GETTING BACK TO THE BASICS...

Our mission at BRBC has always been to serve the community that the Lord has put us in. The Lord has planted us in Blue Ridge so we are a part of this community. We are a church plant about to finish our third year in Blue Ridge. We have grown in many ways, we have walked through many struggles together and the Lord has been faithful. Sometimes when we go through trials we can become negative in our thinking and focus on negatives and totally miss the joy of seeing what the Lord is doing. As I look around BRBC I see many families “growing up” in their walk with the Lord! Jesus is changing lives at BRBC and it is amazing to watch. 

In all of this I have had to reevaluate everything we do as a church. I believe through all of this we might have lost focus a little. It is so easy to become inner-focused when we walk through tough trials together. We have mourned together and truly loved each other during this time. But now I think it is time to get back to the basics. We have decided that as of last week we are going to cancel all weekly activities at the church except our Sunday morning gathering. So we will have our Sunday gathering and our weekly Lifegroups that meet in homes and that is it. This is to provide you with every opportunity to go out and use the gifts the Lord has given you. We can get wrapped up in doing things “in the church” and then we actually stop “being the church”. 

 At BRBC we must again look back to our mission as a church and focus on that mission. This is something every individual Christian in the church becomes a part of. We all need to reevaluate the gifts that the Lord has given us and then look at how we are using those gifts for the glory of our Lord and Savior. 

As a church and individuals we need to again look to Jesus. 

Jesus was sent by the Father; 

• To a particular people 
• Into a particular society,
• Culture and time.
• Jesus dressed the way they dressed! 
• He was part of their society! 
• He didn’t meet at the same place every week and tell people that if they want to learn about Him from Him then they must come to this particular place every week. 
• He ate with sinners and tax collectors! 
• He sent out His disciples! 
• He healed the sick!
• Fed the poor!

A missional church follows the example of Jesus!

We can’t heal but Jesus still can! We can love the sick like Jesus did!

We can’t save anyone but Jesus still can and is! We can love the lost like Jesus did!

We can still feed the poor like Jesus did!

A missional church looks for what God is doing in the community and jumps on board! 

That is what I want us as a church to focus on. What is Jesus doing in our community? Where is He working in people’s lives? Where can I jump in and join the Lord? 

I read a blog the other day that really reminded me of what our focus should be and our need to go back there. The blog is from Brandon Levering. You can check it out over at the Gospel Coalition. I have copied some of the post below. It will be good for us to read this and learn from it. 

1. Church plants clearly define their mission and keep it before them in everything they do.

When you’re starting from scratch, almost everything is intentional. The feel of the webpage, the flow of the nursery system, the types of ministries, the shape of the worship service—everything is painstakingly considered and prayed over to retain focus and clarity for staying on mission.

But the longer churches have been doing something, the harder it is to remember why they do it. It’s easy to lose focus and become cluttered and fragmented in programs and ministries. This lack of clarity and focus can lead to passionate resistance to strategic changes. We can learn from church plants about recapturing the focus of your mission and holding it clearly and consistently before the congregation.

2. Church plants feel an acute sense of urgency to engage in evangelism.

This is the simple fact of planting a church: if it doesn’t grow, it will die. And most church planters are not interested in transfer growth; they want to see conversion growth. So urgency for congregation-wide evangelism is woven into the church’s DNA from the beginning.

But the longer a church does its thing and the larger it gets, the greater the pressure to divert attention to the needs of the church itself. We need more programs for families, programs for children, programs for teens, programs for singles. We might have a program for outreach, but the idea that every member is called to be a missionary in his or her own sphere of influence has long since dissipated. Established churches need to think like church plants in regaining the urgency of life on mission.

3. Church plants tend to better understand the culture they’re engaging.

Researching the target culture is an important part of every missionary endeavor; church plants are no exception. A lot of work goes into understanding the history and spiritual climate of the area, not least identifying the prevailing cultural idols. When ministries are shaped, hospitality is a key virtue. Everything is done with awareness and love for newcomers and nonbelievers, who are often unfamiliar with church lingo and culture.

Just as established churches tend to increasingly focus inward, they also tend to become isolated from the surrounding culture. Routines that were once strategic and meaningful become rote. Elements of church life and worship that were initially shaped for the sake of mission become part of a cherished heritage that must be guarded at all costs. To even speak of engaging culture can invite an eye of suspicion. And yet God has given us his timeless truths to be proclaimed and applied in ever-changing times and places. Revitalizing our awareness of the surrounding culture and engaging people who live and breathe that cultural air (inside and outside the church) is crucial to our faithfulness in gospel mission.

4. Church plants use a wider portion of the congregation in service.

An experienced friend once commented that planting a church is like trying to build a boat from scratch . . . when you’re already in the water. It’s not just all hands on deck—you don’t even have the deck yet to lay hands on. The context of urgency and camaraderie that comes from working so closely together at those early stages often creates a more pervasive culture of service in a church plant.

