What We Believe (Part Four): Generosity

One of the defining characteristics of the Acts 2 church was a deep, abiding spirit of generosity. These believers possessed giving hearts that came from an overflow of the love and grace expressed to them through Jesus. The Bible says of this first church,

“And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:45)

At The Brook, we believe that one of the most important indicators of our spiritual health is the generous attitude in which we leverage our resources to ministry. Simply put, the church is not a healthy reflection of Christ without a prevailing culture of generosity. This is where men and women steward their financial resources in such a way to give to God and to others through the church.

This spirit and attitude hinges on a few important, shared values:

What We Believe (Part Three): Worship

What a church believes about worship will impact every other facet of the congregation. From the heart of worship flow attitudes not only about God, but about each other. It reflects the measure of passion and faith possessed by the congregation. It also yields that most important quality of the culture of an Acts 2 church- authenticity.

The Bible is rich with exquisite love expressed to God in music and worship.

What We Believe (Part Two): Created for Community

At The Brook we believe that Christian community is not just something important to do, but rather it goes to the very heart of who we are— both individually and corporately. If the church is anything, it is a community of people who care for one another and grow with one another. Without these experiences we’re not really the church at all (Acts 2:42-47). The church, as God designed, offers such a unique opportunity as compared to today’s world. We are to provide a safe place for people to be accepted and to fully experience their human design for relationship with others. All of us were created for community!

Yet, this can be rather intimidating for some. Particularly for those who have never known such relationships in their lives, or have experienced hurt and rejection.

8 Signs of a Healthy Church

While there might be other virtues that some would add to this list, as I understand the Scripture, these eight are the essential elements that define a healthy church family. In other words, I don’t think a church can be whole if they lack one or more of these dimensions below.

All of these elements are contained in a set of verses upon which we have built The Brook Church—Acts 2:42-47. I hope this list confirms in your heart what we are pursuing together and reminds us to stay to true to our call to be a biblically-functioning church community.

What We Believe- Part One: Serving

There are certain things that make a church… well, a church. We all understand that the church is not a building. The church is not a gathering of people. The church is not even a ministry program. The church is only a church when something much greater happens.

The primary metaphor from the Bible is that the church is the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul went into great detail to explain its meaning in 1 Cor. 12:12-27. There are many things that can be said about this metaphor and it’s application to us today. Time does not permit us to go into great detail, but there are three overriding principles from this passage.

More Than Chairs

As you know, we recently purchased new chairs for our worship area by asking everyone in the church to "Buy-a-Brook-Chair". We had a wonderful response! The folding chairs are gone and the new chairs look great.

I asked everyone in the church to consider purchasing a chair not only for each person in his or her family, but also for others who have yet to attend The Brook. Some in our church bought 2, 3 or 4 additional chairs with this in mind. I also asked everyone to pray for those who would eventually come to sit in them.

I have to tell you a couple of stories related to this.

Transitions

Change is an inevitable part of life and in most circumstances it is good. This is true for us spiritually as individuals. The Holy Spirit is about taking us from where we are to developing our hearts and growing us more in the image of Christ. This is also true of churches. As a church with Christ as the Head, we must be willing to adjust in order to follow God by faith wherever He leads us.

We’ve all noticed that God is bringing more people to The Brook. While we don’t know how long the significant increases will continue to occur (that’s entirely up to the Lord), it is important for us to be willing to adjust and to cooperate with God in this development. This is what faith means for us right now.

Well Done!

The dictionary defines a steward as “a person charged with the responsibility of managing another person’s assets that have been entrusted to his or her care."

Two weeks ago we set a new attendance high at The Brook for a non-Easter Sunday. We had 467 total in attendance that day… and with 32 cars parked in non-parking spaces (outside the parking lot), we had only 5 spaces available in the 2nd worship hour.

A Journey to Wholeness: Reflections for the New Year

The beginning of the year is always a great time to look personally at the journey that we've walked and the places we’ve come from. It’s a time to understand again how good God is to us, and how even the difficult times were used by Him. 

My journey in ministry and in starting The Brook certainly falls into that category. Three years after starting our church, there was great difficulty personally and there were challenges in the church. The brokenness within and the overwhelming nature of my life at the time motivated me to get help and see a counselor— something all of us should do when needed.