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Jul
30
Jay Fennell , Uncategorized

Rise Up

Expansion by Multiplication

by Eric Warren 

In 2000, Haley Joel Osmont, Kevin Spacey, and Helen Hunt teamed up for the movie Pay it Forward.  This movie isn’t the cornerstone of any of their careers.  It’s not necessarily a fantastic movie, but if you’re a big sap like me, it has its place when you’re in the mood for a tearjerker.  In this film, Spacey’s character assigns a class of youngsters a year-long project of coming up with an idea to change the world and put it into action.  Not your garden variety middle school project, but Osmont’s character returns with an idea that catches even the brilliant teacher off guard.  The model that this young student returns with is one where an individual does one big favor for three people that cannot be returned, only “paid forward” to three others and so on, and so forth.
However cheesy the movie may be, this is the multiplication model that we desire here at Brentwood Baptist in regard to discipling leaders.  Think of your own story.  Think of those around you that encouraged you, that sparked the idea in your head and in your heart that you are more than capable of leading, of shepherding, of loving and edifying.  Who can you pay that blessing forward to?  We desire and are called to growth here at Brentwood Baptist and, while addition is always welcome, multiplication is so much more expansive and empowering to those around us.
With Group Connect on the horizon, we have the goal of initiating 30 new LIFE Groups this fall.  After surveying the need, there is potential to be at least 250-300 people at this event on August 23, which is wonderful that so many would be so hungry to plug in and go deeper with Christ.  With such a need for harvest before us, we find ourselves in deep need of leaders like yourselves to rise up and steward these groups to come.  It is no easy task to do what you, and to have leaders like you is such a blessing, so you can sympathize with the reverence that we carry into this search for new leaders to rise up and lead these new Group Seekers.
We ask you to once again join us in prayer for Group Connect, for our passion to see those not plugged in here at Brentwood Baptist to jump in with both feet and find rich community as you have.  Along with that, we ask that you pray with us for solid leadership to rise up and look to care for these people seeking to plug into a LIFE group.  We ask you to pray for those who embody and live out 2 Timothy 2:15:

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

As said earlier, it is not easy doing what you do as leaders, but we invite you to pray that there be a spark that ignites a fire in the souls of those who are called to leadership, that boldness would well up inside of them to the point that they know clearly that to follow through in obedience is to step forward as a leader.
Things to Pray for:

  • That leaders would rise up in obedience.
  • That disciples continue to be made with true and genuine hearts for Christ.
  • That as people are poured into, they obediently pour outward and slosh out the love of Christ that fills their hearts.
Jul
24
Jay Fennell , Uncategorized

Sent

Making Disciples

by Eric Warren

Are you curious as to what your life’s calling is?  While every single one of us has a journey laid out before us that is unique and crafted by the wonderful creator of the universe, there is a calling that we all share.  If we dive into Acts 1:6-8, we see Luke describe the disciples’ last encounter with Jesus before His ascension and the offering of this common calling.

 6 So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority.  8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  

This passage is one of the accounts that is referred to as “The Great Commission.”  It is not simply an event that applies to those in attendance in the first century context, but rather is a calling that we all take on upon coming into our relationship with Jesus.  The minute that we make that decision to follow Him, we are saved from the death sentence created by sin and onto God’s mission of making his name famous among the nations.
Here, the disciples propose a question concerning Jesus’ timing and, by His response, we gain insight that this is not an issue that we should concern ourselves with.  Our minds should not be geared towards His timing but the task that he has laid before us, that being making disciples among the nations.  While we are all anxious for that wonderful day where our faith will be our eyes and we see Jesus face to face, the closest that we can come to the Parousia, as we know it, is the evangelization of the world.
At this time, all of us at Brentwood Baptist are in the utmost need of your help and prayers as leaders as we seek to plunge in even further into The Great Commission and God’s call for us to make disciples.  Many of you may already know that on August 23, we will be hosting an event called “Group Connect” where we hope to initiate 30 new LIFE groups in hopes of connecting the unconnected to healthy relationships and community where they may be pushed onward towards Christ in daily life.  So please, first and foremost, what we ask of you is to join us in relentless prayer as we fervently hope to change the world around us and connect everyone here at Brentwood Baptist to a LIFE group where they may find intimacy with the Risen Lord on a whole new level.
Things to Pray for:

  • Pray for a hunger to spark among everyone here to dive deeper and plug into a LIFE group so that they may grow in intimacy with Jesus.
  • Pray for the preparation of Group Connect, that all efforts may be lifted up as first fruits so that God’s name may be glorified.
  • Pray for Group Seekers, that they may feel catered to, comfortable, and loved, and that they may truly find family here.