Posts about Jay Fennell

No one likes to be different.  As the old proverb goes, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered.”  If you’re as unfortunate as I am, you have quite the arsenal of stories that entail truly how awkward you were through the years of middle school and high school.  Looking back now, I can definitely laugh but, at the time, all I wanted was to be like my friends and not have much about me stick out that they could point and laugh at.  These days, I have the benefit of retrospect and, looking back, I should have cherished those little quirks and everything else that made me unique.  What we offer here at Brentwood Baptist is a life that is counter to “fitting in.”  Christianity has developed its own culture, especially here in the South, that includes a high regard for image and routine that does not exactly mirror authentic and genuine relationships.  We hope to provide something that flies in the face of that superficiality; however, there is a certain cost.
Something that Christ was very persistent in was His teaching that those who follow Him will suffer.  In so many words, “If you don’t suffer, you’re doing it wrong.”  In Matthew 10, Jesus talks about His followers being “sheep amidst the wolves,” which doesn’t need much explanation.  Those who dare to claim the name of Jesus have a huge target painted on their back.  Being a true follower of Jesus is different; you stick out and, as said earlier, the nail that sticks out gets hammered.  Christ called his first disciples away from their boats, away from their jobs.  In today’s day and age, a lot of people find their worth and their definition in their job; so, to be called away like this would be giving up a huge part of what defines you in this worldly life.  You’d better believe that life with Jesus is different.  A couple chapters earlier, we are given the account of one who passionately wishes to follow Jesus and His ministry.  His only request to Jesus was that he be allowed to go home and bury his father, to which Christ said, “No, follow me completely or not at all.”  You’d better believe that life with Christ is different, it’s counter to the ways of the world and there is a cost in following Him.
This is a somewhat bleak message that I am sharing with you; I understand that.   Last week, I shared with you an importance of being fed by Scripture and not just the portions that make us feel warm and fuzzy, but also the parts that make us feel convicted, that put a pit in our stomachs.  Those portions are just as important to our nourishment because they only reveal the gravity and the power of God’s saving Grace.  Christ prepares us for such adversity in His teachings in John’s gospel account when He says, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”He also provides us encouragement by stating immediately before, “However the World may hate us as followers of Christ, know that the World hated Him first.”
Again, I know this is not necessarily the most uplifting message to take in, but consider this.  We are on the brink of Group Connect on August 23, where we hope to attract mass amounts of people seeking to plug into LIFE Groups.  We have been inviting you to come alongside us in prayer for these Group Seekers, for everyone tied to the event, and for those in charge of facilitating it.  That request has not changed, but something we ask of you also is to pray for transformed hearts through these LIFE Groups.  Paul states in the twelfth chapter of Romans:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.                                                                             – Romans 12:2

 We ask you to pray not just for people to find nice social groups, not just friends, but life change and enduring, Christ-centered relationships.  There is a cost to following Jesus; it is counter to the ways of the World.  It’s not just a tweak here and there to make you a nicer person but a foundational change at the most basic level.  We want you to pray for hearts that either are genuinely captivated or will be genuinely captivated by Christ so that they can read news like how the world will hate them, and they will still see the immense joy behind such a statement, which is found in the truth that yes, the world will hate us, but the perfect and holy God is crazy about us.  That is true and genuine relationship that, in the midst of hard news, in the midst of difficulty and adversity, we still cling as hard as we can to our Heavenly Father.
Things to Pray For: 

• Genuine relationships to be born and fed through these LIFE Groups.
• For genuine hearts to live publicly so that Group Seekers can be given a clear picture of a captivated heart for Christ.
• Hearts that are able to take in the hard news and still relentlessly pursue the ways of the Father with joy in their hearts.

One of the greatest facets of sports, in my opinion, is the sense of community.  Whether we’re talking about a team sport or an individual competition, you are surrounded by those who are like-minded, passionate, and driven.  Even when it’s just you against the rest of the field, as in a sport like golf, you are spurred onward to deliver the best of what you’ve got.  I grew up in an athletic family where even within the ranks of my own siblings, we were driven to compete.  When playing a team sport, you bond through adversity and success and grow together with your teammates in ways that are so unique.  This sense of community is special.  To have people around you that you know will drive you, they will push you forward, so that when all is said and done, you can look back on the race that you’ve run and be astonished at the body of work you just put forth.
Is this not something that we’ve all thirsted for at one time or another, if not frequently?  In the creation narrative of Genesis, we are given an account of God hanging the stars in the sky, forming the Earth and all of the creatures that inhabit the lands, and then He made Man.  He made the birds of the sky and He said, “Good.”  He made the fish of the sea and he said, “Good.”  Then He came to Man and he said, “Very good.”  We go on in chapter two to read specifically about both Man and Woman created, and despite God forming Man and claiming “Very good” over him, God recognized a truth that resounds throughout time even to this day, and that is that this life cannot and should not be done alone; thus God gave Adam the gift of Eve.  Man was so fortunate to be given the image of God the Father.  One would think that He could stop there, but no, God knew that for His Glory, there should be a multiplicity among people, a multiplicity of image bearers.  Christ amplifies this truth in Matthew’s gospel in the discourse on the Church.

“²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”                                                                                      -Matthew 18:20

Christ recognizes this truth, that we are hard-wired for community, all the while affirming another truth.  Where multiple image-bearers of His gather, He will be there also.  How could this be in the least bit undesirable? The presence of the Savior of the world, promised to us through this thing called fellowship.  We are not talking about a weekly meeting where a few words are spoken, some read, and everyone calls it quits until the same time next week.  We are talking radical life change through one another under the name of Christ.  We are talking about first responders showing up at the hospital upon hearing the news of your bringing a wonderful new addition into this world.  We are talking about brothers and sisters who in no way are related but couldn’t be any closer even if they were.  This is what we mean by “doing life together.”
Group Connect is drawing closer.  We hope to attract incredible amounts of people who are thirsty for this type of family.  Oftentimes, curiosity is piqued through videos, web posts, and other forms of promotion, but we hope that this event will ignite a fiery passion in the souls of many and reveal to them that they have an entire church body that is so willing to pour into them on an intimate level.  We hope that this event will tie those who are unconnected to our family through LIFE Groups.  So, once again, we implore you, as a leader, to join us in prayer, to rally beside us in hopes of achieving something truly wonderful and life changing.
Specific Things to Pray For:

• Pray for dissatisfaction for those who are currently “going it alone.”
• Pray for that dissatisfaction to stir hearts toward action and willingness to plug in.
• Pray for a relentless love to fill the hearts of those tied to this event so that they may be poured out on those seeking LIFE Groups.