On 16th October, it was time to “head out” (phrase they use here) and drive another 490 miles to visit the Brown family in Wake Forest, North Carolina. We stopped for one night to break up the journey, and arrived on the Saturday.
Scott Brown, and his wife Deborah have 4 adult children, 3 of whom are married, and one daughter, Claudia, who is still at home. They live in the Brown family “barn”, in Wake Forest, a beautiful, warm, cosy, fascinating house – set up like nothing we have ever seen before for hospitality and “in-house” discipleship.
Scott’s elderly parents, Mary and Bill, live in the house also in a separate wing, in addition to a lovely lady, Rose, who also lives with them. We had 6 nights at the Browns, and after the conference will return for another 4 nights. There will be several posts from our time here in Wake Forest, which has been such a blessing, and great learning experience.
Scott Brown, and his wife Deborah have 4 adult children, 3 of whom are married, and one daughter, Claudia, who is still at home. They live in the Brown family “barn”, in Wake Forest, a beautiful, warm, cosy, fascinating house – set up like nothing we have ever seen before for hospitality and “in-house” discipleship.
Scott’s elderly parents, Mary and Bill, live in the house also in a separate wing, in addition to a lovely lady, Rose, who also lives with them. We had 6 nights at the Browns, and after the conference will return for another 4 nights. There will be several posts from our time here in Wake Forest, which has been such a blessing, and great learning experience.
Deborah Brown, Becky & "Gran" Mary.
Sarah, Holly and Abigail with Claudia Brown and some very cute doggies.
The children are trying to talk me into getting us a dog when we get back to NZ.
Scott serves as director of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches (NCFIC), an organisation our church is affiliated with, in addition to serving as a local church pastor, speaker, and author. Scott’s gives most of his time to teaching and encouraging people in church and family matters.
What impressed and blessed us the most about staying with the Browns, was their dedication to investing in so many people’s lives, through hospitality, discipleship, mentoring, teaching, and purposeful relationships. We see this in the way that they have taken people into their home, are looking after Scott’s parents, pour themselves into the body of Christ through the work of the NCFIC, disciple young men and women, teach their grandchildren consistently in the things of God, and have such well organised schedules, that so much time is given to purposeful activity – yet there is no feeling of stress, rush, or haste.
The kids loved their time at the "The Barn", and are really looking forward to going back there after the conference. After all - what other house has a gigantic swing in the middle of the lounge that swings up and over the dining room table?
Scott giving Charlotte the first go on the swing - fun, fun, fun!!!
Charlotte and Emmie swinging - even more fun with two!
We honestly have never seen anything like this before!
Apparently the aim was to kick the chandelier - so I thought I would have a go too!
The church that Scott pastors – Hope Baptist, was also such a blessing to attend. In our time here we attended the Sunday meeting, a Sunday night Bible Study, a Tuesday morning men’s prayer meeting/Bible Study, and a Wednesday night prayer meeting where over 70% of the members gather weekly to pray. What really stood out here, was that so many of the members of Hope Baptist have chosen to prioritise their lives, around the local church – and the blessing and fruit of this is so obvious.
Scott exhorting the church members before the prayer meeting.
Panoramic shot of the prayer meeting.
Fellowship after the mid-week prayer meeting.
On the Sunday we attended Hope Baptist Church. The service was around 2.5 hours long and included teaching, prayer, worship, a time for men to bring an exhortation/comment on the teaching, and Communion. The church has a weekly "pot-luck" fellowship meal - and spend until around 3-4pm in fellowship together. Again, there was such a dedication in setting aside Sunday to be in fellowship, and in the Word, worship and prayer. It has been challenging and refreshing how many of the Christians we have met here in the USA happily devote most of their Sunday to fellowship. Scott has spent much time teaching his church on this, and communicating God's heart that He wants us to delight in Him by doing this, rather than us thinking God is wanting to deprive us. I know first hand, that as Christians we often struggle setting aside time on a Sunday, and even church can feel like a burden to some believers, as they have so much other activity going on in their lives.
This is something good for all believers to ponder, and consider - that aspect of coming together and leaving much time and space for fellowship, and all the spiritual blessings the Lord has for us, on the first day of the week. It's not that anything we do on that day is more spiritual than if done on any other day, it is just carried out with less competition with other things - and allows us more time and space to delight in Him. Something for us all to think about perhaps?
This is something good for all believers to ponder, and consider - that aspect of coming together and leaving much time and space for fellowship, and all the spiritual blessings the Lord has for us, on the first day of the week. It's not that anything we do on that day is more spiritual than if done on any other day, it is just carried out with less competition with other things - and allows us more time and space to delight in Him. Something for us all to think about perhaps?
Hope Baptist Church.
Scott teaching at Hope Baptist.
More posts will follow from our time in Wake Forest soon! Here is a family photo we took whilst on an outing at an American Revolution battlefield. Children are a heritage from the Lord...blessed is the man who has a canon full of them!!!
More posts will follow from our time in Wake Forest soon! Here is a family photo we took whilst on an outing at an American Revolution battlefield. Children are a heritage from the Lord...blessed is the man who has a canon full of them!!!