Established churches tend to embody the classic 80-20 rule: 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. When the focus and clarity of the mission dissipate and urgency wanes, it’s a lot easier to participate in church as a spectator rather than as a partner in gospel ministry. As established churches work on recapturing focus in mission, that focus should translate into congregation-wide service.

5. Church plants are more likely to think strategically about planting more churches.

Church plants naturally understand the importance of continually planting newer congregations. As Tim Keller suggests, planting “is one of the best ways to renew the existing churches of a city, as well as the best single way to grow the whole body of Christ in a city.” Several leading church planting networks hold out this expectation of ongoing involvement from the start.

It’s a lot harder for established churches to think about sending away some of their resources, or even some of their best people, for this kind of ministry. Few established churches have a thoughtful plan to keep this strategic investment close to their mission and vision. Passion and commitment to planting new churches is more crucial to the health and vitality of established churches than many of us realize.

The point in all of this is not to foster a “grass is greener” mentality for established churches. Neither is it to romanticize church planting—any planter will testify to the vast difficulties he faces, not least the potential drift toward the very challenges discussed here. Rather, the simple exhortation is for established churches to keep learning and thinking about why we do what we do, and to recognize that some of our best tutors will be those who come behind us.

Brandon Levering serves as lead pastor at Westgate Church (EFCA) in Weston, Massachusetts. He and his wife, Carissa, have three children.

I would really love to hear your input on this. Let’s discuss it. What can we do to better serve the community Jesus has put us in? How can we become the gospel giving church that the Lord has called us to be. I am excited and looking forward to your response. 

Pastor Kevin

Re-Think Marriage (Wives Part 2)

We have been looking at marriage in the last few blogs. Let’s continue to dive into this subject. If you have not read the previous blog posts please do so before continuing here.  A lot of this information came for John Piper’s book, The Momentary Marriage. I encourage both husbands and wives to get that book and read it.

Let us look at 1 Peter 3:1-7,
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, [2 ] when they see your respectful and pure conduct. [3 ] Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— [4 ] but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. [5 ] For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, [6 ] as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. [7] Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Here in verse one is a verse that I can say was lived out and the Lord used that life to change mine! The Lord used Mary and her lifestyle change to bring me to Himself. I knew something had changed deep within Mary and I could not figure out what that was. So I started watching her and studying her and I caught myself wanting what she had. That is when the Lord grabbed me and told me I was His!
Wives, if your husband is not saved or is not acting like he is saved, don’t hound him about it! Don’t nag him about his life and lifestyle. Instead live out the Christian life in front of him. Show him Christ in your life.

Peter says in verse 2 to be respectful and pure in conduct and that lifestyle might win him over to Christ.

1. We see that word again, RESPECT! Do you respect your husband?
2. Are you pure in conduct?

Verse 3-4,  Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— [4 ] but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

We know this does not mean that all jewelry and all hair styling are excluded. Then all clothing would be excluded as well, because it says, “Do not let your adorning be external . . . the clothing you wear.” What he means is: Don’t focus your main attention and effort
on how you look on the outside; focus it on the beauty that is inside. Exert more effort and be more concerned with inner beauty than outer beauty. And he is specific in verse 4. When a woman puts her hope in God and not her husband and not in her looks, and when she overcomes fear by the promises of God, this will have an effect on her heart: It will give her an inner tranquility. That’s what Peter means in verse 4 by “the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

There is a book written in the states called “The body Project”. The book is about the difference between how girls saw themselves one hundred years ago and how they see themselves at the end of the 20th century. Brumberg analyzes diaries of adolescent girls from the 1830s to the 1990s. Her conclusion, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, girls diaries focused on “good works” and perfecting the character. In the 1990s, the diaries are fixated on “good looks”, on perfecting the body.

For example, one diary from 1892 says, “Resolved…to think before speaking. To work seriously. To be self-restrained in conversations and actions. To be dignified. Interesting myself more in others.” Contrast this with an entry from 1982: “I will try to make myself better in any way I possibly can with the help of my budget and babysitting money. I will lose weight, get new lenses, already got new haircut, good makeup, new clothes and accessories.”
We see that women have drifted away from what is most important. The biblical starting point in dealing with the fear of looking unacceptable is God. Does a woman “hope in God,” or hope in the approval of men? This is the key to being free from bondage to the mirror.
The biblical goal of a woman’s life is not to find the ultimate expression of the self (neither “body” nor “character”). The biblical goal in life is to express the all-satisfying greatness and trustworthiness of God. Expressing God, not self, is what a godly woman wants to do. Excessive preoccupation with figure and hair and complexion is a sign that self, not God, has moved to the center. With God at the center—like the “sun,” satisfying a woman’s longings for beauty and greatness and truth and love—all the “planets” of food and dress and exercise and cosmetics and posture and countenance will stay in their proper orbit.


