Brianne Henry

I serve on the Early Childhood Committee at our church. One of our biggest challenges in our latest meetings is our very real need for more adults to work in the church nursery. A few friends from my Sunday School class can remember just a couple years ago when there were only two couples who regularly attended what is now my Sunday School class. My class recently went from one class to two classes, due to growth. When we moved here in June, Cooper was the only baby in the nursery during Sunday School and many times, it was just him and another little girl in the nursery on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Lately, we have regularly been having at least five kiddos on Sunday and Wednesday nights and many more than that on Sunday mornings. So our plea has been real. We've taken cute pictures of kids and written bubbles above their heads with funny comments. We've made "Help Wanted" signs and had kids hold them up after church. But it's not really working. So I got to ...

In the past few days I have seen multiple people sharing multiple articles about all the things the Church is doing wrong. From the top ten reasons visitors don’t come back to the newest trends for 2015. Studying church is a good thing – keeping visitors is a great thing – change is hard, but typically good. I’ve also noticed people who used to be pastors or individuals I once knew as the church-going type to have completely dropped off the pulpit and the pews. What’s the deal? Each of us will never find a church that does exactly what we want it to. The pastor will never preach the exact sermon each member wants to hear each week. The Women’s Ministry leader will never be able to find a Bible study that each woman in the group loves. The Youth Pastor will not choose events that are each student's favorite things to do each month. The song leader may *gasp* throw a hymn into the song service every once in a while. Church is doing life together. Doing life together is hard. It ...

What a good time of year to sit and reflect over the past twelve months. My life is pretty normal – to me. But I really do believe that other people view it as…not quite so normal. Just in the past twelve months I have had three addresses, moved to a different state, sold a house, and bought a house. Luke and I strive to follow where God leads us and that isn’t always easy. Today I would like to share the toughest thing that happened in 2014. I do know that our biggest blessing piggybacks on my toughest situation. Isn’t that how it usually works? Hard. Tearful. Embarrassing. Mortifying actually. That is how I would sum up 2014’s toughest situation.   This is difficult for me to type and I know will be even more difficult to actually post, but I believe it’s all part of the healing process. Let’s just rip the Band-Aid off here – In April, I was told my contract at the school I was teaching at would not be renewed. Whew, glad that’s over. I’m swallowing my pride and there’s a bi...

My Facebook feed is filled with hate - mostly about people. Ranging from articles bashing the Ferguson protestors (and no, I'm not on their side) to articles bashing the Duggar's for the number of kids they have (and yes, I secretly love the Duggar's) to posts ranting about a teacher or coach to someone complaining about their significant other. Some may see it as sharing a viewpoint or voicing their opinion, maybe even sharing a funny story. But, let's be real. It's hate. Plain and simple. If I had the courage, I would remove the Facebook app from my phone. But the withdrawal may just kill me. I would unfollow people who spread hate like wildfire, but then I wouldn't know it was happening. And my heart wouldn't break for it. Someone's heart needs to break for it, may as well be mine. 1 John 4:16..."so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him....

I have had an old prayer journal sitting on my nightstand for weeks. I think we came across it when unpacking boxes and it’s precious to me so I put it there. Today, I cracked it open and skimmed over it quickly. It covered from early 2012 until about the time Cooper was born. It’s full, but apparently I got busy with a baby and didn't start a new one. It’s time to start journaling my prayers again. Want to know why? Because as I read through that book filled with my handwriting, I noticed it. Over and over again. Answered prayer. Answered prayer. Answered prayer. They weren’t answered at that moment. But in God’s timing, they were made perfect and complete. Here’s one entry that I wanted to share… 4/7/13: “I yearn to stay home with my baby…Lord, I asked that you please provide me with this opportunity. I know it may not be now, but you know my heart and how much I want this.” I would have been about six(ish) months pregnant here. Even then, I “yearned” to be h...

I love to write (as is obvious by the length of this post). It's good for my soul - quite literally. But I haven't written hardly anything of substances for well over a year. Working full-time, having a baby and moving will do that to you I guess. But writing...it's good for me. I could choose to write in a journal and keep it all locked up to myself, but I think it's good to share. Maybe not many people will read it, maybe some will be put-off by the topics I choose. But maybe one person will be touched and think, really think hard, about their walk with Christ because of my writing. That's my prayer. Here's my attempt to get back into the world of writing about what God lays on my heart. For the past six weeks, I've been immersed in the book of James. I am facilitating a high school Bible study on Wednesday nights and attending a Bible study on Thursday mornings covering James also. I am by no means an expert, but studying it at the same time two differe...

I have written a blog post or two before about how I wanted to be bold for Christ at the school I worked at in Kansas. Now I'm 275 miles away from that place. I am friends on Facebook with a few students from there. It seems as though some of them are having a hard time right now, from what I can see, someone passed away. A person who was young. Who had a lot of life ahead of them. And the people left behind are struggling. Struggling to find hope in a tough situation. I stopped. And I prayed. "God, please give _____ hope. Show them Your grace, peace and love." And then I thought about who was going to share this hope with them? How would these young people hear the Word of God? Mostly likely, they won't. I wasn't immersed in this community, but I knew those kids. Many of those kids did not know Jesus. And I am feeling broken for them. I have been reading the book of Acts the past couple weeks. Those guys were bold. Real bold. They prayed for boldness in Chapt...