Waterbrooke Church

While I was away this week speaking at a men’s event up in Canada, I got the news of the horrible shooting of two politicians and their spouses here in the Twin Cities. I looked up the news and a couple of things immediately struck me. First, before I had read anything, I thought to myself: ‘I’ve met that guy.” I don’t know when or where or if I really did but that was my first reaction. Then when...

When we read of God pouring out judgment on the nations in the Old Testament, we can sometimes miss the full picture of what is happening. Some preachers even suggest we should "unhitch" the Old Testament from the New Testament. This Sunday, we will be covering the book of Nahum 1:1-15. Around 100 years after God sent Jonah to Nineveh, He sent Nahum back to Nineveh and prophesied again of their de...

This Sunday, we are going to continue our series called Summer of Love. One of the great encouragements in the call to love one another as God has loved us is that the source of our love is the eternal and immutable Triune God. Agape love is extremely challenging. Loving others as Christ has loved us is not something that we can merely “will” into existence. Loving those who have wronged us or neg...

The second message in our series, Summer of Love is based on the Scripture passage 1 Peter 1:22-25 and it is called “Love is Heart Work”.  So often, we are reactionary rather than proactive in our most important relationships. We ponder in our minds how we can continue to love people that we find hard to love or how we should respond in the multiplicity of perplexing relational scenarios we find o...

This summer, we will begin our summer sermon series called “Summer of Love: How God’s Love Compels Us to Love Others.” Waterbrooke’s mission statement reads: “Waterbrooke seeks to be a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic community that is captivated by Christ, compelled to love others, and called to make disciples to the glory of God.” How do we as Waterbrooke Church grow in God’s love and grace such th...

This week, we'll begin a four-part journey through the Old Testament book of Jonah.  I know you may be thinking, "what can we possibly learn about this book that we haven't already learned from VeggieTales" but, believe me, the depths of God's grace are deeper than the waters from which Jonah cried out to God for mercy; and this, as we'll see this Sunday, is a message that the world desperately ne...

View & Download NOTES This Sunday, May 11th, was Mother’s Day. Interestingly, the background to our study in Acts 12 is that a prayer meeting is being held at the home of a mother -  John Mark’s mother. It reminds us that so often in life, somewhere in the background a mom has been praying, and women have been faithfully praying not only for their families but for the family of God.  Acts 12 i...

This Sunday, studied Acts 11. This is a crucial chapter in the progress of King Jesus’ mission to advance His kingdom to the ends of the earth. The mission of the gospel takes a decisively new direction for mission: the Gentile world. The center for missionary activity shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch. Adjustments to expectations need to happen everywhere.  If there is anything that is true about...

One of the great missionaries in church history was Hudson Taylor, the founder of China Inland Mission (1832-1905). Taylor was famous for his impact on global missions. One of the things that stood out about Hudson Taylor was his commitment to what is called “Indigeneity.” He wanted the gospel to go to the Chinese people and make them Christians in the truest sense. He didn’t want cultural adaptat...

Here at Waterbrooke, we have been studying the New Testament book of Acts. This Sunday, we are in Acts 9:32-43 as we celebrate Easter Sunday and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The entire book of Acts is both a demonstration and a defense of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dr. Brandon Crowe from Westminster Theological Seminary writes: “The resurrection of Jesus Christ...

I have said repeatedly that one of the joys that I get from being pastor of Waterbrooke Church is how many people are on mission together in our congregation. Whether it is locally or globally, Waterbrooke has continually had people who go into prisons, or motorcycle venues or restaurants and bars or to the nations to share Christ. We have people reaching Asia and people serving in women’s centers...

Have you ever been really wrong? I mean really, really wrong? Have you ever been outspoken or opinionated about a subject and then made a huge discovery that radically shifted your position? Imagine in our ongoing study of the book of Acts, just what it must have been like for Saul of Tarsus. In an instant, on the road to Damascus, Saul discovered that he was completely wrong about Jesus. Imagine...

