So I want to apologize for not sending out a blog for July, but we were busy personally and as a church, so I will just try and highlight the 2 the last 2 months as short as possible.

July was a very busy month, as we continued with having worship on Saturday nights at First Baptist Brooklyn, we had several guest come and “check” us out and a couple are still with us. Praise God!! July we had a free water give away. We spent 3 hours giving out water at intersections and at a Walgreen’s and Shoppers supermarket. Over 400 bottles were given out with the church’s logo on it. Why do I tell you this? This event took place on July 12 and we were wearing our church’s shirt on and 2 weeks later I was at a store with the shirt on and someone came up to me and said “hey you are the church that gave out free water”. Even though no one has shown up to church because of it, people are recognizing that we are there.

August, we had a donation yard sale in Shoppers Parking lot. We did a real good job in collecting money for our outreach (over $600) but the more important part is we made connections with people and again no one has shown up (been only 1 week though) again people know that we are out there. So as a church we are cultivating the ground (Community).

One other story that I want to share with you is that on Saturday mornings I go to Starbucks and meet anyone one or more of the guys to come and spend time together. Well this gentleman who is married to one of the ladies that has come, was somewhat against God, but having this relationship with him and not pressuring him, he know looks forward to our time on Saturday’s and now he is starting to attend church. He has not come to the Lord yet, but I know that he will, so hopefully by the next time that I write, I can say that he is not a believer, so please pray for him.

Well that is all for now, I could tell of a few more things that have happened and if you want to know, please message me and I would love to tell you.

Once again, thank you for your prayers and for those who are supporting us financially, thank you, it really is helping us out a lot.

SO here is our prayer list for you all to pray for us.

1. Someone that wants to be a part of God’s church and lead us in music. (We had someone lead us for a month in August and it makes a HUGE difference having a person leads us compared to video’s)

2. We can only have children’s church for our 2-5 years old, so we need someone that is willing and able to help start up children from 1st0 5th grade so that we can reach families with this age group.

3. I am still controlling all the money and I would love to have someone else take this from me, so pray that God will either someone that can do this or He will reveal someone in the church that can do it.

4. I am not that creative, so someone that is creative to help us be more creative (website, promotion ideas, etc.)

5. And as always more core people

Thank you,
God Bless and Go MAD

Pastor George

Hello All,

Here is May’s update for Brooklyn Park Community Church (BPCC).

When God created me I never knew that I would be where I am today. I can tell you for me it took a long time to get here. I tell you this to let you know the kind of person that God created. When God informed me that He wanted me to start a church, the one thing that He kept reminding me was patience, patience, patience. This word is hard for me and I am sure that it is hard for you, but God needs to teach me this in order to do what He wants to do with and through me.

As most of you know, we had our official launch on April 26, and as I am writing this, we just have completed May. During the month of May, I had personal issues going on with what God is doing with His church (BPCC).  I was hearing all these church starts that were getting 30 and 40 people for their launch and we had 13. I know what you are thinking, it’s not about the numbers but I was still wondering what I was doing wrong. It was then that God reminded me of what He has already done.

Out of those 13, God saved two people, confirmed another and brought back 5 people to church after they have been away from church for a while. While this was going on, I asked you all to pray for core people to join us and God delivered. Starting in June, I will have a former student who I taught Sunday School and her husband join us to help with various duties including getting our children’s church up and running. The husband will be able to help me in many ways as well.  Even though are “numbers” are not going up (Avg. 9-12 a week as of the end of May), Spiritually they are all growing and for the most part sharing. God is moving but He is just moving at His pace even though I think it is slow growing, but only in numbers.  I would rather have 10 people on fire for God, than 100 people being “pew sitters”. The 10 will grow in God’s timing.

Side Note: I have preached a series on “Love at first sight”, and now we are on the series I titled “Nuts and Bolts” spending three weeks on the Trinity and now of today (4th week) I will be preaching on the importance of church.

So as always, for those who are supporting us and or praying for us a BIG THANK YOU.

Still keep in Prayer for:

1. Core people to join,

2.  someone who will take over the finances of our church so that I am not the only one doing them (accountability).

3. Also workers for the harvest in and out of the church

4. Continue relationships with our communities

5. Wisdom for me to lead God’s people

I do have some really exciting news to share with you in June, so stay tuned for that.

God Bless and Go MAD

George Gracie Jr.

Where do I start. As I am writing this I have a heavy heart. There has been so much going on in April and most of it has been great. April started out with us having Easter Service at our house with our Small group and I believe that it went well. The following Saturday we went out to our community and surrounding communities and passed out almost 1000 Event postcards. It was our group plus some help from our former church FBC Edgewater (Thank you all for helping out). We had some doors closed in our faces, many were not home and we did have some great conversations with the people.

