Why We Don’t Beg People to Stay

January 31, 2011 By nick 6 Comments

I have a firm rule as a pastor. I DO NOT beg (or ask) people to stay at New Passion.

I’ve always had my reasons why, but this verse, though simple, is very profound, I couldn’t have said it better myself…

These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us. 1 John 2:19

Here are a few of my (personal) reasons…

1. Protection – Jesus warned against false prophets who come in the church dressed as one of the sheep, but are as vicious wolves on the inside (Matthew 7:15). I believe this verse can be extended beyond “prophets” to those who would prey on the flock God has entrusted into my leadership and the leadership of the other church leaders. It is my responsibility to care for this flock that Jesus entrusted to me (1 Peter 5:2 “Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly…“)

    Why do “wolves” prey on the flock?
  • Sexual Gain – There are people who’ll infiltrate the church to manipulate members of the opposite sex for sexual gain.
  • Financial Gain – There are people, especially in businesses who rely on sales, marketing, and networking who will infiltrate the church to prey on others financially to build their own businesses and to profit personally from the people within the church. This is one of the reasons the “rich” and “successful” people flock to the largest churches in town, it’s good for business because there’s more people to “befriend.” And we all know that’s why Jesus established His church.
  • Wicked Intentions – The fact is…there are evil people in this world and they have wicked intentions (whatever category they fall in). You are not going to convert a wolf into a vegetarian. Their nature is to devour meat. A “spiritual” wolf’s nature is to produce wickedness. Their goal is to cause chaos and destruction in the church. As Matt Chandler once asked, [paraphrased] “Would you dip your kids in blood and allow them to play with wolves?” “So why would we be okay with wolves hanging around our flock?

2. Preferences – The fact is, everyone has different preferences when it comes to church, and New Passion is not for everyone. We understand that and we are okay with that. Some people like chocolate ice cream, others prefer vanilla, while smart people (like me) choose strawberry. An Italian came along one day and decided he’d put all three together and it became known as “Neapolitan” Ice Cream. This would later become the blueprint for the church that offers a little bit of everything for everyone with a traditional service, contemporary service, Sunday School, and Small Groups. That’s okay for them, but it’s not for us. Our style is modern. Some people like a traditional style of worship or even a more toned down contemporary style. We know that people are going to come check us out and not everyone will be looking for what we are offering. That’s okay! It would be pointless to try and beg people to stay in an environment that they are uncomfortable with.

3. Prompting – Bottom-line, God leads people away from ministries in order to use them in other places. To try  and convince people to “stay” with your ministry is selfish and could serve as potential confusion for those trying to discern the still small voice of God that is prompting them to serve in another capacity within another ministry. This is usually easy to recognize because these people will be faithful servants already serving or attempting to serve in the church where God placed them for that season. Some people will use this as an excuse to make it easier to leave because they fear confrontation and it’s pretty easy to discern, because they aren’t really faithfully serving in the present where they are at. Let them go! If we have someone who is faithfully serving, but feels God is prompting them to move to another ministry, we will do our very best to support them and pray for them as God uses them in a new capacity.

    I was never the guy that dated a girl, broke up, dated again, broke up, dated again, etc, etc. I just didn’t see the point. I’ve been a part of churches where people would go to the leadership and announce that they felt it was time they found another church and through various forms of manipulation and “new” positions and jobs within the church, they would feel guilty and stay. In the end, the results were the same, but they spent several more months in misery. The reality is, no one can give me a single reason why any church or leader or pastor should beg anyone to stay…..yeah I didn’t think so.

    If you start the habit of babying people, you have to keep it up! If you beg people to stay because they are big givers, well, then I believe you are a faithless, hireling, and people’s money will always control you.

    Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. This is solely my personal opinion :)

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    Confessions about the Chaos

    November 28, 2010 By nick 5 Comments

    I was 5 seconds from confessing that I made a mistake in the way we did our stripped service today at New Passion.

    But….I can’t confess making a mistake by being obedient to what I felt like God wanted us to do.

    I felt God wanted us to do service the way we did service, so I have no apologies for that.

    I found this statement by Perry Noble today as I was surfing through some of his old blog posts:

    Leadership doesn’t mean we play it safe…it means we are the first to face our fears and embrace the unknown so that the path is cleared out for those who follow.

