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So what’s next?

January 26, 2012 in Authentic Faith, Church Planting, Family, The Church with 3 Comments

Yesterday on Twitter and Facebook I let everyone know that I am officially starting a new job on Monday.  I will be the Community Relations Coordinator for Earth Fare in Columbia!   I know that some of you are thinking…”Wait…I thought you were going to start a church in Columbia?  Are you still going to be doing that?”  Absolutely!

When we moved here 3 years ago, I had a plan in place of exactly what I wanted to do in starting a church.  But I quickly realized that my plans were not the plans that God had and I needed to step back and take some time to really get to know the area and what God’s heart is for a new church here.  For the last few years, I’ve come to a far greater realization of what it means to be a Christian and what the Church should be.  I won’t go into all of the details on this post, but basically what I had grown accustomed to for “Church” and it’s people was oftentimes a far cry from what I see in Scripture.  I constantly see verses like James 1:27 & Acts 2:45 that talk about a faith that makes a difference to those the lives of the broken, whose primary focus is not merely a Sunday morning worship service.  Sure, that may be a part of it, but point blank…I see a church that broke down racial, socio-economic, and physical barriers & made a lasting impact in their community at all times.  (I’ll elaborate on this more in the coming weeks on here).

As I alluded to in a post last week, I saw a major problem when churches use an astounding majority of their finances on staffing and a facility that sits vacant throughout the week.  Meanwhile, people in need & everyone in general only see the church in passing or with an invitation to join on Sundays.  I decided that I don’t want that to be my story.    So, I came to the conclusion that the best way for me to live out my calling was to earn my income from another job (& preferable one that I believed in) so that the money we raise for the church can actually go towards impacting our community.

We are moving forward with laying the framework for a new church in the coming months and get this…the money that we end up raising for it will actually pour into our community to make an impact!  Not only that, I have the incredible opportunity to work for a business whose focus is the physical health of people (which is part of the Gospel by the way), is a business I believe in, and I actually be out in my community  getting to know people here in our city and make a difference in their lives.

In the month or two, I’ll be laying out some endeavors that our church, Venue Church, is going to be investing in here in Columbia and I ask that you pray for us, and also pray about financially sacrificing to see that Venue Church makes a lasting impact in our city & beyond.  The things that God has placed in our hearts is far greater than we can accomplish…and that’s the point.  We expect to be a part of something far greater than we could have ever come up with or accomplish on our own.

The Church Has a Heart Problem

January 18, 2012 in Authentic Faith, Church Planting, The Church with 0 Comments

Photo by RobJewitt / Flickr

This past Sunday, I heard a great message about this simple truth: a good depiction of your heart is how you spend your money.  It’s a gut check for you when you really thinking about it.

Anyways, afterwards I was almost haunted when I took this a step further and thought:  a good picture of the heart of a church is how it spends its money.  I have really been wrestling with this.  When I read the Bible I see statements about taking care of the widows and orphans, fighting injustice, and taking a stand for the oppressed.  Yet very little, if any, of the money taken in by many churches is ever spent on these things.  Excuse me for saying it this way but… Continue Reading…

What should the church look like?

February 22, 2010 in Church Planting, The Church with 3 Comments

church

There are so many opinions out there about churches, both good or bad.  Out of curiosity, in an ideal setting what do you think church should look like?  What characteristics, ministry, etc…do you dream of seeing in a church?

Tell me what you think works or would work below in the comments.  (Leave out the things you wouldn’t do).

Midweek Update from the Midstate….

January 13, 2009 in Church Planting, Family with 0 Comments

We are settling in and still getting everything unpacked here in Columbia.  We had some great help moving us so it was a really smooth trip.  Thanks to everyone that came out!

Some quick thoughts on the move thus far:
  • We’ve already met some incredible people in the area that are planting churches.  I think that God is really up to some big things down here.
  • Speaking of…we went to a culture building gathering for Awaken Church this past Sunday.  It was great to take part in a service somewhere new and just soak it all in.  I’ve been really impressed with their pastor, Jay Hardwick, and I think that they’re gonna have a major impact in the community here in Columbia.
  • Lots of you have messaged me or asked me about the church that we’re planting and wanting to know details.  Here’s what we know so far…God wants us to take part in a plan bigger than ours.  We know we’re called here, we know God is up to something HUGE, and we know that He will fill in the details.  We also know that we need His guidance and want to follow His plans and not our preconceived notions.  Basically, we are praying that God will let us impact people far from Him and to love them like they’ve never seen before.  The rest we’ll have to figure out.  More on this to come.
  • Speaking of figuring out…pray for us as we continue to search for funding and/or a job for planting a church and Patty starting a chiropractic office.  If you want to help us out and make a donation for the church plant, just let us know.  You can email me at josh@joshbrickey.com …OR… I hope will have a link here soon where you can donate.  I know there’s a lot of churches represented on here, too, so maybe some of your churches would like to help partner with us to get this church off the ground.  Get them in touch with us and we’d love to share about what God has placed on our hearts for this area!  Every little bit will go a long way!
  • On a brighter note, I gotta free White Chocolate Mocha and piece of lemon pound cake at Starbucks today.  A local aparment complex bought it for random customers as a promotion.  See…God provides.  :-)
We will be out of town the rest of this week lining up some stuff for Patty’s chiropractic office so I might not be blogging much.  BUT…I will be redesigning this blog and launching it sometime soon so stay tuned.  With the new design I…mark my words…will be blogging a lot, so check back.

