Our team is busy putting the final touches on what will be our finest Christmas Services to date. I absolutley love these services! And I hear over and over that “the Christmas Eve service was the first service we ever attended at Brooklake.”

We are offering 6 identical services: Friday, the 23rd at 7 & 9pm and Saturday the 24th at 5, 7, 9 & 11pm (no services on Sunday, Christmas Day).

Check out our video on our site and definately bring people with you!

I suppose it’s predictable that a post of thanks would appear today. But I truly have much to be thankful for.

I’m grateful for those I have the privilidge of doing life with…my family and friends, I cherish you. I’m thankful that God’s grace is mine through Christ. I’m thankful for the wonderful folks, past and present, that I have the honor of serving. And I’m thankful for what’s ahead.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A couple weeks ago our church baptized 69 in one service. 52 were signed up to go public with their faith in Christ and another 17 spontaneously decided to go public with their faith in Jesus on the spot. We’re setting attendance records and we have more people leading groups and serving on teams then ever before. We are riding a wave of the Spirit to which we are grateful and humbled.

But I’ve noticed something as a byproduct of our church moving forward. More people are facing tough circumstances then ever before. Financial challenges, marriages hurting, sicknesses and dozens of other hardships. There’s a price to pay for taking ground. And by taking ground I’m talking about the gospel of Jesus penetrating the lives of people God loves and we’re sent to serve.

If you’re one of those that are trying to make sense of it all, take heart. It can be discouraging at best and downright disolusining at worst to try to reconcile why it is that all hell can seem to break lose in the misdt of God doing so many great things. But let’s press on church. God is with us and and He sees our faithfulness. He’s for us not against us and promises to never leave us. I and the team are praying for you and thank you for your sacrifice. More importantly, people’s lives are being changed by the grace of God.

Keep inviting. Keep loving. Keep serving. And…

Keep your chin up. It’s all worth it.

Pastor Scott

A few days ago I tweeted the following:

I’m committed to two kinds of people. Those far from God and those committed to do whatever it takes to reach them.

Sadly, not all Christ followers will grow to their full potential. Spiritual maturity is not about how long you’ve been a follower. It’s not about how much Bible you know. At the end of the day, Christian maturity is caring about what God cares about and by His grace, doing something about it.

When we make it about us and how good of person we are, we become toxic. To others and ourselves.

That’s a strong statement I realize. And don’t get me wrong, when we first become a follower it is more about us. But it shouldn’t take long before we reach the tipping point and realize that with the same grace we’ve received now we are to roll up our sleeves, go to work and do whatever it takes to reach people far from God.

When we make the mistake of thinking that we have to reach a certain level of maturity before we engage with God’s mission then we’re in danger of a couple tragedies:

1. We never grow up. The very thing we are fighting for (or at least telling ourselves that we’re fighting for) is more of what we think will “feed us.” So we want the pastor to preach “deeper” sermons. We want the programs that we’ve become accustomed to. We want our music just so. And we argue that all of this is the perfect concoction for our spiritual growth. But in the long run getting all of this actually produces a Christian equivalent to the spoiled brat that none of us can stand to be around. In the end it’s not spiritual growth we’ve attained but a closet full of idols that have neither served our growth or Christ’s glory but stole both like a spiritual parasite.
2. We’re part of creating a church that never reaches anyone far from God. When church is all about me. When all that we do is catered to those that are already convinced, we drift off mission. The Church is never about me. Ever! It’s been said for years now that the Church has a mission but it’s more theologicaly correct to say, God’s mission has a Church. And our part is to get swepted up into this mission and in doing so we will experience growth like we never thought possible.

For the record, I’m thankful to serve a local church that gets this. And to my Brooklake Church family, let us never, ever lose sight that we are on His mission. Together we are His Church and we are here for our world. You have my commitment to help you grow more like Christ as together we live as missionaries to those accross our cult-de-sacs, cubicles and communities.

If you find yourself attending a church that is neither on mission nor has any ambition to live as missionaries, you might find my post on How to Pick a New Church helpful.

Sunday evening we hosted our 2nd Worship Night and it was one I will not soon forget and might just take the same amount of time to recover from. It all started last Spring when we hosted our first Worship Night with 9 scheduled to be baptized. At this first event I stood up and invited anyone that wanted to get baptized, who wasn’t signed up, to spontaneously get up and come get dunked. Another 7 joined the 9 and we baptized 16.

There was one man in attendance last Spring that wrestled with God too long and missed his opportunity to be baptized that night. His name is Josh and he later asked Michelle and I to join him and his wife for lunch. As we settled in and placed our orders, he leaned into to the table and asked me, “So Scott, you guys talk a lot about following Jesus. What does it mean to follow Jesus?” That one question turned into an entire sermon series we called Follow which we concluded last Sunday with another 69 people going public with their faith through water baptism. 52 of which were signed up so another 17 decided on the spot to go public with their faith in Christ.

My entire team worked so hard and they deserve a lot of credit. Our amazing volunteers stepped up huge and served their hearts out. To those that were baptized: I’m so proud of your step of obedience! And most of all, all glory to Jesus! He loves us, oh how he loves us!

More pics and video to come later.