rob singleton

making an impact for God

rob singleton - making an impact for God

Category Archives: Mark the Body

Sunday Evening Mind Dump

  • Each summer something strange and wonderful happens to Southbrook Church—the adults fade to the background and the students takeover…everything! Today was the 2nd annual Student takeover Sunday for our students and they did not disappoint! Their fearless leader, Billy Almaguer convinced me last year to let the students run the show and I was so moved I decided to do it again (and again and again)!
  • Another advantage to weekends like this is that I get to poke around the campus and visit with people and ministries I don’t often get a chance to see. Children’s was rocking as well (also taken over by a lot of the students – Don’t worry, adults still handled the terrific twos and threes and babies).

  • There’s a real sense of excitement at Southbrook these days! The place was packed today—everywhere you looked! Which was doubly awesome since it’s summertime! Triply awesome since it’s 4th of July weekend—typically our lowest attendance of the year! God is up to something!
  • The year of discipleship is surpassing my wildest dreams! Convicted toward the end of 2011 that we needed to dig in and really ratchet up the mentoring of one another, our biblical literacy, as well as the training for ministry and serve others both locally and abroad—we quickly transformed that sense of urgency into 2012’s Impact Initiative of Discipleship. So far, the number of those involved in mentoring groups has soared, twice as many Mighty Men are involved as last year, our Lifegroups have more tan doubled, and the hundreds of new believers around here are taking their faith beyond conversion! When these things happen—buckle up! Southbrook is about to take off to a whole nutha level!

Sunday Evening Mind Dump!

  • What a week @ Southbrook Church! First, we saw the return of a group of 15 folks who hiked to the peaks of the mountains of Peru in order to bring hundreds of Bibles to the Quechua people—Bibles in their very own language! Imagine the thrill to hand a new believer the very Word of God in their language that until now had never been translated! I think my family just might have to do this trip next year!
  • We also had our third annual volunteer appreciation night (otherwise known around here as, “Rave”) and the biggest group yet turned out to be honored by the staff of Southbrook Church.
  • I remember the days when we decided the summer wasn’t a good time to have our Southbrook Partnership Class 101 (formerly known as the ‘membership’ class) but so far 30 people have gone through and we’re not even a third of the way through summer! At the rate we’ve been going Southbrook should have around 300 new covenant partners this year! Praise God!
  • More than 50 Southbrook Students have started their ‘Summer Coffee Shop’ on Sunday night. This thing is pretty cool—better than most Starbucks you go to these days! And, if coffee and music weren’t your thing, there were card games, football out on the lawn (until the mother of all storms arrived), even a game of good ole fashioned, Battleship. Remember that one? But you know what they say, ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words. Wonder what several pictures are worth? I was never very good at math. Anyway, enjoy…

The Year of Discipleship

This is the title we’ve given this next year @ Southbrook Church—“The Year of Discipleship.” Sounds pretty impressive, huh? But what in the world does it mean?

Well, let’s start with what it doesn’t mean.

 

  • It doesn’t mean that this is the one and only year we’re giving a rip about discipline people.
  • It doesn’t mean that this is the first year we’ve thought about it.
  • It doesn’t mean this is the first year we’ve witnessed it happening in people’s lives.
  • It doesn’t mean that there will be no evangelism this year (It’s not one or the other).
  • It doesn’t mean that discipleship hasn’t already been deeply woven into the fabric of our church.

 

It does mean…

 

  • That after seeing the Lord bless us with so many people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ we feel a heightened urgency to illuminate the path toward growth—more so than ever before.
  • We deeply care about moving people further along in their journey with Christ Jesus.
  • We are about minimizing maintenance and maximizing ministry.
  • We want to teach others to be self-feeders.
  • We are more about moving people forward in the sanctification process than growing a big church.

 

As pastor Judd Wilhite says,

“Measuring movement is probably our greatest indicator of overall church health. How many people are going through a process and not only coming to faith but then getting baptized. And not only getting baptized but growing in their faith. And not only growing in their faith in a group but then serving the community and passing on their faith.”