was, and in all likelihood will be here after I depart this earth.

We often don’t think about the temporary nature of our time here on earth. We get so busy we just don't consider how time is fleeting, and that one day we’ll be home in heaven. Often, we in fact live as if this is our permanent residence only then to be surprised at the passing of a loved one, or a disruption to our health. These experiences bring back the reality once again- this is our temporary home.

The Sanctity of Life

Last Sunday we commemorated National Sanctity of Life Sunday. This is a day where around the nation Christian churches highlight the sacredness of human life, God as the author of life, and the tragedy of over 1 million abortions occurring every year in our country.

The Bible is filled with commands that we are to protect the defenseless and the innocent (Psalm 82:3-4, Proverbs 6:16-17, Jeremiah 22:17) and that God preordains human life and creates it in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16).

With our beliefs from the Bible and our desire to rid our nation of this blight, what are we to do? Here are my recommendations…

A Heart of Wisdom for 2013

Times have changed. In 4000 BC the fastest way to travel on land was by camel at a whopping 4 miles per hour. Today, if you’re wealthy enough, you can buy and drive a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport that travels at 267 MPH.

This dramatic increase in speed illustrates something deeper about life in general. The truth is, life is moving faster today than at any other time in history. The stress and the pressure to get more done is accelerating at an unbelievable rate. As the RPM’s of life creep higher and higher, believers must ask themselves: Is this how God wants me to live?