Brook Hills College – Blog

  1. Church Membership as a College Student

    May 6, 2010 by Britten Taylor

    Josh Harris writes in his excellent book, “Stop Dating the Church“, of his attitude shortly after graduating High School concerning Church Membership…

    When I graduated from my church’s high school youth group, I started visiting around. I loved God and had big dreams for how I wanted to serve Him, but I didnt see any reason to get too invovled in one church. By then, I thought I knew all there was to know about church, and I wasnt impressed. Most churches struck me as out-of-date and out-of-touch. There had to be better, more efficient ways to accomplish great things for God.

    Sound familiar?

    Too many college students waffle back and forth, from this church to that church, from this campus ministry to that campus ministry throughout their time in college. It is just assumed by many that students are unwilling to tie the knot and commit to a local church.

    This is tragic on so many levels.

    What ends up happening oftentimes is that many get to be upperclassmen, or even graduate, and look back only in disappointment to see they should have committed to a local church much sooner in their college life.  The reason that many have come to this conclusion is that they have seen in the Word that the visible “body of Christ” (ie, Local Church) is central to the mission of Christ.

    This is precisely where Josh Harris landed after being confronted with biblical truths regarding the local church. He went on in his book to say that after hearing of God’s plan for the church he realized his attitudes after graduation from High School were “misguided and some were unscriptural and dangerous“. He then goes on to say, “For the first time I realized that a wholehearted relationship with a local church is God’s loving plan for me and for every other follower of Christ.”

    This is precisely what our Pastor, David Platt, taught in a sermon series entitled “Covenant Community“. He made this point…

    • The Covenant by which we belong to Christ creates a community in which we belong to each other.
    If God’s plan A is the church, and their is no plan B, then shouldn’t we respond with a firm commitment to church membership? The answer should be an emphatic yes!

    So, if you are consistently going to Brook Hills and have not committed to membership, then you should sign up for Impact: New Members Workshop ASAP (next Workshop begins June 6th).  If you are inconsistently involved at Brook Hills or any other church for that matter, then stop dating the church and wisely/prayerfully consider which local body of Christ you should commit to in membership and do it.

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  2. Disciple Making Reminders (pt 2)

    by Britten Taylor


    A series of reminders in your Disciple-Making efforts from John 17…

    Disciple-making is not a result of our systems or methods (John 17: 4, 11, 17)

    Every time a disciple is formed it is the result of the power of the Gospel. In other words, we can implement the greatest strategy and utilize the best plan, but unless God acts, no lasting change will ever take place in the life of the person we are investing in. The Spirit of God changes hearts, not our ingenuity or our creative systems.  We can come up with grand ideas and put into practice great techniques and even put forth a ton of effort, but in the end it is the Gospel that ultimately transforms lives. Romans 1:16 says it is the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation. We must be reminded that disciple-making is a supernatural work.

    Think about it, disciple-making is reproducing the life of Christ. It is calling a man or woman to do Matthew 13:44- lose everything and embrace Jesus as supreme satisfaction, and then to grow them into His likeness.

    Do we really think we can do that? Can we produce that kind of affection in another person’s life?  Can we manufacture that kind of change? Absolutely not!

    Now I am not telling you to be flippant in your planning and implementation. I am telling you to take an honest look at your efforts and see if they reek of “trusting in man” or do they shine forth “trusting in God” to change an individual.

    A quick and easy way to do determine where we are is to simply ask how much time we put to prayer in regard to our disciple-making efforts. Are we desperate in prayer for those we are seeking to reproduce the Gospel in? Or do we not have enough time for that because we are too busy with other tasks? Prayer, in my humble opinion, is THE barometer of our dependence and desperation for God. If we lack it, then we certainly believe we can perform the work without Him.

    I end with a great quote from a book/article (I cant remember which one) I read sometime ago, “Put much time into planning and implementing your plan to disciple others, but just put more time into praying to the One who can actually change a person’s heart.” It’s a rough quote from a source I cant seem to recall, but you get the point.

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