Adults

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:

¹⁵Do 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.

Roger Severino

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount for Leaders

TWO QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING THE BEATITUDES

Photo credit: Joe Hendricks — *Roger Severino, Adult Discipleship – Leadership Minister*

by Roger Severino

Last week’s and this week’s JourneyOn Today devotionals relate to meditating on the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the beatitudes. Here are two questions to consider as you read, apply, and possibly teach the beatitudes to others.

Are the beatitudes descriptive or prescriptive? In other words, is Jesus saying we should pursue being poor in spirit, mourning, being gentle, being hungry and thirsty for righteousness, being merciful, being pure in heart, etc.? Or, is Jesus simply describing the people who are characterized by these things as blessed, even though the world does not see them that way? Is Jesus telling us a way to live, or pronouncing an unsuspected blessing on people who are often not seen as blessed? I tend to go with a middle way that includes both. I think there is spiritual benefit in recognizing our poverty in spirit, mourning over our sin and rebellious heart, leading us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc. At the same time, I do think that Jesus is turning our world upside-down by highlighting the potential blessings of those who are not “powerful” in our society.
Is there a sequence or connection between these various characteristics in the beatitudes? Or, does each characteristic stand alone, or only have a marginal connection to the others? I lean toward there being a potential sequence in the beatitudes, though I don’t want to press it too far. I don’t want to suggest that Jesus was giving a formula – step 1, 2, 3, etc. – and yet there does seem to be a certain flow in the beatitudes in my opinion. Those who recognize their poverty of spirit and need for change will mourn over their unrighteousness, which will cause them to be gentle, and create a hunger and thirst for righteousness. This sequence will naturally lead toward being merciful (as we understand God’s mercy toward us) and desire to be pure in heart (part of hungering and thirsting for righteousness); we seek peace, even in a world that persecutes us for righteousness’ sake. The beatitudes sound nice and palatable, like something you would cross-stitch, and yet, like the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, incredibly challenging to live out – really impossible, apart from God’s enabling.