Author: nick

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I Like The Way You Think: Encouraging the Church

think-lightbulbI was eating lunch with Jonothan, our worship leader, yesterday and he mentioned something I thought was pretty cool. So, since Jonothan does not blog and he just tweeted for the first time yesterday, I think I’ll post this myself. I like the way our people at New Passion think…it is scary what God can do through our church, if people will simply step out and follow what he is leading them to do.

Jonothan was talking about some of the books of the Bible he has been reading lately and mentioned that he noticed how Paul would travel to the various churches and would share what was taking place within the other churches, he would send encouragement from the other Christians that he was with at the time to those he was writing letters to. An example can be found Here and Here.

Jonothan mentioned that it would be a great ministry for someone to go around to other churches, spend time with them, and to find out what God is doing in their churches, not to copy them, or to enact their strategies, rather so they could come back to their home church and share the good news with their fellow believers. I believe it would be just as important and powerful to know how to pray for those other churches as well. Someone would not have to physically go to the churches, with Skype, Twitter, email, and phones, we could easily connect with a contact within the church that could speak for their body.

It’s funny. We’ll get on the internet and see what series another church is doing. We’ll go to conferences to see what new strategies and philosophies we can enact. But, if we can, we’ll take it and claim it as our own. I’m not pointing the finger, I’ve done it myself. However, I am trying to do a lot less of it. I want God to do new things through me and through New Passion, so I don’t want to bottleneck us where we are so reliant on doing what everyone else is doing. I think we as a church need to be willing to share what God is doing all over the world, through other churches. If it’s truly not a competition we should be willing to encourage our believers with what God is doing with the believers next door and in the next town.

Anyway, no telling what will ever come of this idea. I think it was a great thought. It’s definitely something new. I don’t know of anyone else who is taking time or giving space to spotlight what God is doing in other churches, but we sure like to brag on ourselves.

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If Your Scars Could Speak

cuttingscarsEveryone has scars.

Some are physical, while others are emotional and mental.

I have a scar in the bend of my right arm. I was around 5 years old and my mom had to stop by my grandma’s house, she told me to stay in the car while she quickly ran in. My sister had a better idea, I should get out of the car and call our friend Nikki (No, not my wife Nicki) to come to the fence, where we used to play and talk. I guess I figured by climbing the fence Nikki would hear me better, so I started to climb the fence to yell out her name, I got it out nice and loud one time, and then my foot slipped. This was an old school security fence with the two metal spikes sticking out of the top, not the modern day safety kind with the knots. My arm went right through the fence like a warm knife through butter. The next noise I made was a scream for my mom, she had to lift me off the fence, as I was dangling there from my arm. I don’t think I got a spanking for disobeying on that occasion, I guess my mom thought my lesson had been learned. My scar tells a story of how mom’s know what’s best for her children, and how children should obey their mom’s.

I have three scars from an emergency appendectomy. They tell numerous stories.

I wonder, if your physical, emotional, or mental scars could speak, what would they say?

Yesterday, at New Passion, we focused on how our life stories are intended to bring God glory. Everyone’s life story contains some type of wound. We tend to want to hide those elements of our story. We like to tell the good stuff, like when we met our significant other, or when our child was born, or we’ll tell about the time we landed that dream job.

However, I believe God wants our life story to tell of His story. One of the ways he does that is through our scars. Scars tell powerful stories. They tell an even more powerful story about God, if  we let it.

We cannot have a scar unless we first had a wound that has been healed.

God wants to heal our wounds (emotional, physical, mental) so that, our life story can tell his story. Even the difficult things in life that we experience are not about us, they are about God. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “…God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.” I believe one way we are able to reconcile people back to God is by not covering up our scars, but rather let them tell a story…the story of how God healed them. Have you ever considered, that the story of how God redeemed & healed you, may be the very help the next person needs who is carrying around the same wound you once carried? It may be that you are still walking around with open wounds, and you need God to heal you first?

Join the Conversation…What is a story your scar could tell?

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No I am Not Pedophile Pastor Nicholas Carnes

nicholascarnespedophileThe image you are looking at on the left is a picture of Pedophile Pastor Nicholas Carnes. Just for clarification, he is a pedophile, not a pastor.

If you have come to this site because you are searching for him or his church, this is not it. I apologize. I used to be a youth pastor, but am now the lead pastor of New Passion Church in Grovetown, Georgia. (About Me Page)

Pedophile Nicholas Carnes, was the youth director at several local churches in Port Huron, Michigan. I am not sure which church specifically.

I understand that this pedophile is a sinner and loved by God just like everyone else, however, Jesus said the following, “It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin.” Luke 17:2

What I know is that police have enough evidence to arrest him, however, I do not know that he harmed any students in his care, however, parents have come forward and reported that they were uncomfortable with his actions with their children and they  reported their concerns to the church and the church did nothing. I pray he did not harm one of the young teens in his care.

Although I am upset that Nicholas has hurt the name we share and the name of a real life hero, in addition to pastors and youth pastors. This is a sober reminder that we as the church must be aware of who we put into leadership, do background checks for all of our ministry environments that care for minors, and keep our eyes open at all times.