    As the pastor I am always faced with an onslaught of two choices: 1. Obey or 2. Disobey. 1. Take risks or 2. Play it safe. 1. Do hard things or 2. Stick with what comes easy. And with each choice made, there is only one person responsible for making the right choice. Me. My leaders are responsible whether or not they follow well.

    The service today was VERY unconventional for our church, but churches do “Family Services” all the time, while churches who have to meet in secret (I.E. Underground churches) consistently meet with the family together. BUT, here’s what I must confess….

    • I don’t completely think things through at times, so a couple of things caught me by surprise….
    • As a young child I attended service with my parents A LOT and I was taught to sit in a pew and listen or at least kneel in the pew and draw.
    • I never thought 15 kids would be running loose, I expected some noise and some movement, but I imagined kids would physically be with their parents (like our first family service last year).
    • Since I never imagined kids would be running wild, we didn’t have a plan in place to prevent that kind of chaos.
    • I am not convinced that my whole team was completely on-board with this decision, much less the entire church, I saw a few people VERY Uncomfortable, but that’s why I have to make these decisions. Some people may have enjoyed the chaos to try and ‘teach me a lesson‘ to not pull something off as crazy as this again. It’s clear to me everyone has not grasped the vision of what we are doing when they have to take a dismissive stance on what’s taking place. It’s basically saying, “Blame the pastor…don’t blame me!“
    • So I did make a mistake and that was a lack of planning and a lack of instruction in the beginning to ask parents to keep their kids with them in their possession (part of my defense is being in the middle of the ocean without phone or internet access for the last 7 days).
    • Saying that, I am 100% happy we did the service the way we did it and I think it was the right thing to do!

    So, we live and we learn on the rest of it :)

    Here’s what I hope was the outcome of the service:

    1. I hope people were uncomfortable. Sometimes it requires us to touch the stove when it’s hot to believe we’ll get burned. Sometimes we have to ‘show’ people what we are talking about through the discomfort of reality.
    2. I hope everyone gained a new respect for the various children environments that we offer every Sunday morning and the “extra” elements that our team work hard to provide (I.E. Information banners and tables, Coffee and refreshments in the Cafe, Etc.)
    3. I especially hope that people grasp the vision that our PassionKidz environments are a huge tool both in leading children to a passionate relationship with Jesus as well as adults. This is why it’s important to have committed workers every week in these areas.
    4. I hope people understand that whether we are a huge crowd or a small group, we are missing the point if we walk away or send people away saying MORE about the band or the pastor or any other ministry environment instead of declaring, “The Lord- He is God!” (1 Kings 18:39)
    5. I hope people grasp the fact that outside of Jesus…everything else might be ‘good’ (Lights, Band, Graphics, Video, Etc.) but it’s not ‘essential.’

    I am excited about the growth we’ve experienced at New Passion but I don’t want it to be growth  based on our talent alone, I want it to be growth produced by the Holy Spirit moving in people’s lives. Jesus calls us to a life of carrying our cross and yielding ourselves to Him and His way…that’s a very unpopular and uncomfortable message. Jesus had a lot of observers, but few engagers. I pray the Holy Spirit leads people our way who are willing to make Jesus their primary focus and will abandon comfort for the sake of the gospel. As David Platt says in his book Radical, Jesus Christ was the youngest minichurch pastor in history. Many liked the idea of being one of his disciples, but few were willing to pay the cost. As any pastor, I hope we continue to grow, but I hope it’s in a way that pleases the Lord.

    So my prayer for New Passion is that we would be so in tune with the Holy Spirit and be so willing to allow him to have HIS way that our people and those who come through our doors will walk away saying, “The Lord – He is God!”

    P.S. The Grove and The Ridge (and the Cafe) will be in full operation next week :)

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    Help Metro Ministries Win a New Roof!!!

