Stonebriar Community Church

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Stonebriar Community Church is a nondenominational, evangelical Christian church in Frisco, Texas, a fast-growing suburb north of Dallas. The church was founded in 1998 by a group of individuals including Senior Pastor Chuck Swindoll, whose sermons are broadcast worldwide on the radio program Insight for Living. The church’s stated mission is “to encourage all people to pursue a lifelong, joyous relationship with Jesus Christ.”

1 History
2 Senior Pastor
3 Core Beliefs
4 External links

[edit] History

Within six months of its 1998 founding, 1,500 people were attending Sunday worship services at Stonebriar’s temporary location, Collin County Community College in Frisco, Texas. In 2001, the church opened the doors of a new, 100,000-square-foot building. By 2005, Sunday attendance averaged 4,000 adults and 1,200 children, prompting the church to begin planning another building expansion.

In 2002, Stonebriar Community Church identified a state in central India as its strategic missions focus. The church’s goal is to train 1,000 national pastors, build 1,000 churches, and see 500,000 people become Christians in 10 years. By 2006, 280 men and women had earned theology diplomas, and 230 national pastors were leading 750 churches and home groups with an estimated total of 20,000 members.

[edit] Senior Pastor

Charles R. “Chuck” Swindoll has served as senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church since its founding. Swindoll was born in El Campo, Texas, in 1934. After serving with the U.S. Marine Corps, he entered Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) in Dallas, Texas, in 1959. Four years later, he graduated magna cum laude with honors. Swindoll also has received honorary doctoral degrees from Talbot School of Theology, Pepperdine University, Dallas Baptist University, and Taylor University in Indiana.

Swindoll married his wife, Cynthia Swindoll, in 1955. Ordained into the ministry in 1963, he held pastorates in Massachusetts, Irving, and Fullerton. His radio ministry, Insight for Living, was launched in 1979 and in 2006 was broadcasting worldwide on some 2,000 stations. Swindoll assumed the presidency of DTS in 1994 and in 2001 accepted a position as the seminary’s chancellor. Many of Stonebriar’s pastors are DTS graduates.

[edit] Core Beliefs

Stonebriar Community Church holds the following seven, core beliefs:

1. The Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God, without mistakes as originally written. It is the complete revelation of God’s will for salvation and the only unfailing rule of faith and practice for the Christian life.

2. There is one God, Creator of all things, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and these three are co-eternal and of equal dignity and power.

3. Jesus Christ is God. He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on a cross, was resurrected bodily, and ascended to heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand until His personal, imminent return.

4. Man was created by and for God. By man's disobedience of God, every person incurred spiritual death, which is separation from God, and physical death. All people are sinners by nature and practice.

5. The Lord Jesus Christ died to atone for people's sin, and all who believe in Him are declared righteous because of His sacrificial death and are, therefore, in right relationship with God.

6. The Holy Spirit currently indwells all believers and thus enables and empowers their lives and ministries.

7. Everyone who has lived will be resurrected bodily. Those in right relationship with God will be resurrected to everlasting blessedness, and those who have rejected God's forgiveness in His Son will be resurrectd to everlasting punishment.