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Velocity 2010 Session and Breakout Notes

velocity-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planting Conference

Mountain Lake Church was not able to ramp up their bandwidth for the WIFI network in time for the Velocity 2010 Church Planters Conference. This was like a forced Blogging and Twitter fast for me, but it wasn’t a bad thing. All of my attention was on the speakers and taking old school notes 🙂

Here is a landing page for all of the notes I was able to take (now posted on my blog) for each session, except session 5, and for the Breakouts I attended, some of the notes may not make any sense to you, they probably will not make much sense to me once I go back and review some of them, because several of the speakers had in-depth studies and terms that I couldn’t record before they moved on:

Main Session 1: Shawn Lovejoy
Main Session 2: Alan Hirsch
Main Session 3: Steven Furtick
Breakout Session 2: Pete Wilson
Main Session 4: Dave Gibbons
Breakout Session 3: Tony Morgan
Main Session 6: Rick Warren

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Velocity 2010 – Rick Warren

rickwarren-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planting Conference

Session 6 Speaker: Rick Warren

If God has called you to be a church planter, do not STEP down to do anything else…not even the President of the United States. This is the greatest calling.

1,000 Years from today, if Jesus does not come back, all Kingdoms will have fallen, but the church will still be standing.

If you can grasp that God created me to love me, I should never struggle with inferiority again.
No need for posing, masks, being cool, etc. Because God chose me.

Nothing matters more than the church.

Do All for the Global Glory of God.

The more important your job, the more humble you must be.

What the church is doing will outlast anything Bill Gates, Any Country Leader, Famous Musicians, or Famous Athlete does.

We need new churches for new generations.

Spread the major mistakes around. Challenge staff to make 1 major mistake a week J

Rick’s Rules for Church Planting:

1.    Don’t take early losses seriously – They don’t determine the outcome of your church.
-Ignore your early losses…Rome was not built in a day, neither is a church.

A mushroom takes 6 hours to build; an oak tree takes 60 years. Do you want a mushroom or an oak tree as a church?

Legitimate growth is conversion growth.

Focus on membership & discipleship, not on the crowd or the numbers.

The measure of a church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.

It’s not a sin to be a small church, it is disobedient to be a small minded church.

If you want the anointing of God in your life & his blessings; your life must be built on humility, integrity, and generosity.

These are the antidote to the three Greatest Traps of Ministry and Leadership:

The Kingdom of God needs us to FINISH WELL. It does not need us to flame out.

Satan is entirely predictable. His main 3 temptations are:

1.    Lust of the Flesh is the temptation to Feel – Anything that makes you feel good. (Hedonism) (Pleasure) [Sex]

2.    Lust of the Eyes is the temptation to Have –
(Possessions) [Salary]

3.    Pride of Life is the temptation to Be – Desire to be worshipped, envied
(Position) [Status]

(I John 2:16, 18)

Never confuse your self-worth with your net-worth

Jesus was tempted to use what was given for ministry to feed him-self.

Satan wants to tempt us to use our gifts on ourselves, verses for the ministry and what God has called us to.

Jesus was tempted to be spectacular with the gift he was given.

Satan will tempt us to be spectacular.

Glory comes from suffering, not showing off.

You don’t have to be original in everything that you do.

Church planters need to study a lot of the first 1500 years of the church for deep roots.

Jesus was tempted with things.

Satan will tempt us to develop a spirit of expectation that we deserve things because of what we’ve done.

Antidotes to these 3 Temptations:

1.    Integrity – From Integer “A unit of one” – Our life is one, we are not separated into sects, we are one.
“Titanic Trap” – – You cannot compartmentalize your life. If you try, you lack integrity.
A hole in your life is a hole in your life and it will sink
You never sin privately, you are affecting your family, your church, and others you influence.
You don’t have to be perfect to have integrity, you have to be authentic.

2.    Generosity (antidote to the lust of the eyes) –
The way you spend your money shows what you value.
The more I give the more I become like Jesus.
You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.
Every time you give you break the hold of materialism in your life.

3.    Humility – (antidote to
It means you don’t give yourself the title “Apostle”
If you have to have a big title you’re not humble.

Titles mean nothing, what matters is do you love people?

Don’t give in to false humility:

God created you, Jesus died for you, the Holy Spirit lives in you. You are not junk.

Humility is not denying your strengths, but being honest about your weaknesses.

We grow fastest and best through models.

It’s better to have someone following a person who is trying to do right versus someone who isn’t trying at all.

Someone who is not teachable is not humble.

Be humble or you will stumble.

Lesson from the whale – When you get to the top and get ready to blow, that’s when they harpoon you.

How do you bring people through the front door and out the back to get involved in missions? You better have an intentional process.

It’s not about looking cool, it’s about meeting needs.

If you are going to last and make it to the end…you must understand the 6 phases of faith:

When God does any miracle…he takes it through 6 phases of faith:

God…

1.    Gives a Dream

2.    Decision (choose to go after it) – Dreams are unimportant if they are not moved on.

3.    Delay – Always a delay (New Passion 3 years) – God is not a vending machine. God is more interested in the individual than the dream.

4.    Difficulty – You will face all types of problems (Critics, Lack of Resources)

5.    Dead-End – The death of a vision

6.    Deliverance – God likes to turn difficulties into possibilities; He then gets the glory, not us.

Every time we hit a dead-end, God does not want to help us, he wants to do a miracle.

I got to meet Rick Warren, one of my all time Spiritual Influences

Velocity Conference: Main Session 1 Highlights – – Main Session 2 Highlights – – Main Session 3 Highlights – – Breakout Session 2 with Pete Wilson Highlights – – Main Session 4 Highlights – – Breakout Session 3 with Tony Morgan Highlights