Category: Ministry

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Jesus Heals the 10 Lepers…the Story Continued

Luke 17:11-17 (NLT) Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

If this story took place in modern Christianity, the story would continue something like this…

Then Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?” The Samaritan replied, “My Lord, don’t you know….?”

  • The second leper was upset by the style music you were humming
  • The third leper did not like the “disreputable” friends you like to hangout with
  • The fourth leper felt like the other lepers were excluding him
  • The fifth leper didn’t like the color of the rug you were standing on when you healed him
  • The sixth leper didn’t like the way you healed him, and thought he could probably heal people better
  • The seventh leper didn’t think you were dressed like a proper priest
  • The eighth leper thought you were asking WAY too much of him after healing him from leprosy
  • The ninth leper thought it was too far of a distance to travel to come back and worship you
  • The tenth leper said he may come back and thank you when it’s convenient, but you know, he has a lot going on right now

…three of the lepers stayed home and continued living life the way that was most convenient for them and the other 6 lepers went and joined another church where they could complain about the methods Jesus was using to heal people of their leprosy.

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The Explicit Gospel Campaign

This Sunday we kick-off our 3rd year as a church with the Explicit Gospel Campaign. This series will help solidify who we are as a church and why we do what we do as a church. This campaign will be transformational for many who participate. Here’s how you can best be involved in what we are doing:

  1. Buy the Explicit Gospel book by Matt Chandler and read it. It’s a powerful book and it’s content is heavy, so be prepared for God to begin speaking to you through the truth Matt shares within it’s pages. You can order the book online or at the Guest Services table on Sunday. The Kindle version is also available online.
  2. Join a Community Group and allow yourself to become vulnerable to a community of other Christians. This will be a great opportunity to go deeper in our study of the Explicit Gospel. Each group will be going through the Explicit Gospel Bible Study (available for $6 for Community Group members or $12 for non-Community members who want to go through the study on their own)
  3. Be faithful to our Sunday services. You will fall into one of two categories: 1. You need to hear these messages for a total life change, or 2. You will be reminded of the great truth of the gospel and with joy can pray for those who need to hear it’s message for salvation or for spiritual growth as a byproduct of the gospel.
  4. Invite and Pray. Ask people to join you during this campaign and pray for the Holy Spirit to open eyes and hearts to God through it.

This is going to be a great week and a great campaign. Remember, as we celebrate our 3rd Birthday, we are moving to Grovetown High School and our service time will change to 10:30 am.

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It’s Time for an Upgrade

 

I owned one of the first Samsung Galaxy S Android smartphones that came out.

I got robbed in Costa Rica last Summer and my Galaxy S was among the booty that the thieves acquired so I was able to upgrade to a HTC 4G Sensation. I love it! I can use it as a wireless hotspot and as we discovered during a Saturday set-up at New Passion, the 4G has enough power to stream live college football games through my laptop and onto a projection screen. Oh the beauties of technology. At times, it’s worth the upgrade.

One of the guys at work just bought the new Samsung Galaxy S III. Like my HTC it’s 4G and carries some of the same specs on the camera, etc., but it has some awesome additional features like motion sensors, no more need to swipe, just motion; tap to share and other great features. Holding it just makes you want to upgrade to it.

There are times where it’s beneficial to upgrade things. If the mobile phone you use is still in a bag, it might be time for an upgrade…just sayin! There are times where you need to upgrade your vehicle, your house or your technology. And, when we feel that we can justify that upgrade, we don’t hold back. It’s what we want…It’s what we need!

Now I’m talking to my New Passion family! It’s time to upgrade our church! It’s not time to upgrade so we can say we have a cool new auditorium or that we are using some great technology for our services. It’s not time to upgrade for any reason outside of the expansion of the Kingdom of God. The technology, the auditorium and the larger children’s worship environments are all a bonus and they will help us as we draw more people, but they are not the end goal for our upcoming move.