Today’s Moving Day

January 9, 2009 in Church Planting, Family with 0 Comments

Well…today’s the day!  It’s moving day!  It’s time to close one amazing chapter in our lives and begin another amazing chapter… one that we don’t have any idea what to expect from it.
Some people have asked us how they can help us.  Honestly, the two main things right now are prayer and funding.  Pray that God will do an unbelievable work in Columbia through us.  Pray that the church that we plant will see thousands of people come to know Christ and experince him personally.  Pray that Patty’s practice will open with a bang and that tons of hurting people will find better physical health, and hopefully Christ.
As for funding, pray that God will provide funding soon for us to step out like this.  We basically have two weeks of money to carry us for now, so hopefully I can get a job lined up quickly or find funding from various churches, organizations, or people.  Heck…in the next couple of weeks there will be ways that you can donate here on the blog, so please consider partnering with us to start this new church.  Every little bit will go a long way.
That’s all for now.  To all our Greenville peeps…we love you all and will miss you.
Time to load the truck!
Sorry I haven’t updated much in the past few weeks.  We have been out of town a good bit and this week is “moving week.”  Next week I will be updating this site like crazy so make sure you stop by to check it out daily.

Keep us in your prayers as we step out on this adventure.

Blank Slate…

December 18, 2008 in Church Planting with 0 Comments

One of the things that I am committed to doing when we plant this new church is to look at things with a blank slate.  Here’s what I mean:

Obviously, we are going to soak in as many ideas and strategies as we can from other people.  However, I’m going into the whole planning process with pretty much all options open.  Think about it…why do we do church the way that we do?  We’ve been trained to believe that we have to have certain things.  We have to pass the offering basket (or plate).  We have to have a communication card/bulletin.  We have to have small groups/Sunday school.  We have to have a special song during the service.  To be relevant, we have to serve coffee and doughnuts.  And the list could go on and on.
Don’t get me wrong, all of these methods have had their time and place, and some may very well still be the best options for your context.  But I want to look beyond those methods and look at the core concept behind them.  What is the best way to experience true community?  What is the best way for people to give?  Let’s erase all the preconceived notions of how to do church and discover the best ways to be the church.  More soon…

Huge News…

December 11, 2008 in Church Planting, Family with 2 Comments

Well, I’ve been hinting on my twitter account that we had some big news to announce and the day has finally come.  I’ll just cut to the chase.  In January, we are going to be moving to Columbia, SC to plant a church!  Not only that, Patty will be opening up her own chiropractic practice in Camden!

The past couple of years have been awesome here at SpringWell but we knew that it was time to pursue these dreams that God had placed in our hearts.   Over the past couple of years, I have been feeling some rumblings from God about planting a church but I fought it.   But…eventually God made it obvious through tons of things that He wanted us to do it and that the time is now.
I’m not going to lie, it’s a scary proposition.  As of right now, we don’t know where we’re gonna live, how we’re gonna make any money until everything is fully up and running, and basically how we’ll survive.  Especially with the state of the economy.  But we know that God is faithful and we are certain that this is where God is leading!  We’re confident that he will provide.
As for SpringWell, Scott and Bill have been supportive of me through this decision and are standing by me in support of this plant.  We know that we’re really going to miss a lot of people at SpringWell. We can honestly say that we were embraced quicker here than we have ever been before and we have made some friendships that we are certain will last a lifetime.  We’re going to especially miss the students and leaders that we worked with every week, but we know that God has even bigger things in store for them in the future!  We love you all and we will definitely be in touch.
I’ll be talking about the church plant and more in the future.  Keep us in your prayers as we seek God’s guidance in these endeavors.  Pray that God will do a revolutionary work through us and that thousands will come to know Him.
As sort of a side note, what has God been speaking to you about doing?  Whatever it is, just do it.  Don’t let life pass you buy without surrendering to the things God wants you to do.  More to come…