Author: nick

Posted on

Throw Me in the Lab and Make Me an Experiment

lab-equipmentI often want to have all of the answers. Its not always fun walking by this thing we call faith. The more I walk in faith the more I realize that it is by walking in faith that it increases and I learn how to live in it more regularly. It still doesn’t make it easy. I posted about my desire at times for a flashlight HERE last week. Without faith to fully trust God, I wonder how deep our Christianity really goes? Today, I was reading some more of Oswald Chambers and was really inspired by what he wrote…

Getting There
June 13

“. . . come, follow Me” Luke 18:22

Where our individual desire dies and sanctified surrender lives. One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of our own individual temperament. We make our temperament and our natural desires barriers to coming to Jesus. Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself (see Romans 12:1). If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you- and His experiments always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.

If you abandon everything to Jesus, and come when He says, “Come,” then He will continue to say, “Come,” through you. You will go out into the world reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come.” That is the result in every soul who has abandoned all and come to Jesus.

Have I come to Him? Will I come now?

Two things stood out to me on this devotional:

  1. “Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours.” – Talk about TOTAL surrender. Jesus pays no attention to our natural desires. Does this mean that there is nothing about our humanity that can make a difference in the spiritual realm? Don’t get me wrong. I totally believe that God uses us, humans, flesh and blood, to make a difference and to advance his kingdom. However, I believe that without the power of God, we are powerless. I love where Chambers says, “You cannot dedicate what is not yours.” – I believe he is telling us that it is through these gifts that God has given to us that we are given the power to advance his Kingdom, not through our own physical or mental capacities. I wonder how effective I could be for Christ, if I would just stop (trying to figure things out in my own intellect & doing things in my own power) and fully surrender to His idea for my life?
  2. “If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you- and His experiments always succeed.” – I am posting the definition of Experiment for my readers, but I didn’t need it to grasp what was being said right off. This is awesome! EXPERIMENT = A test, trial, or tentative procedure; an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown.– If we totally surrender our lives; our abilities, our intellect, our wills…God will throw us in his lab and make us his  personal experiment. He will make us into an instrument to do something that is totally new, totally unknown, totally unique. I see men and women all over the world that God is using in tremendous ways, and a part of me envies them. I don’t envy them to be known or famous, but I envy what God uses them to do, the changes they inspire, the effect they have. I want God to throw me in his lab and make me his personal experiment. How about you? What’s your thoughts?
Posted on

Its Bigger Than Me

white-background

I was driving home Sunday night from guest preaching at a church out in the country. Since I was all by myself, I decided to come back by way of Grovetown, the city where we are planting New Passion. Anytime I get a chance, I love to drive through there and to think about our plans, to dream up new ideas, and to ask God what it is  that He’s specifically thinking.

Sunday night I felt prompted to take a few new turns in the city as I was driving through.  Ever since I first drove to Grovetown and prayed about launching a church there, I’ve had specific neighborhoods that I’ve kept my eyes on and I’ve watched them over the last couple of years grow tremendously with new people and new families. As I turned down these new roads Sunday, I could not believe my eyes. Its the same feeling I get every time I take this kind of drive in Grovetown.

I was blown away! I could not believe all of the new homes being built in the crevices of this city. Ever since I stepped out to launch New Passion, I’ve understood and known that this whole thing is BIGGER than me. However, every time I go to the city, I drive away feeling overwhelmed and with a greater & sobering feeling that this thing REALLY is Bigger than me!

I wish I could put into words the potential that lies in neighborhoods 0-2 miles from where we will be meeting. Soldiers, Couples, Children, Teenagers, College Students, and Single people…they are all there! People who need Jesus in one way or another in their life. The potential is not people to grow a church, the potential is people who need to be introduced to Jesus. Our churches external reach has huge potential within the community with all of the new residents moving in, but our potential on a local level for our external reach increases dramatically when considering that most of the existing neighborhoods are 0-2 miles from where we will be having services as well. Believe me, the 8 main churches within the main city are not even touching the existing residence with the Gospel, there is no way they can reach all of the new growth alone, especially if they are not going to add services or change the way they currently meet. Don’t get me wrong. A churches reach does not always show in their attendance, but I believe attendance says a lot about the health of the church. 8 churches in the main city of Grovetown are reaching on average 235 households! (Avg. 29 households per church) New Passion is all about the Kingdom. Our goal is not to come into Grovetown and uproot the existing churches or try to overshadow them. Our goal is to add more people to the Kingdom. Consider us the spiritual reinforcements if you would like.

I wish I could get everyone to see the potential like I see it. I wish I could convince Christians who are simply sitting in a chair at some church or out of church doing nothing or not being used to strap their work shoes on and come help us launch new passion. I wish I could get selfish people to be selfless and to reach out of their comfort zone to see lives changed. I believe the world can be changed from Grovetown, GA. I believe a generation can be transformed from Grovetown, GA. I believe God wants to do something amazing with New Passion. I believe it takes people to reach people.

