On Saturday morning, we gathered as a team for the first time to pack all of our “stuff” into a 24′ Budget Truck for the trip to Baggett Elementary. Upon arriving, the controlled chaos of unpacking things from boxes for the first time in sued. In the end, we ran out of time before everything was set up exactly as we had liked but we were able to come back on Sunday morning and worship together. God is good and I know that he was pleased with our effort and our heartfelt worship of him yesterday. I am so proud of our team who came together and worked very hard to get everything set up. We learned many lesson yesterday, but the greatest lesson of all that we learned is that the “church” is not a building or the stuff that is in the building, but the people of God coming together in a common purpose of bringing honor and glory to Jesus. May God receive all the glory for what we are doing in our efforts to reach the unchurched of our area and may God gather those whom he wishes to call Velocity Church as we begin this new work. Amen.
Author: bbrunke
Triming the Fat
I am not sure if we have either been inspired by the cut and toned bodies of the Olympians that we are watching on our TV’s at night or by the fact that we are getting kinda squishy in the middle, but the wife and I have joined Gold’s Gym here in town. I can’t promise that we will look like this guy but we will hopefully look and feel better about ourselves.
Insights from Nehemiah
As I continue in my reading from the book of Nehemiah, I am struck by a number of things that I read. These include these passages:
“So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. 3 He read it aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, women and others who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.” – Nehemiah 8:2,3
“Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. 6 Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” – Nehemiah 8:5,6
“Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, “This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.” – Nehemiah 8:9
- In these passages we see the people of God showing respect, awe, and reverence for scripture in a way that we have lost today. The people were crying when the word of God was read to them! When was the last time that you or I cried when we read God’s word? Notice how Ezra spend the greater part of a whole day reading the scriptures aloud to the people. We often have a hard time reading our Bible’s for five minutes let alone half a day! The people of God in Nehemiah’s time shame us in their there respect and attitude toward the word of God. I pray that I might posses the same approach to God’s word as these people
And one additional insight from Nehemiah:
1 On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God. – Nehemiah 9:1-3
- Notice here again the role of scripture but also the elements of worship and of confession. We don’t talk much about confession in the modern church much. Perhaps we are trying to distance ourselves from our Catholic brethren who require it as apart of their tradition and theology. Perhaps we believe that since we are living under grace we do not need to confess our sins. I John says that “if we confess our sins that he is faithful to forgive us.” I believe that is the ideal we are to strive for as followers of Jesus who also taught and spoke to us about confession.
- Worship was such apart of everything that they did in the Old Testament and we have reduced to the hour an a half that we gather together on Sunday morning! Our lives are to be lived in worship and the people of God that we read about in Nehemiah remind and challenge us to live this way.
I thank God for books like Nehemiah who remind us of what is truly important in our guest to be more like Jesus!
That’s Quoteable – Seth Godin
“We use technology to insulate us from our customers instead of bringing us closer.” – Seth Godin
How true this is! Another spin on this would be that we use technology to insulate ourselves from people. Now I am not saying that technology is not a wonderful thing and that it can not be used to bring us closer together (it can) but often it isolates us from others. I was apart of a conversation the other day in which on person said that they now text more than they talk. This in my mind is a perfect example of what Seth is saying. Instead of talking on the phone we are insulating ourselves by texting so that we do not have to carry on a real conversation.
Here is one more point to chew on….is the church guilt of this? If I had to take a long hard look at myself and the church I would have to confess that yes we sometimes do. Is it easier to send am email to someone in your church than pick up the phone to talk or stop by and pay a visit. Maybe it is not technology that is isolating us in the church but programs. Of of the pitfalls of the “mall church mentality” is that we have forced people to be “so busy” at church that are isolating themselves from others and from the unchurched.
In my quiet time, I am currently reading through the Bible and my Old Testament reading is coming out of the book of Nehemiah. Before the invention of modern technology, here was a leader in the person of Nehemiah how never let “things” get in the way of being a leader and someone who connects with people. I pray that I can be that kind of leader who does not “stuff” distract me from the focus of ministry which is people.
Dividing up the work
“The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Col-Hozeh…”
“Nehemiah son of Azbuk, ruler of a half-district of Beth Zur, made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs [b] of David, as far as the artificial pool and the House of the Heroes.”
