...for the city!

Madison, Alabama. That's where I live. It's where my neighborhood is located, my kids go to school, the YMCA is where I workout, where my son plays soccer, and where my wife works. It's also where The Brook calls home - the place where our church family gathers each week to fellowship, worship, and be together. And make no mistake, Jesus called us to reach out to "Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" for the sake of the Gospel. He has called us - His church - to reach the nations. But the place we go every single day - the place we work, live, play, worship, shop, study, and call "home" - is our "Jerusalem". This is our city. And this year our desire at The Brook is that the Lord would change us, transform us, and use us..."for the city"!

This is not what God is calling all churches to do. We're all different. Many churches will make enormous strides this year globally to take the Gospel to people in other countries. Mission trips will change lives - of those who minister and those who are ministered to. And we are not writing those things off either. But for 2011, our desire is to see Jesus Christ be made famous in Madison, Huntsville, and throughout our entire community. We know that there are people next door to us and who work with us who are lost, hurting, and in need of knowing that the love of Christ can change their lives. We are being called to light the darkness right here at home. This brings up one really important detail.

Our desire, motive, and hope can NEVER become that The Brook would be famous - that we would be "made known". Our heartbeat and passion must be the CHRIST be made famous - that HIS Name would be made known. And if anyone or anything else is made famous, we pray that it's our CITY - that people all over the world would begin to hear about Madison, Alabama - because of what God is doing here. Our prayer is that through the power of the Holy Spirit, moving in and through the hearts and lives of God's people, our city would be changed. Our friends, neighbors, co-workers and classmates - changed by and for the Kingdom of God!

What would you dare to pray that God would do this year..."for the city"?
How powerfully could the Lord use your life..."for the city"?
And will we remember that God's heartbeat is people...and so His heart beats..."for the city"?

Dream with us! What do you desire to see God do..."for the city"?