Upgrades are investments. You are investing in a tool and a resource that will benefit you in a variety of ways. Likewise, this upgrade or expansion of New Passion is no less of an investment, in fact, it is a greater investment than any technology we can buy. The Grovetown High School is a tool and a resource that God is providing for us to serve as a platform for the preaching of the gospel and as a launching pad for us to live that gospel message out in our community. This is an investment for your neighbors’, your friends’, your family’s and your children’s eternity! If you are a regular at New Passion, you know that the gym is not the ideal location for a worship service, it works and we make it work, but as we continue to grow the gym will become increasingly difficult to use and will require a lot more work on our team to make Sundays happen. In addition we are almost out of space for our PassionKidz worship environments and with just a little more growth this will be come a major problem. We’re a very fertile people…what can we say? The bottom line for us is this, the upgrade to Grovetown High School is a necessary and beneficial move for our future.

Friends, if you know me, you know that I am going to shoot straight with you and it will be no different here. We need to raise $10,000 in less than two weeks. Praise God, we have already received approximately $4,000 of that goal and are only $6,000 away. I believe God can provide our needs and I believe he will use HIS people to do it. Will you consider how God would have you invest in the short-term with this expansion opportunity he has brought our way?

In the long-term, we have to increase our regular giving by at least 30%. I am challenging all of New Passion to consider how God would have you to do that. The bottom line is this, a large portion of our people allow a smaller portion to carry the financial load of the church. God has not blessed us with jobs and finances so we can invest more in our technology upgrades than we do in our Kingdom upgrades. The Lord uses the faithful, worshipful giving of his people to meet the needs of his local church. For some, it may be that you are not giving anything at all, or you are just giving what is convenient and reachable in your pocket. Pray and ask God what he desires from you on a regular basis. This is the church where God has assembled us all together at and we are a family. Let’s reach this goal together! Let’s not hold back!

For us to understand the gospel we must understand that generosity is not an option it is a lifestyle.

Give a donation towards New Passion’s Expansion:


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Big News!!! New Passion Church is Moving!!!

That’s right! On Sunday, September 9, 2012 as we celebrate our 3rd Birthday as a church, New Passion will begin hosting our Sunday worship services at Grovetown High School.

A couple of weeks ago a pastor from Stevens Creek Church contacted our mission’s director, Billy Wilson, and notified him that they would no longer be offering a Grovetown church campus; instead they would put all of their energy and resources into their main campus in Augusta to continue the ministry God has given them there. He asked us if we would be interested in taking their place at the school and after several discussions and a meeting with the school, our leadership team has unanimously decided to make the move to the high school.

It has been great to serve the city and community of Grovetown with Stevens Creek Church as our neighbors. In a culture where churches mark their boundaries and fall into the temptation of competition it is refreshing to see their pastors reflect an Acts 4:4-5 spirit. We appreciate your friendship.

Download the letter we provided to the church this morning with all of the specific details.

Here are some benefits of the move and how you can get involved right away:

  • 400 seat auditorium with stadium style seating (Provides room to grow & a better environment for a church service)!
  • Service time will change from 10 am to 10:30 am (You can sleep later)!
  • State of the art technology with lighting, sound and video all available for the church to use. This will help with less set-up/breakdown for the band and more time for pre-service rehearsal.
  • Large cafeteria for the Ridge. We’ve almost outgrown the room at Patriot’s Park. The cafeteria is equipped with 2 video projectors & space to split age groups up!
  • Many increased mission’s opportunities through the school. Providing avenues to connect with parents, teachers and students for the sake of the gospel.
  • GHS is located in the middle of several growing, new neighborhoods. This will place us in the heart of where God has called us to minister to as a church.

