Whenever anyone asks me what was my biggest failure the answer is easy. "I didn't listen." When I showed up at Brentwood Baptist Church in the later summer of 1991, I was young, energetic, full of ideas and possibilities of what I could do in this church.
Did you see the problem? What "I" could do. To be honest, it never occurred to me God might want to do something in His own church. He had sent me on a mission and I was going to get that mission done.
It never occurred to me that there were people in this church praying -- begging God -- to do something in their church. God had sent me on a mission and I was going to get that mission done, even if it killed me...
...and it almost did.
In a desperate moment during a spiritual retreat, I believe I heard Jesus say to me, "Why don't you let the church relax and be who I made her to be?"
I was stunned. I never imagined Jesus might have dreams for His church. I never thought Jesus might have put the spiritual DNA into His church just like He does for every child that is born. But Jesus did have dreams for His church just like every parent has dreams for their children.
So, I did some reverse engineering. I want back to the beginning. I started asking questions and listening to stories. Here's what I found out.
Brentwood Baptist Church had started in the basement of the nearby Baptist Children's Home. We were a church plant of Woodmont Baptist Church.
Bill Wilson, our first pastor, was a church planter in North Carolina.
When Bill retired, he said what he most regretted is that we didn't start more churches.
So, is it any wonder the future of BBC is in planting and replanting churches? It's in our DNA!
Every church, like every child, has a unique DNA placed in it when God birthed that congregation. Like any child, no church can be built or remade in a way that denies this God-given DNA.
The DNA isn't brought by the pastor.
The call of the pastor is to give birth to the DNA God has already placed in that congregation.
So, how do you find this DNA? You ask questions. You pray.
When has God shown up in the history of this church?
What stories do the members tell about the church?
How is the membership of the church gifted?
What is it the church seems to be designed to do?
How does the gifting of the church intersect with the needs of the community?
It's all there and when it's discovered, the church will recognize itself in the "baby pictures" of who Christ created the church to be. When WHAT the church does aligns with WHO the church is, there is a joy and power that can't be stopped.
How can it be? This is how God designed the church to be.
Not from BBC, but I find it's beginnings and fruition to where and what it has morphed into today interesting, appreciate you sharing your insights.