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, Texas. 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]

Contents

[edit] History

Within six months of its 1998 founding [2], 1,500 people were attending Sunday worship services at Stonebriar’s temporary location, the Preston Ridge campus of Collin County Community College. In 2001, the church opened the doors of a new, 100,000-square-foot building. By 2005, Sunday attendance was averaging 4,000 adults and 1,200 children, prompting the church to begin planning another building expansion.

In 2002, Stonebriar Community Church identified Chhattisgarh, a state in central India, as its strategic missions focus [3]. 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.

Swindoll married his wife, Cynthia Swindoll, in 1955. Ordained into the ministry in 1963, he held pastorates in Massachusetts, Irving, Texas, and Fullerton, California. 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, as stated on their website [4]:

“
  • We believe that the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God and without mistakes as originally written. It is the complete revelation of His will for salvation and the only unfailing rule of faith and practice for the Christian life.
  • We believe in one God, Creator of all things, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that these three are co-eternal and of equal dignity and power.
  • We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ; His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit; His virgin birth ; His sinless life; His substitutionary death on a cross; His bodily resurrection; His ascension to the right hand of the Father; and His personal, imminent return.
  • We believe that man was created by and for God; that by man's disobeying God, every person incurred spiritual death, which is separation from God, and physical death as a consequence; and that all people are sinners by nature and practice.
  • We believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins and that all who believe in Him are declared righteous because of His sacrificial death and are, therefore, in the right relationship with God.
  • We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit indwelling all believers and thus enabling and empowering the life and ministry of the believer.
  • We believe in the bodily resurrection of everyone who has lived, the everlasting blessedness of those in right relationship with God, and the everlasting punishment of those who have rejected God's forgiveness in His Son.
 ”

[edit] External links