It happened again today.
What some might call a once in a lifetime event has now happened twice.
In one week!
God moved among the broken and hurting. He calmed the heats of those who felt the tremendous weight of loss. He wiped away the tears of family, friends, neighbors and co-workers and replaced them with tears of joy.
Today was a day of tremendous loss, completing a week of tremendous loss. Just last week we said goodbye for now to Todd Hage and today we said our temporary goodbyes to Tom Hinkle as we celebrated his great but too short life.
He will be greatly missed by all!
Honestly, I don’t know how people cope who have never known the love of Christ. But God’s love was all over that place today. And for one brief moment, the place erupted in celebration as 31 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ! As we counted them off one by one, I could sense the celebration in heaven as our brand new brothers and sisters in Christ joined the family of God!
Right now it’s 10:00 pm and I am wiped out. 10:00 is usually when I enter the zone, but the past several weeks have sapped the energy right out of me. Until just a moment ago when God spoke to me.
You see, I was remembering about how I had hoped and prayed that 200 people would come to know Christ at SCC this past weekend as Clayton King spoke. And, don’t get me wrong, it was an AWESOME weekend as 116 people were saved. But I did (I confess) wonder why I thought God had placed that other number on my heart yet it didn’t happen.
That’s when He spoke.
Out of the hurt and sadness, out of the loss and sorrow of 2 funerals, 94 people placed their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Combined with the 116, we’ve seen 210 people come to Christ in 1 week!
That’s something to celebrate!! God still grew His family…just not the way I had all mapped out for Him.
That’s why He’s God and I’m not.
Correction…
That’s reason 4,593,941,091,003 He’s God and I’m not!
Rob Singleton is the lead pastor and founding pastor of 
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Rob, I attended the memorial service yesterday and it was so moving. I know Kitty through a bible study group on Wed nights last fall (Kitty I was the one who worked full time while the other ladies taught their children at home). I never met her husband but being there yesterday I felt like I have known him for years. What a celebration of someone’s life and also what an inspiration of others Tom seemed to be.
I think to hear his son talk about the storm we had on Wed night and that was Tom’s presence was so true. I thought that while I was in a children’s ministry meeting and the lights went out and they were preparing for the wake. What a “in your face” message the family and friends got.
Kitty if you are reading this many hugs to you and may God and Tom continue to look out for your family during these rough times.
Trish
I love you man!
It truly has been a very complicated last couple of weeks at SCC. While working in the back this past weekend I was moved to tears at the number of people that stood up at each service. Now to hear that another 31 people committed their lives to Jesus Christ at Tom’s memorial is just unbelievable.
To all the ‘Brookies’ out there…We’re not done yet…We need to see 210 people show up for baptism this weekend…if you invited people to come last week and they stood up, you need to keep on them to take the next step which is baptism. To the pool we go!
You know, we hear the NUMBERS of those that were saved and we break out in applause. But, yesterday was different. As the NUMBERS began to build, I felt my spirit begin to swell within me. At 20, the tears started to fall. And as the NUMBERS kept growing, it became a sob. When does it become personal for us(me) to actually come to tears when people are saved? Does it take for us to lose someone we love? God did something yesterday-something amazing! Not only did God use Tom to save lives, but I believe that he ignited a new passion for what it truly means to celebrate when people are saved. We should be moved to tears of joy…and a call to action!
Amazing. We can not do this thing called life on our own because we are not in control and He has the blueprints, not us. Once again, to borrow a line, we praise Him when we win and we praise Him when we lose.
This past weekend was awesome in that out of those 116 people who came to know the Lord, 5 are very close to me. A friend and I had their name son the cds and were praying for them without really knowing what would happen. This was their first experience not only at Southbrook, but at any church in a long time.
I brought my brother to the Saturday evening service and as everyone’s eyes were closed and Clayton was praying and saying that there was no better time than now to put your life in His hands, my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest. I was praying and praying that my brother had truely accepted Christ as his savior. When I opened my eyes and Clayton began counting for people to stand up, my brother shot out if his seat before Clayton even got to the number two! Praise God! It is a moment I will not forget and the first thing my brother said to me as we stood there in tears together was, “I can’t do this anymore on my own.” After the last service on Sunday, my friend who also accepted Christ that day, said to me “It’s that easy.”
They truely got it.
I will miss Tom … I loved him as a brother … and a brother in CHRIST! Like I said yesterday, Tom was and event looking for a place to happen … and yesterday, in the celebration of his life, it became an EVENT for the LORD!
Thank you Rob for the way you spoke and for being so faithful to the mission the LORD has placed you one!
In HIS Service,
Mark
I must admit, I was struggling yesterday during the Memorial Service for Tom. All great things were said about him, but I wasn’t hearing about his faith, his relationship with God, etc. I knew he had been “seeking” for a long time and I prayed for him many times so when I heard the news about his passing, my first question was “was he saved”? It was confusing for me yesterday to not have the answer to that question throughout the service until the end when Kitty his beloved wife spoke. When I came out of the service and was driving home I was still struggling with how many people do we know, do we pray for and may never know if they truly accepted Christ because they don’t tell. I know the bottom line is that it is between God and that person, but for me, it is important that I know who I’m praying for if they accept Christ because it becomes a confirmation to me that God is answering. My drive home from the service also confirmed to me that I’m not doing enough to tell those that I know, who don’t know Christ, how to have eternal life. It’s time for me to change that, to take away the fear and remember that life is short and no time should be wasted in telling others. Tom’s service should spur all of us on to witness with everything we have. There may not be a tomorrow to do so.