That Sunday we had a soft launch and in case you do not know what that means that we have a service with just family and friends, it went very well. I am not much on numbers but to those people that want to know, we had 18. The more important part of that service, a lady came from our community and rededicated her life to the Lord. We were led in Worship by a worship leader from Lake Shore (Still looking for someone to come along side of us and lead us)

The following Sunday we had our second soft launch and was not well attended as the first week, but you need to know that God has told me that the approach that I have you going will be a small growth. With God revealing this to me, it will be one of the hardest things for me because this is teaching me patience, but I also know that I LOVE building relationships with people and I want people to know me before they know me. Also because we had no one to lead us in Worship, we used Worship video’s that I thought it went well.

This past Sunday (April 26) was our actually launch to the public and we had 5 guest that came and even though it wasn’t what I thought we would get, I was very happy with those that did come and check us out.

I know that God has a plan for our church and I am glad that He is using me and our group to reach people for Jesus by bringing them hope that only Jesus can give them. So with that being said here is our prayer request for May:

Pray that more will hear what God has for them by using us to give out His Word.

Pray that God will lead someone to come to come along us and leads us in Worship also to be a part of Children’s Church.

With the last one, please keep Sherry in prayer is that she spends A LOT of time with kids and not much in service or small group.

Pray for a couple from our group who is struggling (this is one of the reasons why my heart is heavy) with things in their life.

Pray for me that God would give me Wisdom to lead, serve, teach, and preach to the people of Brooklyn Park and surrounding communities.

And pray for whatever God lays on your heart to pray for us.

The title maybe a little misleading so let me explain. As I am writing this, it is 34 degrees outside and snowing and it is March 28. Spring has started, well at least the calendar says it has. We will begin having Sunday Services in just a couple of weeks. We have a school to use. We have received our banner flag to put outside of the school to let people know we are here. We have all of our sound system equipment to get us up and running. We have received our Event Postcards to pass out to the community. We have received our pens to give to our guest. Purchased the laptop for our church to use. We have the bodies to have child care of our children ages 2-5 years old. We have greeters to greet people that come into our service. We will have coffee ready for those that maybe a little tired doing something new as going to church on a Sunday instead of staying in bed. So it seems that we are ready. The one thing that you might not have seen or thought of is someone to lead worship for us. Yes we are going to go ahead even though we do not have this one element, we trust in God to give us a worship experience like no other. We do ask that you pray for us as we forge forward.

I would like to give you a little update from the last blog. When I wrote last time I told you that we were using Brooklyn Park Middle for around $630 a week. Well Praise be to God that price has been reduced to only $231 a week. Yes, that is correct, I did not make a typo. If you would like to know how, let me know and I would love to tell you. The banner flag was not going to be free because that was the one thing they could not get free, so we had to purchase one. God is working in and through us.

Once again, thank you all for your prayers and givings to Sherry and I and I am glad to keep you all updated so you can see the results of what your support is doing.

With all that being said, here is what you can pray for us this month:

1. Worship leader

2. Core people to join us

3. For me to keep focused and trusting God with EVERY part of my life and ministry

4. Finances

We need your help, if you would like to help us pass out event postcards for our church services, please contact me for time and directions. We will passing them out on Saturday April 11th.

So I guess we are not completely ready…

February has seen some things moving forward for the Lord. I want to share with you a couple of them (In another blog following this one). First I want to share what God showed me in His  Word a couple of weeks ago (from a devotion from Charles Swindoll) . During one Bible study, I told the group that Brooklyn Park Community church was in the Bible, they looked at me with their faces saying “this guy has lost it” but to that I would have said I never lost what I didn’t have, but that is another whole story for another time.

Enough of that, now back to our church being in the Bible. In Joshua Chapter 20,

(Excerpt from Insight for living)

Back in the days when the Hebrews settled in Canaan, they set up cities of refuge. People who were in danger—even those guilty of wrongdoing—could escape to one of these six cities and find personal relief and refreshment. Don’t misunderstand. These weren’t sleazy dumping grounds for hardened criminals. These were territories dedicated to the restoration of those who had made mistakes. People who had blown it could flee to one of these places of refuge and not have those inside throw rocks at them.

Today, we have lots of places to meet and sing. To pray. To hear talks from big wooden pulpits. To watch fine things happen. Yes, even to participate occasionally in the action. But where is the place of refuge for those whose lives have gotten soiled in the streets?

More often than we want to admit, we’re bad Samaritans. We’re notorious for not knowing what to do with our wounded. Getting in there and cleaning up those ugly wounds and changing bloody bandages and taking the time to listen and encourage, well . . . let’s be practical, we’re not running a hospital around here.

That makes good sense until you or I need emergency care. Like when you discover your husband is a practicing homosexual. Or your unmarried daughter is pregnant and isn’t listening to you. Or your parent is an alcoholic. Or you get dumped in jail for shoplifting. Or you blew it financially. Or you lost your job and it’s your own fault. Or your wife is having an affair. Or your dad or mom or mate or child is dying of cancer.

Thankfully, in the church today, there are a few lights to help the hurting find their way back. There are dozens and dozens of small groups in churches across our land comprised of caring, authentic, but very human Christians who are committed to growing friendships and deepening relationships. Good Samaritans who have compassion. May their tribe increase!

These are our modern-day cities of refuge.

This is Brooklyn Park Community Church

Bringing Hope to a Community in Need