    November 16, 2010 By nick Leave a Comment

    I would like to introduce you to a church and ministry in the inner-city of West Baltimore. Their name is Charm City Church and their pastor is Mike Kemper. You won’t find him on Facebook or Twitter but the church does have a website (charmcitychurch.org). The church cannot support Mike full-time so he works a full-time job during the week, like me to pay the bills. There is one thing special about this church, their people love people and they are doing all they can to bring revolutionary compassion to those most people in society would consider unlovable, dirty, broken, addicts, unwanted……..I have known Mike and his family for years, they have been great friends to our family. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk and he walks the talk. He has a genuine love for the people of his hometown. He is driven by the gospel of Jesus to see their lives changed.

    They have an amazing ministry called MetroKidz, led by Colleen Smith, where they weekly minister, mentor, and educate around 120 kids from one of the darkest and most crime-ridden areas of Baltimore City. I’ve personally visited their church and taken a missions trip to this area. I can’t describe it in a blog post, but I walked away about three years ago when Nicki and I went to visit and made a promise at that time that when we launched New Passion, Charm City Church would be part of our missions support. We’ve been able to do that over the last several months at $50 a month and because of the faithful giving of New Passion’s people, beginning in 2011, we are going to be able to increase that to $100 a month.

    But, all of us have the opportunity to help them right now and it will cost you nothing!!! Go to this link (right now): http://greenroofgiveaway.com/nominees/nominee-detail/?nominee_id=32 and vote for their ministry to win a new roof (up to a $30,000 value) for their building. You can vote everyday until the contest is over and I hope you will do that! It is easy and free…so why are you still reading this? Go! You can find out more about their ministry and watch a video while you are there voting….Go, Go, Go!

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    Some Gave All

    November 14, 2010 By nick 1 Comment

    “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Mark 10:21

    A lady asked to talk to me in private after service today, that always leaves a pastor a 50-50 chance that we are about to receive bad news. Thankfully, it wasn’t bad news at all. She informed me that she wrote New Passion into her will and that she was leaving EVERYTHING to the church…of course when she dies…which we hope is a long time from now :)

    I know, I know, this happens all the time to churches all over the place, but its never happened at New Passion, so I am celebrating what God is doing with our church (We’ve had people give us property and generous financial gifts, but not everything they own). Why is she giving everything to the church? She mentioned last week’s message, Setting Limits, where we talked about some issues that she said she has never, ever heard a pastor or a church talk about. Because she’s bought into our vision to lead people to a passionate relationship with Jesus. When we say people, we mean all people, and that’s what our Make War series has been all about. What’s the church’s role in issues like poverty, sex trafficking, human slavery, dirty water, illiteracy, malnutrition and other issues affecting people all around the world. She said she’s never been a part of a church that cares about people like New Passion does…so…way to go New Passion, keep loving people! It’s awesome to be a part of a church where people are willing to give what they have so the gospel of Jesus can be advanced!

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    Ten Turkey Thursday

    November 11, 2010 By nick 2 Comments

    one27-turkey-project

    Update: We raised all of the money to feed 30 families this Thanksgiving! Thank you all for your support and compassion for the people of Grovetown!

    If you can read this, you can help! New Passion is working with United We Care for our annual ONE:27 Turkey Project to provide 30 complete Thanksgiving meals for families who are in desperate financial need in the city of Grovetown. The bottom line is this, without our help, these families will not enjoy a Thanksgiving meal this year. For $20, you provide an entire family a whole turkey and all of the fixin’s. So far, New Passion has raised enough support for 20 25 of the 30 meals, and we are only providing a portion of the need. So far United We Care has approved 44 families for assistance. Can we just knock this out today?!

    Ten Turkey Thursday. Will you donate a tax-deductible $20 to provide a meal for a family in need? (If you can’t give $20, give what you can, it will all go towards the meals) Will you also help spread the word through your family and friends and through your social media networks? Please don’t just post the link…ask your friends to get involved and give!

    Can we wrap up these final 10 5 meals? I don’t know, you tell me by giving below…. :)

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    Be Radical, Make War

    November 10, 2010 By nick Leave a Comment

    radicalHey New Passion Family and Friends!

    I started reading a book called Radical by David Platt this week. I just started in Chapter 2 and I already regret that I did not start reading it before we began our Make War Series this past weekend. This is a MUST read, it is already confirming that we are on the right track with the Make War series and it’s helping solidify that we have to have a different perspective as a church (Yes, all of that in a chapter and a half).

