Entries by Stephen Brazzel
Take the #21DAY Challenge
The #21DAY Challenge is an opportunity for you and your church to elevate the act of evangelism as we get closer to Easter Sunday. The challenge is simple: Commit to pray everyday beginning on March 23, for God to open doors for you to share your faith, Commit to share your faith at least one […]
Partners in Revitalization
This past week we had Kenneth Priest speak at our Executive Board meeting. Kenneth is the interim director of the Center for Church Revitalization at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Kenneth has been deeply involved in the revitalization movement for over 20 years and we appreciate the wisdom he shared with us last Monday. As our […]
Lessons for Pastors from Joseph
Matthew 1:18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. We don’t know much about Joseph, the husband of Mary. We know he was a carpenter. He wasn’t wealthy. He […]
Life Doesn’t Always Meet our Expectations
Luke 2:1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. We know this verse from the beginning of the story of the birth of Jesus. Confirming all that goes before and after it, this verse fits right into the truth that nothing was normal was Jesus. […]
Let’s All Stand and Greet One Another
This morning I came across an interesting blog from Thom Rainer called, “Top Ten Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Guests.” The title grabbed me. It’s often a challenge to get someone to walk into the door of your church the first time, it seems obvious that we should avoid things that cause them to not […]
Annual Meeting Summary
The 92nd edition of the UBA Annual Meeting was this past Monday at Providence Baptist Church. Many thanks to pastor Bryan Lipscomb and his congregation for being such great hosts. We had lots of food and a great spirit of fellowship all evening. We also want to thank Shane Stover and the worship team from […]
Numbers – 4 Reasons we Count
There are many ways to measure church growth that have nothing or little to do with numbers. We want spiritual growth (how do you measure that). We want people to be more loving, more generous, and generally more Christlike (there is no yardstick to measure that one). Because of this outlook, some people protest any […]