Tim Brown has been a member of Living Hope since moving to Bowling Green in 1997. Tim has been an ABF teacher for 9 years and currently teaches an ABF Class at 9:30 and 11:00 and is also active in the Mens Minstry at Living Hope. Tim has been married to his wife Mylinda for 24 years and their family is made up of son Travis and daughter-in-law Laura, and another son Tyler.
I have had the honor, blessing, and responsibility the past nine years of teaching an ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) class at Living Hope. During that time I have seen so many lives changed and watched as God increased the hunger for Him in many individuals. ABF’s (AKA: Sunday School Classes) are the greatest venue to make sure God’s Word is being taught in a group setting every Sunday in the local church. ABF’s provide three crucial benefits: 1)A place to study God’s Word with others 2)A place where you can get plugged in right away and where questions can freely be asked 3)Equips the participants to serve and provides a great place to connect to maturing believers.
I believe the greatest opportunity it provides is a place where individuals can discover or rediscover the Person of Christ. A quote I recently came across by Major Ian Thomas, who founded Torchbearers International states, “The upmost need in the ministry of the church today is to rediscover the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the indispensability of His indwelling presence within the believer”. I believe the tool of ABF is where that has the best chance of happening.
I am an old football player so I use a lot of analogies from my playing days that give me a visual of things in my spiritual life. I compare ABF’s to the fundamentals of blocking and tackling – no matter what else you do in the game of football, if you can’t block and tackle, you are not going to win a lot of games. ABF’s are where blocking and tackling get done in our spiritual lives. Every week up and down those hallways you have the certainty that blocking and tackling is going on. We are in a “war” with an enemy who hates our guts and doesn’t want us to work on our blocking and tackling so he tries to convince us that we don’t need to be connected to an ABF class, especially if we are connected to some other group. Truth is --- we need both! Barna Research has revealed that Sunday School attendance has actually grown due to attenders saying they needed more than they were getting in the groups they were connected to. In other words they needed more blocking and tackling to help them SIMPLY BE THE CHURCH GOD HAS CALLED US TO BE.
So let me challenge everyone to get involved with an ABF class and let God take you deeper as He uses the following individuals to help reveal the Person of Christ to you:
Tony Walker Todd Steward
Peggy Easley Andy Parsley
Sharon Stokes Ed Wilson
John & Nan Higgins Steve Henry
Dennis Strom Larry Causey
Mike Wilson Peggy Parrot
Tim Brown Pat McCubbin
Thomas Weakley Dan Edmonson
Sean Latham Gary Allen
Kimmy Stofer Matt Haste
Mike Roemer Bryan Keene
Brenda Martin Norris Shehan
Jackie Stewart
5 comments:
I just want to encourage all to get involved in a ABF Class... My wife and I started in Tim Brown's class five years ago when we moved to Bowling Green and it has blessed us many times. I have seen so many new faces in our class and that shows how God is at work. When my father was sick the prayers for my family were numerous and I thank everyone for that... It is an awesome feeling knowing that so someone in your class is praying for you...We just feel as though that is our immediate family out of our church family... We are growing in Christ and watching the families grow as well... It has been an amazing five years and look forward to the years ahead... I feel that when you get involved in an ABF Class you will be blessed also... Thanks Tim and Mylinda for sharing your lives with us, and to our awesome God for allowing us to worship him.
Billy K.
Hey Tim,
I just want to say "Thank you" for being such a dedicated ABF teacher. Thank you for being a dedicated man of God, role-model, studier of the Word and being prepared every week to teach the rest of us in ABF. I've been in S.S. all my life, but I've learned more under your teaching than anywhere else.
I love your enthusiasm, spit-firing teaching, and telling it like it is. I thank your lovely wife Mylinda, also for all the behind the scenes work that she does. I'm so thankful for our church, our pastor, and all the wonderful teachers and ministries. God has certainly blessed Bowling Green with Living Hope Baptist Church!
Kris Bridgman
Even if someone in the class is not known very well, if there is a need we reach out to each other. That can reach more people than just saying you will think of them.
Laurel O'Connor
My wife and I would like express our gratitude and give praise to God for all of the people placed in our path the last few years in our efforts to start a family. While the medical professionals were a huge blessing, it was the prayers of ABF and the church that got our daughter, Macie, here to us. So many prayers on our behalf were lifted up to Him and we are still to this day blessed with many words of support for us. We are so thankful for our ABF and the efforts of Tim and Melinda. Tim is a man of God and challenges other men to step up and join him. I am encouraged by the words Tim uses that God has placed on his heart. My dad and I look forward to our second year going to the Man to Man Retreat. While it did draw us closer together, it drew us even closer to God. I would strongly encourage ALL men to "step up" and take stock of your role as husband, father, son, and/or brother and realize you are the apple of His eye and there is no greater love than His love for us. See you all October 23 and 24.
Brian Womack
In a church the size of Living Hope it is easy to worship anonymously. To be honest, that was part of the appeal Living Hope had for me when my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I first started coming here. As God began to grow my faith, just coming to worhip service wasn't enough. We began attending ABF. I have no doubt that God has used the teaching, discussion, and fellowship in our class to reveal Himself and His will and to bless me and my family with friends and support when we needed it most. I am very grateful to Tim, Mylinda and all the other men and women who serve. If you aren't attending an ABF you are missing a tremendous blessing!
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