{"id":3086,"date":"2016-10-24T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T10:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeyonleadership.brentwoodbaptistonline.com\/?p=3086"},"modified":"2016-10-24T10:00:39","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T10:00:39","slug":"storeroom-of-our-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/storeroom-of-our-hearts\/","title":{"rendered":"Storeroom of the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we found out that Brentwood Baptist was starting a new \u201cMulticultural LIFE Group,\u201d we knew it would be a perfect fit for us. When we found out, about a year later, that God was asking us to lead in the group, I thought maybe that fit wasn\u2019t quite as perfect. Here\u2019s a bit of that story and what God is teaching us through our new position.
\nAbout 18 months ago, Brentwood Baptist began a new Multicultural LIFE Group. At its center, the group was created for families just like ours. Families where one or more members come from a background that is different from the majority of American culture. In our case, my wife is from Hainan, China, and I\u2019m from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. We had been awkwardly splitting our time between the Chinese congregation and the regular church activities. We wanted to get plugged in to a small group but, because of our somewhat unique family situation, one of us always felt a bit like an outsider.
\nWe got involved in the new Multicultural group and found an ideal fit. Not only were there other couples like us who had faced and dealt with life in the same way we were\u00a0\u2013 we also gained group members who were 2nd generation immigrants and immigrant families raising children here in America, a culture and lifestyle very different from what they had known before. All together, we began to look at following Christ and understanding Scripture in a more practical way, separating it from whatever cultural norms or viewpoints we each brought with us.
\nThen in May, I was asked to think about taking leadership in the group\u2026 not what I was expecting! I felt inadequate, unprepared, and afraid to take on that responsibility. I had never had a leadership position in the church other than helping in children\u2019s Sunday school or planning games in VBS. The thought of teaching adults, many who have been Christians as long as I\u2019ve been alive, was a bit daunting. Then, on the other hand, many of our group had brought a variety of beliefs, practices, and thought processes from their background\u00a0\u2013 almost treating Christianity as one more subject in their study of American culture. And then we always have a few who are skeptical seekers, not convinced that Christianity is the truth and not afraid to state where they disagree. Needless to say, I was overanalyzing the makeup of our group and doubting that I\u2019d be the person who could handle it all.
\nAs I talked with Jay Fennell, and over the last 4 or 5 months that I\u2019ve been leading, one principle has stood out, becoming very clear and real to me. One morning in the Connection Center, Jay talked to me about living and leading out of the overflow of what Christ was doing in my heart. He told me that if God wasn\u2019t working and leading in my own life, I\u2019d never be able to work or lead in the life of our group members. Luke 6:45 says, \u201cA good man produces good out of the storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.\u201d
\nI know that I am still growing into the amount of love, knowledge, and leadership needed to guide our class purely out of my spiritual overflow. However, I wanted to encourage the new leaders and old veteran leaders alike with what I\u2019ve been realizing over the last few months: we have to first be looking in our own hearts and lives to see God\u2019s working before we can ever truly be there for others in the way God intends. As we are filled to overflowing with the knowledge and presence of God, we can then pour out more for those God has given to our care. Those weeks when I know that I haven\u2019t done my part to be filled, I easily feel \u201cdrained\u201d because there\u2019s not enough to give! It\u2019s a simple concept that perhaps many of you had already grasped but, for me, it\u2019s been a welcome realization. As group leaders, we must be constantly insuring that the \u201cstoreroom of our heart\u201d is filled to overflowing and adequately stocked for the task at hand\u2014loving, leading, and serving.
\n
\nWritten by Tyler Browning, F Leader of the Multicultural LIFE Group at the Brentwood campus. He and his wife LiYing have been attending Brentwood Baptist since their marriage in 2012. They met in a house church in Hainan, China, where Tyler lived and worked for 2 years. They are thankful and excited to be a part of God\u2019s plan for reaching unengaged families in the multicultural community.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we found out that Brentwood Baptist was starting a new \u201cMulticultural LIFE Group,\u201d we knew it would be a perfect fit for us. When we found out, about a year later, that God was asking us to lead in the group, I thought maybe that fit wasn\u2019t quite as perfect. Here\u2019s a bit of…","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[63,88,111,178,194,222,254,361],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStoreroom of the Heart - Adults<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/storeroom-of-our-hearts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Storeroom of the Heart - Adults\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we found out that Brentwood Baptist was starting a new \u201cMulticultural LIFE Group,\u201d we knew it would be a perfect fit for us. 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