    The best news is…Amazon has the book right now for $5.50!!! [Go Order] The cheapest I’ve found it outside of Amazon is $11+ at Wal-Mart. I highly recommend ordering this book and making it a study companion during our make war series!

    Check out the book’s video below:

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    Turkey Tuesday

    November 2, 2010 By nick 1 Comment

    one27-turkey-project

    I love Thanksgiving! Okay, except for the one two years ago when I had appendicitis and had to have emergency surgery, but the rest of my Thanksgiving memories have been awesome and full of great food and laughs with my family. It wasn’t necessarily the appendicitis that ruined my Thanksgiving two (almost three) years ago, it was the fact that I didn’t get to eat my traditional Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. I was really questioning God’s love that day :)

    I love Turkey and Dressing and the rest of the fixin’s, but it was miserable knowing and seeing everyone else getting to enjoy it while I got left out. That’s why I’m passionate about the ONE:27 Turkey Project that New Passion is hosting. We’ve set a goal to provide 30 complete Thanksgiving meals through United We Care for families in Grovetown, GA who are in financial need. We’ve supported 10 families already, so on this Turkey Tuesday, will you help us support the final 20 families? You can sponsor an entire family with a complete Thanksgiving dinner for only $20 (for multiple families multiply $20 by the number of families you want to help). Thank you for your participation and for making someone’s Thanksgiving one to remember!


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    Step by Step

    September 12, 2010 By nick Leave a Comment

    Today, New Passion Church turned one year old. It’s been fun to think back on what we as a church looked like one year ago today. The issues we dealt with, the worries, the questions. A lot has happened in one year. It’s easy to get bogged down in the busyness of life and the demands of what sits in front of us, but I think its a good thing to pause and remember the memories of the past. It’s a little weird, but they were good times and good memories. Check out these pictures of how just our worship band and environment have changed in one year! We went from Jonothan and a vocalist (Cyndie), down to just Jonothan, eventually Christa his wife joined him, and now it appears God is developing a full band for us (Read the Captions):

    jonothan_cyndie_onelight
    I asked for some “backlighting” to help with the video quality, so I got “backlighting”
    We progressed QUICKLY and within a week, we had two different colors for our backlighting. We were a happening church!
    We progressed QUICKLY and within a week, we had two different colors for our backlighting. We were a happening church!
    jonothan
    And then there was Jonothan…and his acoustic guitar.
    The whole set-up cannot be seen, but we finally worked our way up to some LED lights, a drummer (sometimes) two vocalists, and a bass player, oh yeah and a hazer.
    The whole set-up cannot be seen, but we finally worked our way up to some LED lights, a drummer (sometimes) two vocalists, and a bass player, oh yeah and a hazer.
    jonothan_keith_newestsetup
    Our newest set-up at Patriots Park and so far my favorite. The whole band cannot be seen, but it appears we have a full time drummer, bass player, vocalists, oh yeah, and amazingly I still have my worship leader. He has literally built this from the ground up!

    It’s really an understatement to say that God has been good to us. He would still be good to us if we had our green and purple light and Jonothan on his acoustic guitar.

    Take a few minutes and check out our recap video of how God has used New Passion over this past year:

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    The Space Between

    September 3, 2010 By nick Leave a Comment

    Check out this video from Pete Wilson, lead pastor at Cross Point Church, in Nashville, TN.

    This message (Relentlessly Dedicated) is from Cross Point’s 3D DNA series.

    If you are a Christ Follower and it doesn’t inspire you…I truly don’t know what to say. Watch it. Be inspired. Do something!

    I pray God would use our community of faith at New Passion to make the kind of impact Cross Point has locally and globally in our area.

    Reflections from the message:

    • The reference Pete made about 6 pennies, are you okay with that?
    • Pete referenced the average missions giving from the church was 2% and the average from individuals to the church was 2% – Are you okay with that?
    • Are you bored?
    • Do you buy into the consumerism approach to church? It’s got to fit within your mileage, its got to fit within your schedule, all of the programs, the style, the music has to fit you like a glove? Has church become about you?
    • How do you look at missions? Is it a program of the church? A great idea? Something you do when it fits your schedule and your budget? Or is it a part of your DNA?
    • How would your opinion about your problems change if you knew God would use it for his glory in the life of another person? (I.E. God used shadrach meshach and abednego in the fiery furnace to open the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar)

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    New Passion is Moving to Patriots Park

    September 1, 2010 By nick 3 Comments

    we-are-moving-header

    Hey New Passion Friends!

