Adults

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Aug
20
E Leader , F Leader

LIFE Groups on Mission: Rachel McRae Edition

[A great example of how an entire LIFE Group can be on mission through the efforts of sending one person off . . . not to mention everything else they do! What will our culture become when every LIFE Group is represented on non-local missions every year?]

 
By Rachel McRae, Growing Deeper LIFE Group Leader, Brentwood Campus

As a LIFE Group, we annually participate in Engage, Reboot, Cul2vate, and Operation Christmas Child. We also participate in other opportunities and needs that arise during the year.
I am on the board for The Matzevah Foundation, a nonprofit that serves to care for Jewish cemeteries in Poland, commemorate mass graves, and provide Holocaust / Shoah education. It was officially started in 2010, but the work began earlier . . . and Brentwood Baptist Church is a big part of it. Poland has been a mission journey destination for many years. In the early years, we partnered with IMB missionaries in Warsaw. One of those missionaries, Steven Reece, was working in a Jewish cemetery outside of Warsaw. Teams from BBC went over to help. It was there that I, along with others, caught the “bug.”
The Matzevah Foundation includes 4 BBC members who serve on the board and one that serves on the advisory board. BBC continues to be an invaluable partner in our work by including a trip each year as a mission journey opportunity.  While the work is focused on clearing an overgrown and forgotten cemetery, the ultimate goal is to bring reconciliation between Jews and Polish; and man with God. God has used our work to open conversations about why a bunch of Baptists would come over and do this work (to serve with loving kindness) and what drives our actions (the love of our Messiah, who is Jewish). We have formed wonderful relationships with Polish believers over the years and have been blessed to be a part of their Christian walk for so many years.
My LIFE Group has been a big supporter of my work. Several have shown up at fundraisers and many are always curious about the work. They have prayed over me as I go on trips. I know that they are praying for me each day as we work, and I’m grateful. I head off to Ukraine this week for a project and they sent me off with well wishes and commitments to pray for us as we work!
 

Aug
13
Uncategorized

3 Paths for Inviting People to Group

By Paul Wilkinson

We always need to keep invitation and outreach in front of our members’ minds. The natural drift, and it’s not evil, is insular; that is to say, over time we will become comfortable with “our church people” and “our church friends” leading to complacency. But we are called to make disciples, not only of “our church friends,” but of lost and searching friends and others we don’t even know yet, who are yet to believe. With that in mind, here are three paths to invite people to group (and remember that a safe place to invite folks to is a group fellowship, rather than the Bible study proper):

  • Supernaturally – Pray for the Holy Spirit to quicken minds so that people come to group. We have lots of folks wandering in who have recently moved here for a plethora of reasons and we have lots of people walking in to “try out” Brentwood Baptist. Leverage your campus pastor’s talent to attract the unconnected; pray those people find your group.
  • Internally – Most of our members, no matter what campus you’re on, are unconnected to groups. If you see someone wandering around that you don’t know, introduce yourself and invite them to group. If your group aims at parents of preschoolers, then hang out around the preschool area to invite parents, and the same for children’s and students.
  • Externally – Look around your neighborhood and the normal rhythms of your life (dog walking, grocery store, sports practice) and pray about who you should be inviting into community. Remember that the Spirit goes before you working in the minds of those that you’ll be convicted to invite.

Seek to incorporate all 3 paths into your group but start wherever your heart currently is. We don’t want to grow for growth’s sake and we don’t want to grow to hit some arbitrary metric we’ve chosen, rather we want to grow because our communities are full of lost and searching families who are unbelievers or unchurched. We want the abundant life for them, so pray about your role in introducing them to biblical community.