I’ll just be honest here…When I see the potential for what God can use us for in Grovetown and then I see where he is placing us. I want to run BEG everyone I know to partner with us and make this thing happen. But then I remember…that wouldn’t be smart! This thing is bigger than me and I want God to build it with the team he has planned. So, if you will, continue to pray that God will build this amazing team.

Posted on

Church Planting: Can I At Least Have A Flashlight?

I read this devotion from Oswald Chambers the other night…I thought it defined my journey as a church planter pretty accurately. Sometimes I wish I just had a flashlight to see some of the things lying before me. At times I think a flashlight would make things easier. When I talk to people about joining our team…honestly, I understand their squirminess. Church planting is tough. I can say that with integrity now. It requires total reliance on God. Some people are not willing to do that. We absolutely will not take a step unless we can see what it is that’s lying in the grass ahead of us…what Oswald talks about is a scary, dangerous life of reckless abandon:

“Yes-But…!”

“Lord, I will follow You, but…” (Luke 9:61)

Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but-suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what he asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”

Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventerous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be time when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.

By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis-only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.

When God gives you a challenge. Do you wait for Him to give you a flashlight? Or are you daring enough to invest your faith in the character of God and taking a leap into the dark?

Posted on

New Passion Church: Foundations Part 2

foundations

I’m a Spiritual Mutt.

I was born a Nazarene, attended an Assembly of God Church when we lived in a small town with limited church choices; I’ve been an Independent Baptist, am now a Southern Baptist, and I work for a Presbyterian Church.

Each church has played a role in helping shape who I am. Even the Presbyterian church that I work for has helped shape and grow me in various ways. One does not have to attend a service to be impacted by the ministry of a church.

Several months ago I attended a 4 day “Basic Training” for church planters. At the training, Steve, and I outlined the vision, the mission, Core values, and the target of New Passion Church. We came up with a fancy statement for both the vision and the mission. It’s really cool. We used some really creative words and tried to stay away from words that would make people remember the 1970’s, even though I wasn’t born until the glorious 80’s. (This is a random paragraph, but will make sense soon)

Here’s the bottom line. What makes New Passion Unique to Other Churches?

Simply…We are a different piece of the puzzle.

The truth is…our mission statement most likely says the same thing that 98% of mission statements from other churches in the U.S. say. Our Vision is probably identical to 98% of all other churches in the U.S. Different churches may use different styles or words, but the substance is identical. The driving force behind all Bible believing churches & Christians should be the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. This is not a debate of whether those churches are fulfilling it, but they most likely have a statement from some time in their history that points them towards fulfilling it as their goal. It would be presumptuous of me to say what other churches are doing when I do not sit in on their leadership meetings or know the heartbeat of their pastors. I can form a personal opinion based on their activities in the community and/or around the world, but that is missing the point.

Ephesians 4:4&5 says that we have ONE Lord, ONE faith and are ONE body. 1 Peter 3:8 we are told to be of ONE mind. 1 Corinthians 12 says that we are ONE body with many parts. I believe Christ holds the big picture in his hand. We are his church and I believe we all play specific and certain roles. Can churches go off and do their own thing and become ineffective and dead? Definitely! Thousands of churches have fallen into that trap. But the bottom line is this, we are not in competition with each other, we are all commanded to have the same goal in mind. Perry Noble said it best at the Unleash Conference, “Churches need to move beyond seeing each other as competition and start recognizing that we complete each other” (My paraphrase). Christ has our piece of the puzzle laid out for us. He’s given us clear instructions on how we are to lay that piece of the puzzle in place (Great Commission & Commandment), what he does with our piece of the puzzle is totally up to him.

I can hope all day long to have a mega-church or a medium sized church or a church like most people envision that looks like we’re reaching the Cleavers from Leave it to Beaver. In the end, New Passion Church is going to obey Christ and what he does with us, is totally up to him. However, we will NEVER allow death to be an excuse to not reach people. I’ve personally seen churches that were ineffective make the claim that “Maybe Jesus wants us to be a small church.” Jesus may want a church to be small, but that is not reflective of life change. A church can be small and still have a mega reach around the world. When a church stops seeing people saved and stops seeing disciples made, it has begun to be disobedient.

I don’t care what you are…Presbyterian, Independent Baptist, Southern Baptist, or any of the other 100+ Baptists, Nazarene, Wesleyan, or you name it. I don’t care if you are traditional, contemporary, if you sing hymns or if you have a band. I don’t care if you use chairs or pews, if you have a big building or you meet outside…we are all a piece of the puzzle. As soon as we start believing that we have our own puzzle to put together is when we quit being at our maximum potential as the body of Christ to reach a lost world who needs Jesus. Has that happened? Yes…everyday! However, New Passion Church will not function in that manner. We are all about the Kingdom, not about our church.

P.S. YES! I have heard that Stevens Creek Church is starting a Columbia County campus in Grovetown. NO! That does not change God’s calling for New Passion Church. I am excited that Stevens Creek is coming to Grovetown. God is using them greatly in Augusta and I hope we can be effective together in Grovetown. We are on two opposite sides of town, but I would LOVE it if we can serve this community together in any capacity! Our goal is to bring Christ glory and to share the Gospel with the world.

Read New Passion Church: Foundations Part 1