Now that we are ministering on site in Chicagoland and in the midst of our church plant we no longer post as regularly on our blog. However, we do send out a WEEKLY prayer e-mail. If you are not receiving our emails and would like to please sign up using the form on the right of this page. We are grateful for your interest in our ministry and make sure you are kept informed. God bless!
- Scott and Brooke
Spend Memorial Day in Chicagoland! We are hosting a Memorial Day Weekend mini-mission trip and we want you to be involved. This mini-mission trip will begin Saturday morning, May 29 and conclude late-afternoon Monday, May 31, 2010. Individuals, families, Sunday-School classes, and entire churches 
are encouraged to come! This weekend promises to be a fun weekend of ministry and exposure to our ministry.
The Schedule
Friday (For Early Arrivals):
6:00 PM – Dinner with Scott & Brooke and tour of area
Saturday:
9:00 AM – Orientation/Training
10:30 AM – Ministry Projects (Door-to-door surveys and/or invitations; servant evangelism projects; etc.)
12:30 PM – Lunch
2:00 PM – Ministry Projects
5:00 PM – Dinner
6:30 PM – Ministry Projects
8:30 PM – Done for the day!
Sunday:
10:00 AM – Worship with GCBC!
11:15 PM – Help pack up the Sunday stuff.
12:30 PM – Meet for lunch
2:00 PM – Head downtown for some sight seeing
Monday:
9:00 AM – Meet for Prayer
10:00 AM – Memorial Day Picnic Invitation Blitz/Food Preparation
1:00 PM – Memorial Day Community Picnic
4:00 PM – Head for Home
The Details
Who Can Participate?
We would love to have lots of different people involved. The only restrictions would be the fact that Saturday will be a long day of ministry outside. This means that this mini-missions trip is not for young children or others without the stamina to help. Families are encouraged to come; Dads and Moms just make a judgment call for your kids (if some need to head back to the hotel after dinner that’s fine). Teens still living at home need to come with their family or a family/church approved adult sponsor.
Where Will We Stay?
We are working on securing a reasonable hotel rate (reasonable for Chicagoland 
). The rooms will be at your expense. We will not be getting a room block so if you can find a better deal great!
What Other Costs?
GCBC will care for your lunches (packed lunch on Saturday, Chicago favorite Portillos on Sunday, Picnic on Monday). All other meals will be at your expense. The other expense will be the sight seeing activities on Sunday (There will be no required activities downtown, so besides transportation expenses (parking or train tickets) the rest will be at your discretion.).
How can I help if I cannot come?
You can pray for the weekend of activities. We will be assembling a prayer team leading up to the weekend. If you want to be involved in that please email me at scott@scottandbrooke.info. You could also help underwrite the costs involved for our church (meals, printing materials, advertising, give-aways for picnic, etc).
How do I let you know I am interested?
You can leave a comment on this post, email me scott@scottandbrooke.info, or call me at 847-340-8593.
Thanks for considering this invitation. Please pray that we will have a great weekend of ministry.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Scott and Brooke!
This video was made for our prayer letter. You can sign up to get our prayer letter by email using the box on the top of the column to the right.
Happy December! We are excited to be entering the Christmas season with so many partners in ministry. You are a gift from God!
We desire you to be intelligent prayer warriors for our ministry. In this prayer letter we will be reminding you of our church planting strategy. We are using a “launch” strategy. What this simply means is that we will seek to build momentum towards a “grand opening” Sunday that would impact as many lives as possible. In our metropolitan mission field this strategy is often the most effective in starting churches that reach self-support status quickly. The details of this strategy are as follows:
1. Preparation Stage – This stage focuses on establishing the legal identity of the church, assembling the nucleolus of a core group, raising the financial backing to allow focus on the church plant ministry, and beginning to enter the community through acts of service and evangelism. This has been the stage of our church plant since our arrival in February. We are taking steps to continue establishing our legal identity. Please pray for wisdom as we work on a constitution and the necessary steps for incorporation in the state of Illinois. We have gathered a core group for the church. Fifteen individuals are now a part of our launch team. Please pray that our team would continue to grow. We have also raised most of our financial support that will allow me to focus on the church plant. As December continues I will be scaling my hours of part-time employment down to 8 or 9 hours a week. We have continued to enter our community in various ways. Our summer mission trip leads continue to be relationships we are seeking to cultivate. We have raked leaves, hosted Bible studies, and continue to find ways to interact with our neighbors. Please pray that our Christmas efforts of caroling and neighborhood open house would be used by God to further the gospel.
2. Preview Stage – This stage focuses on enlarging our launch team, increasing the public presence of the church, and continuing to evangelize and serve the community. We are transitioning into this stage during December and January. We will begin canvassing neighborhoods with custom invitations to our services. Please pray that we will find people interested in spiritual things and in our church. We will be investing in a telephone blitz to contact 50,000 homes with the goal of finding other believers that are interested in helping start Great Commission Baptist Church. Please pray that this investment would be used of God to grow and diversify our launch team. In this stage we will begin to publicly advertise our identity as a church. We will be utilizing newspapers, post card drops, online advertisements, and other means to publicize our preview services. These services will be focused on visitors and communicating the gospel. These services will occur once a month leading up to our “grand opening.” If God allows our launch team to grow we plan on having our first preview service in either February or March. Please pray that God will use our efforts to bring people to Himself for salvation and to be a part of our church. The weeks in between services will still have weekend services but these will be focused on training and involving new launch team members in ministries and follow-up.
3. Launch stage – This stage focuses on the “grand opening” or launch of our church. This is the point when we transition our weekend strategy from our cycle of preview services and training/follow-up to weekly regular services. We will have our grand opening Sunday and a special follow up Sunday the next week. If the Lord allows our plans to come to fruition we plan on having our “grand opening” the week before Mother’s Day with a special Mother’s Day event the following week. Please pray that God will bless this plan and we can see a large launch of our church.
