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:

Message Series: Each Sunday we’ve presented God’s Word to our church. Message series included “Prevail” (A Series through Daniel), “Relational Grace”, “Hear”, “Love Lessons”, and “Immeasurably More” (A series through Ephesians 3:14-21).

Staff Additions: This year we added to our amazing staff some amazing people. Dr. Rich Cozart (Christian Counseling), Dan Enright (Connections Ministry), John Owen (Media & Communications), Diane Prokop (Assistant Administration), and Matt Owen (Facilities).

Visioneering, Inc.: This church-consulting group revisited our strategic plan along with our leaders. In order to accommodate our growth, they recommended the completion of a children’s building and worship renovation in 2017.

Elder Advisory Council: This group began meeting in 2013 providing feedback to our elders. They were such a blessing! Many of the advancements we’ve made this year have come from their advice and counsel.

Youth Building & Recreation Area: In October, we opened our new youth modular along with basketball and sand volleyball for them. Cool!

Vacation Bible School: VBS impacted over 100 children this year with many of them placing their trust in Christ as Savior.

July 4th Fellowship and Team Day: These two wonderful events helped our church celebrate as a spiritual family and enjoy our oneness in Christ.

Missions: We increased our support of missionaries by 26% this year! The Brook now gives almost $70,000 per year to support missionaries and community help ministries along with prayer and emotional support from our Community Groups. We gave 127 gift boxes to Operation Christmas Child (that’s up 20% over last year). We continue to serve 4 meals per year to the teachers & staff at Willow Creek Elementary School and serve twice per year for the Tomball Chamber of Commerce.

For Generations to Come: In 2013, our church gave $134,100.60 to this initiative making the total amount given since it began in October 2012 $248,500.01. We’re almost halfway to our goal!

Immeasurably More: This spiritual focus was the highlight of our year! It included “Letters from God”, guest speaker Mr. Roger Helle, Nails to the Cross during worship, the Reverse Offering… as well as community groups studying Ephesians 3:14-21.

Baptisms: We celebrated God’s transforming work in the lives of those who participated in baptism. 13 individuals were baptized in our church in 2013.

Attendance: We marked several new high attendance Sundays this year. With the exception of Easter Sunday (always the most attended Sunday), we hit a record high of 456 in attendance on November 10. Monthly average attendance for our church is up just over 20% from last year.

New Community Groups: This year we started 4 new community groups that help people get connected in authentic Christian relationships, study God’s Word together, pray for one another and focus on missions.

New Members: God brought to our church some wonderful people who joined our spiritual family on mission and who add great value to who we are as a church. The Lord brought 68 new members in 2013.

Giving: Your giving to The Brook this year (not including FGTC capital campaign)  from Jan. 2013 through Nov. 2013 totaled $752,717.96. Thank you for being a generous church family and supporting God’s work here at The Brook!

Wow! Can you believe all this and more occurred in 2013?!

The thing that we hold most dear out of all these blessings, meaning that which is our most important priority, is to remain faithful to God’s purposes for our church. His presence and power in and through our church is what we seek most. We give Him all the glory that by His grace we were used by Him to see lives transformed in 2013!

As great as this year was, it is only a drop in the bucket to what God can do! He has Immeasurably More for us… let’s believe it and with courage pursue it! May the Lord help us remain focused, faithful and unified for His Kingdom!

Thank you Father and thank you dear church family for a great year!

Pastor Mike