“Next to him, the repairs were made by the Levites under Rehum son of Bani. Beside him, Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Keilah, carried out repairs for his district. 18 Next to him, the repairs were made by their countrymen under Binnui [c] son of Henadad, ruler of the other half-district of Keilah. 19 Next to him, Ezer son of Jeshua, ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section, from a point facing the ascent to the armory as far as the angle. 20 Next to him, Baruch son of Zabbai zealously repaired another section, from the angle to the entrance of the house of Eliashib the high priest. 21 Next to him, Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, repaired another section, from the entrance of Eliashib’s house to the end of it.”
In this passage from Nehemiah, we see the work of rebuilding the city of Jerusalem being undertaken by a number of people. In the same way that it takes a team of people to rebuild a city it also takes a team to start a new church.
This week, Velocity has a lot of work to do in preparation for our first trial Sunday. The temptation is to try and do everything yourself and many church planters fall into this trap. I believe the work and blessing of serving should not be limited to the staff but should be extended to everyone. Everyone has gifts, talents, and abilities to serve and should be encouraged, resourced, and trained to serve.
Thank you to our plant team at Velocity! Serving beside you is an encouragement to my faith and what it means to “build up the walls of Zion!”
Agreeing on Furniture
This past weekend, the wife and I continued our tour of furniture stores in the area in a quest for a bedroom set that we could both agree upon. After visiting several furniture stores last weekend, all the stores are starting to look the same and all of the stuff in the stores is also starting to look all the same.
This morning, it struck me in light of the message that I heard preached yesterday by Paul, “Is shopping for furniture like looking for Jesus?” One of the points of Paul’s message from Rev 3:1 was that we often like the church in Sardis are “going through the motions” of our faith. Our cultures often views the church as not relevant, dated, and out-of-touch. They believe that once they have seen one Christ-follower, they have seen them all and in many cases that is true. We often confirm our culture’s beliefs about us by living a “going through the motions faith.”
As we went in and out of various stores, there was something that we were looking for; something that when we found it we new it was what we were looking for. People come in and out of the church as they also come in and out of our lives. let us not be people who look and act like everybody else but we posses the one thing that people are looking for; the message of eternal life and a relationship with Jesus Christ!
P.S. The wife and I are still looking for a bedroom set for our house but we have found a group of Christ-followers who are committed to not living like everyone else. This group of people is called Velocity Church and I am proud to be counted among them.
Sunday Reflections from New Life
Yesterday the plant team of Velocity visited New Life Christian Church. Chase Gentes our Worship Pastor led a combined Velocity & New Life band through a great worship set. Paul preached a great message from Revelation 3:1 titled, “Some Kind of Zombie.” It was a great morning of worship together and our last Sunday of contributing before we begin to lead ourselves. beginning next Sunday, Velocity will begin its preview service at Baggett Elementary. The preview services are practice for our launch Sunday on September 21. We have much to do this week in preparation for our first practice run on Sunday, please pray for Velocity Church this week.
Prayer Walk
last night Melissa and I joined the Velocity plant team at Taylor Farm Park to walk and pray. This is my first experience with walking and praying. I have been on prayer walks before and in those instances, we walked to a particular place and prayed for a particular thing at that location. In the case last night we just walked and prayed. As we walked I was meditating on the cards that were given to me that contained that named of people who were requesting prayer from our church and I was also meditating on the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which says to, “pray continually.” I had read that scripture many times before but it took on new light last night. I told the wife that we should establish a routine of going on a walk and praying. Not only will this be of benefit to our physical health but will benefit our spiritual health as well.
Back in the Swing of Things!
It has been over a year since I did a video of any kind and in my absence Apple has redesigned the IMovie software and I was completely lost. Along with trying to acclimate myself to my new surrounding and new ministry, I am going to have to teach myself the new IMovie software and maybe learn some other programs as well. Here is the video that I did yesterday that we are using this Sunday when Paul preaches at New Life Christian Church
A Message to Speak
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 1 Corinthians 6, 7
God has called us to speak a message to a world that is becoming less and less aware of who God is. One of the things that I love about Velocity is that we will speak the message of Christ not just in words but in actions that people will understanding; Serving people and extending compassion speaks to our culture more than preaching about doing it. Connecting with people in relationships that are not skin deep but are deep and designed to bring about life change.
Someone once said that I preach everyday and sometimes I use words. Today I am convicted and challenging myself to preach Christ not just with words but with my actions. May God be glorified and the church be strengthened by my message of words and actions. Amen.
Brian Brunke 