One of the reasons we came to St. Louis was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brentwood Bible Church, the church I grew up in, was married in, and which still supports our work with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Over the 50 years of its existence God has used the people in this church to cause spiritual growth in the lives of many. As a result there are pastors, elders, deacons, committed church volunteers and missionaries serving the church of Jesus Christ in many places around the world - sent from the spiritual greenhouse of Brentwood Bible Church.

Being around all these people at one time was a unique privilege. Seeing people from my childhood at my childhood church brought me right back to, yes, my childhood. So I kept reminding myself that I am 41 years old now.

The best part was seeing friends that I thought I’d never be able to see again and catching up with people I would otherwise have no way of contacting. “It’s the next best thing to heaven without actually having to die first” was how one person described the feeling of being around so many old friends again.

One of the highlights of the weekend was hearing people refer to my brother and me as “Jerry and Jimmy.” I haven’t called him “Jimmy” in so many years I’d forgotten it was his name in our family growing up. I plan to call him Jimmy (instead of Jim) from now on - just to help him remember who his big brother is.

  Category: General