Hopefully this recap of our strategy will allow you to pray more specifically for our ministry. We need God to work and ask that you would pray to that end.
Seeing as it is December and Christmas lists are abounding. I want to give you a Christmas List for our ministry. Would you pray about how you might participate in our list?
1. 20 people to pray everyday until January 4 for our telephone blitz.
2. People to pray during the calling hours of the phone blitz January 4 – 11 that God would bless these efforts.
3. 15 people to pray everyday for our church to grow in ethnic diversity.
4. 15 people to pray everyday for effective facilities.
5. 4 groups to come between January and April for a Saturday of canvassing with invitations to our services.
6. The finances to pay for the different aspects of our launch strategy.
* Phone Blitz – $3,500 * Custom Invitation designed and printed – $1,000
* Post Card Drops – $500 x 4 * Newspaper Advertisement – $400 X 4
* Letterhead designed and printed $400
* The Carols Story (Christmas Caroling Outreach) – $250
7. A professional grade keyboard – $1,000
Thank you for your prayers. If you desire to participate in any of these items please contact us for more information.
If you would like to make a financial gift you can do so online by visiting http://gcbc.info/?page_id=110 (Please fill out form completely so we can receipt your gift).
Thanks for praying!
Scott & Brooke
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Prayer Team Members,
Wow, May was a busy month! We visited churches each weekend of the month. We are praising the Lord for the many people who joined our team during these visits. May’s travels took us to Iowa, Michigan, Indiana, and two churches in Illinois. God continues to show Himself faithful in our lives and ministry. Here are some praises and prayer requests; we covet your prayers for our ministry and us.
• Discipleship Opportunity – We have mentioned previously the salvation of Tom, Brooke’s boss. I have begun meeting with Tom for discipleship. He is eager to learn and grow. It is neat to see him work through the ramifications of his new faith. Pray that he will continue to grow.
• Support Status – We are now 85% supported! Praise the Lord for continued increases in our support. We feel confident that God will bring us close to 90% in the next few weeks. Pray that our support will quickly reach 100%.
• Mission Teams – Next Monday (June 8th) 26 teens and adults will be joining us for a week of ministry. This group will be conducting servant evangelism projects and doing surveys on our behalf. Pray that our church will begin to have a wonderful testimony in the community, even before it exists. Pray that many contacts will be made for the gospel and for our launch team. Pray that we will see at least one salvation decision. We will post schedules for the week on our website (http://www.scottandbrooke.info).
• Recent Community Contacts – We have made several contacts recently in the community. Pray that we will be able to continue to develop these relationships. Pray that we will have chances to share the gospel. Pray that we will find people searching for a church home.
• Wisdom – There is so much work that goes into planting a church. Pray that we will have wisdom in our scheduling, decisions, and timing. Pray that God would work in and through us.
• Team Members/Partnerships – We are developing our on-site team and praising the Lord for new prospects. Pray that God would bring us the right people. Pray that we can continue to develop partnerships with sister churches in the Chicagoland area. Pray that we can be an encouragement to other churches.
Thank you for your prayers. Please feel free to drop us a note and let us know how we can pray for you.
Praying to be used by Christ to build His Church,
Scott & Brooke Greening
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Prayer Team Members,
Brooke and I hope you had a blessed Easter. Truly, we have a great Savior! I cannot help but be excited about the sure hope of the cross and resurrection we all communicate. Lord willing Great Commission Baptist Church will quickly join the ranks of those faithfully communicating the gospel message to the world. Please pray that Christ would quickly plant His church.
We continue to see God answer your faithful prayers. Our support level continues to climb! We are now 73% supported. Pray the remaining commitments of $59,000 ($1,640 monthly) come quick. It is wonderful to see God provide.
The development of the on-site team of people continues. We have met twice as a group and plan to meet biweekly until summer. Pray that this team of people would grow spiritually, numerically, and in diversity. Pray that a listing posted on Craigslist would help grow our on-site team with committed multi-ethnic believers. Please pray that our on-site team would grow to at least thirty adults by August. We know it is Christ who builds His church but He uses people.
We have a busy month of May. We have deputation meetings in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. We will be in churches every Sunday of the month. Pray for safety in our travels, God honoring ministry, and effective communication of our burden for Chicagoland. Also, pray that God might use the month of May to see our support level rise dramatically. We are looking forward to seeing whom God will raise up to be a part of our team.
There are many aspects to church planting ministry. This summer we have two weeks in which mission teams will be coming to help sow seeds for our church plant. Pray that our preparation for these teams would be timely and wise. Please also pray that the teams’ preparations would be Spirit led and effective. Please specifically pray for good weather on June 13 and July 11; we have outdoor activities planned. We are also researching possible facilities for our church services. Would you join us in praying that God would provide the ideal location for a reasonable price? We need a facility in which a church worship service, nursery, and children’s church ministry can simultaneously occur.
Thank you for your time in reading this prayer letter and praying for our ministry. We look forward to heaven when we can rejoice with you and with the people God saved through the ministry of Great Commission Baptist Church. We trust you will see God greatly at work in your life.
Praying to be used by Christ to build His church,
Scott and Brooke Greening
Team-members:
God is so good! Once again we saw God work on our behalf in mighty ways. We continue to learn that we are always safe in His hands and He is always in control. Here are just some of the blessings God gave to us in the last 45 days:
God proves to us that He answers prayers would you join us in praying for these items that are on our hearts:
Praying to be used by Christ to build His church:
Scott and Brooke Greening