Welcome our Guest speaker,  Brian Thomas, as he brings us the word Mark 12:28-34

When we come across “what can man do to me” in our Bible reading, it sounds a little flippant doesn’t it? Men and women do an awful lot of terrible things to other men and women. There is plenty to fear in this fallen world. But this phrase came from David while people were actively chasing him with the intent to kill him. How can he say such a thing? Stop running for a second and you will see wha...

Our sermon this Sunday was called “Two Blind Men”. In Acts 9:1-18, we will see the radical conversion of a Christ-hating Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus. The conversion is so stunning that Ananias, a relatively anonymous Christ-loving disciple at Damascus, has trouble getting his head around it. Yet, Christ chose Ananias to be the very instrument he wanted to bring Saul to Christ and to commission S...

In the book of Acts, Luke is reinforcing for us what he repeatedly emphasized in the gospel of Luke: Our God has come to rescue and to restore the outcast and the sinner. It is one of the most beautiful truths of the Christian faith that God loved us while we were yet sinners. God seeks to restore those who have rebelled against him and those who have been really far from Him. God saves the least...

This Sunday, we studied Acts 8:1-25. After the stoning of Stephen, absolute mayhem breaks out. Acts 8:3 reads, “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” Isn’t that awful and yet wonderful at the same time? What is happening is traumatic to those believers yanked out of their homes and thrown into prison. But… what...

One of the things that we regularly see in the customer service industry is articles on how to improve customer response times. For example, in one study, it was revealed that 70% of the people who evaluated customer service said that the quicker a business responded and resolved customer issues dictated whether they were viewed as having good quality customer service. Your response times indicate...

This Sunday’s sermon was called “The Teachable Disciple”. We will be studying Acts 7:9-16. As Stephen preaches his sermon to the hostile crowd of religious leaders and Greek-speaking Jews, he begins with these words, “Brothers and fathers, hear me.” My good friend Bill likes to say “Listen to me now. Hear me later.” Hearing means more than listening. It is leaning in with a teachable and humble he...

There is a huge difference between religion and discipleship. Religion often looks for symbols, traditions, rules, buildings, and physical locations to get one’s sense of identity and religious security. Discipleship is living out one’s already existent identity and security in Christ in the adventure of faith and obedience. In the book of Acts, the disciples are perpetually under pressure and on...

This Sunday, we will continued our study of the Book of Acts in Acts 6:8-15. Our sermon is called “Full of Grace and Power.” The gospel of the kingdom of God is now about to advance into the Gentile (non-Jewish) world. Monumental advances in the mission of the kingdom of Christ are about to happen. What we will see here is that the mission of God rarely advances in the book of Acts without signifi...

This Sunday’s message was from Acts 6:1-7,  is called God’s Providence in Our Problems. One of the foundational convictions of the apostles in the early church is that Jesus is both Lord and Savior of the church. That means, Jesus is not just the subject of the mission. He is the Director of the mission. He isn’t just the Savior of His people. He is the Sovereign over all things. He is large and i...

This Sunday, we continued our study of the book of Acts. As it is the beginning of a New Year, there are several things from this passage that I think will be super helpful as we consider how to approach discipleship in 2025. It is clear that the mission of the early church happened in a less than friendly environment.  The apostles were repeatedly threatened and often imprisoned and yet, they are...

We enter the new year with the last of the messages from our study in Colossians. In this section, Paul closes out his letter to the church in Colossae and sends regards from the believers in prison with him in Rome. While we might be tempted to skip over a list of names like this, each one represents a unique story of salvation and faithfulness which helps us understand our own realities and rela...

A lot of times, especially as we head into a new year, we tend to not look back over the previous one. That’s usually because we don’t like to think about the struggles we’ve experienced or are still experiencing. Join us this Sunday as we look at Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, where he encourages the believers in Thessalonica to live with an attitude of thankfulness even in the midst...