1 Peter 1:5, “This is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands.”

The deepest root of Christian womanhood mentioned in this text is hope in God. “Holy women who hoped in God  . . .” A Christian woman does not put her hope in her husband, or in getting a husband. She does not put her hope in her looks or her intelligence or her creativity. She puts her hope in the promises of God. She is described in Proverbs 31:25: “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.” She laughs at everything the future could bring because she hopes in God. She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focuses her attention on the sovereign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases (Ps. 115:3). She knows her Bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and will help her and strengthen her no matter what. This is the deep, unshakable root of Christian womanhood. And Peter makes it explicit in verse 5. He is not talking about just any women. He is talking about women with unshakable biblical roots in the sovereign goodness of God—holy women who hope in God.

1 Peter 1:6, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

The next thing to see about Christian womanhood, after hope in God, is the fearlessness that it produces in these women. So verse 5 says that the holy women of old hoped in God. And then verse 6 gives Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as an example and then refers to all other Christian women as her daughters. Verse 6: “And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.” So this portrait of Christian womanhood is marked first by hope in God and then by what grows out of that hope, namely, fearlessness.
She does not fear the future; she laughs at the future. The presence of hope in the invincible sovereignty of God drives out fear. Or to say it more carefully and realistically, the daughters of Sarah fight the anxiety that rises in their hearts. They wage war on fear, and they defeat it with hope in the promises of God.

1 Peter 1:7, Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Husbands, wives, are your prayers hindered? Do you feel like God is not answering your prayers?

Husbands honor your wives!
Wives submit to your husbands!


Wives, I encourage you to go look at Proverbs 31:10-31. This is another good example of what a godly wife looks like.

Re-Think Marriage (Wives)

Last time we looked at the biblical role of a husband. We looked at 5 points of what a biblical husband looks like.

1. Husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the Church.
2. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church.
3. Husbands should love our wives as our own bodies.
4. Christ is our example as He takes care of the Church.
5. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
6. Paul sums it up with “Love your wife as yourself”.

Today I want to look at the biblical role of a wife. We are going to move around a little bit to get a full view of a wife.

We see in Ephesians 5:22-24, that wives are suppose to submit to their husbands. Were going to look at the definition of submission and what it looks like lived out. We are also going to look at other roles of a wife.

Lets get started by looking at the word submit.

Ephesians 5:21-24.

[21]submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.[22 ] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23 ] For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24 ] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

First we see that there is a mutual submission that Christians owe to one another. We should submit to one another, not put ourselves above one another. None of us are better than the other. We just all have different roles as Christians. We are one body in Christ. Pastors are not higher up or better than any other Christian.

The greek word here for submit is “hupotasso” which refers to a functional lining up and in no way implies a difference in essence. This is just a lining up of the roles of a family. This does not make a woman less than a man or under a man.

Jesus is our perfect example of submission. Jesus submitted His life to the Father and the Father’s will.

Look at John 12:49,

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.

 Here we see 4 things;

1. Jesus and the Father have different roles.
2. His Father has authority over Him
3. The Father had the right to command Him
4. His role was to submit to the Father

We see here that Jesus understood the concept of submission

Let’s look at another verse, John 8:28-29;

[28] So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. [29] And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

1. Jesus respected His Father’s authority
2. He communicated with the Father
3. Jesus found joy in pleasing the Father

Does that sound like your relationship with your husband?

Do you respect your husband?

Do you communicate, not nag, with your husband?

Do you find joy in pleasing your husband?

Back to Ephesians 5:22,

[22] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Notice that Paul does not use the word “obey” in reference to the wife. "To obey," is used for children and slaves but not for wives (Eph. 6:1, 5). A wife is not a slave, awaiting commands such as: "do this! Get that! Go over there! Fix me that! Is my so-and-so done?" She is not a slave. The relationship between a husband and wife is much more intimate, more personal, more inward, and more vital than that.

Also notice that Paul tells the wives to submit to their own husbands. There is a possessiveness there that assumes a wife would absolutely and willingly respond in submission to her own husband---one whom SHE possesses. It is not a reference to inferiority; it's simply a God-ordained distinction in function so that society can be preserved.

This phrase “own husband” also shows that women do not submit to men! There is no place in the bible that says all women have to submit to all men. We are both created in God’s image and after His likeness. For the sake of unity and workability, the woman is to be subject to the leadership of the husband---not as a slave but as one who is provided for, cared for, and secured by her husband. It does not have nearly as much to do with what she does for him as what he is responsible to do for her.

Wives do you submit to your husband? Do you find joy in serving Christ through serving your husband?