    We’ve been talking over the last three weeks about our move to Patriots Park on Sunday, September 12. I can’t wait! Many of you have expressed to me your excitement for this opportunity we have as a church. To make it even more exciting, we are also celebrating our 1 year birthday as a church on this same Sunday!

    To be honest, I was worried at first because typically when a church makes a big decision that God is leading them to, there are those detractors who let their displeasure of the decision be known to the world, and since we didn’t have any detractors within the church, I was a little worried whether or not this may be the opportunity from God that I thought it was. But then I was encouraged by Joshua 1. (vs 1-9) God gives specific instructions to Joshua (vs 10-15) Joshua passes those instructions on to the people and then in verse 16 the Scripture says this, “They [the people] answered Joshua, “We will do whatever you command us, and we will go wherever you send us.” I now believe that you, our New Passion family, are like those Israelites, and are simply in-tune to what God is leading us to as a church!

    Here’s Some of the Important Stuff You Need to Know:

    1. We are throwing a Birthday Bash for our people and the Community after service on the 12th to celebrate what God has done in and though New Passion in our first year. We want to highlight the memories while looking to the future of what God’s going to do next!
    2. We need you to sign-up to help with the Birthday Bash! This is one opportunity that we have to represent Jesus to our community. Go Here to sign-up as a volunteer, to loan us equipment, or to send us a birthday gift to help with the expenses.
    3. Our promo door hangers will be in very last minute as I said in our previous emails due to confirmations we had to wait on. When they arrive I am sending out a Red Alert Email with the various opportunities where you can meet us and hit the neighborhoods between their arrival and the 12th. It is vital, if you can help, to come and help us get the word out.
    4. Just-in case anyone else is wondering: We are not moving due to problems (a) in attendance (b) financially or (c) Fill in the Blank.
    5. In fact, we’ve grown 260% since our launch on September 13, 2009 and 13% over the last 5-weeks. If anything, that made the decision to move a little tougher!

    The Pros

    • We can set-up some Saturday evenings (if we need to) and we can set-up earlier on Sunday mornings for one set price. At the school we had to pay for each hour and for every room.
    • Patriots Park is going to allow us to utilize some of their storage space and leave one of our trailers on the property, this will eliminate the need to carry two trailers on Sunday, everything will be at the location.
    • All of our PassionKidz areas will have A/C and heat. The Grove, our worship environment for birth – PreK, had to utilize the hallways at the school where there  is no A/C or Heat.
    • Cheaper. Yes, we’ve grown, but we were still limited on what we could do as a church. The rent at the school was extremely expensive and due to our limited start-up funds, we’ve used everything extra to get where we are today in equipment and supplies (Praise God we have been able to pay the rent and do the missions we’ve done throughout our first year – it’s been amazing!) – This will free us up to start saving towards a building (down the road), adding staff (down the road), and increase our missions involvement (Right Away!).
    • We believe the change in location will help open new opportunities to lead more people to a passionate relationship with Jesus!
    • The larger meeting space allows us to grow without having to add a second service too soon.
    • The contract with the school had one more year, which means we would have had to have a new location picked out within about 6-9 months, now we are set longer term if we need it until we can find a more permanent location in the future.
    • Padded Chairs :)

    The Cons

    • Our worship service will be held approximately 6 miles outside of where we desire to minister long-term, in the city of Grovetown (we’re still in G-town, just on the outskirts now), however, God is bigger than 6 miles and one small overpass. Our local missions focus will still be in the city, so our team is not concerned with the short distance (God’s brought us this far, and if you asked a lot of the people who knew we were starting a church 12 months ago, if we’d survive, if they were honest, they would probably tell you they didn’t. We’re cool with that. And that is why we keep trusting God and not the opinions of man!).
    • That’s all….

    So, there it is! If you have not done so already go ahead and subscribe to this blog via email so you can get any additional updates on our move directly in your inbox, as well, any additional thoughts on life, leadership, and ministry from Nick!

    Year 2, here we come!

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