How you can be involved right away:

  1. Pray that everything will be accomplished in the short time period that we have to work with. Pray for our leaders as we make necessary adjustments.
  2. Spread the word that we are moving.
  3. Invest Financially – Our goal is to raise $10,000 in three weeks. An anonymous gift of $3,000 has already been given before the announcement, leaving us with a total of $7,000 to raise! God is good. In addition, the school rent will be approximately 30% higher than our current rent at Patriot’s Park; prayerfully consider how God would have you participate in helping in these areas.
  4. Invite others to join you for worship any Sunday, but especially as we launch in the new location on September 9, 2012 celebrating our 3rd Birthday. Together we can fill the auditorium up for God’s glory.

Why September 9? Why so Soon?

God’s timing. It’s ideal to launch in the new location on our birthday as we invite new friends to celebrate with us, but what many people didn’t know is our leadership team has had several discussions before the opportunity to move into the school was presented to us concerning September 16 & 23. Patriot’s Park informed us that we could not meet at their facility due to their stripping the floors and the chemical smell that would remain following the work. As we were discussing an outdoor service or a lake service this opportunity came to us, so we are going to work hard to do what we have to do to be in the new location for our birthday.

Was that it? Is that ALL of the BIG News?

No! New Passion will also be adding another elementary school to our Mission Zero support. Last year through your generosity, we supported an entire elementary school in Grovetown and provided 2,511 meals to students who’s families were dealing with financial difficulties. This year we will continue to support the students at Cedar Ridge Elementary School and in addition we will also be supporting students from Baker Place Elementary School.

Let us continue to trust God as we follow his leading at New Passion Church. Our location may change, but our vision will always be the same…

…to be a community of believers dedicated to the glory of God by extending radical grace for the broken, sharing revolutionary compassion for the hurting and leading people to a passionate relationship with Jesus through the gospel.

 

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It’s More than Just a Sermon

At New Passion we have been in our Source Code: A Journey through Acts series for a little over a year now. We took a couple of short breaks and picked back up where we left off a couple of months ago.

Today, I preached out of Acts 16, there are several important things that take place in this Chapter, but the best thing about this post is what happened today AFTER I preached this chapter, so keep reading:

  1. Acts 16:6-10 – The Holy Spirit does not permit Paul and Silas to go where THEY want to go. He prevents them from going to the province of Asia and into the north region of what we now know is Turkey. Instead Paul receives a vision from Macedonia and there God would start the church of Philippi through his efforts.
  2. Acts 16:11-35 – God starts to build the church of Philippi with a business woman, Lydia; a (formerly) demon-possessed girl; and a prison guard.
  3. How did God do this? Well, first with Lydia it began by God not giving Paul his way. He closed doors and took away what some would say were opportunities to share the gospel. Paul instead followed the leading of the Spirit, took the time to invest in Lydia, share the gospel and then she believed; Secondly, with the demon-possessed girl, God allowed Paul to be annoyed and frustrated by the demon constantly proclaiming that they were there to preach the message of salvation, through his frustration, Paul casts the demon out of the girl; finally, with the prison guard, God allowed Paul to be arrested for doing God’s work. Through Paul’s example of true, selfless Christianity, the guard believes and is saved. Paul could have looked out for his own neck, but instead he stayed in prison so the guard did not have to lose his.

Here was my point to our people this morning and where my story comes in this afternoon. Who is it that God wants you to stop, take time with and share Jesus with them? That’s your Lydia. Who is it that God is allowing to annoy you? You know that pesky neighbor or co-worker or the aunt you can’t escape from. Maybe he is frustrating you so you’ll share the love of Jesus with them so they might believe. That’s your demon-possessed girl. Finally, and this is where my story comes in today. What situation do you find yourself in where you feel like you are in prison or like your world is falling a part? Who has God surrounded you with in this moment of your life that you can display true Christianity to, so that they might believe and be saved? That’s your prison guard.

Today, I received a tweet from a young man that I have only met once, but got to be with during a week long camp in Jackson, SC, last Summer. I wrote about my experience at the camp in an earlier post, it was amazing! Here’s what his tweet said:

That made my day! I had the privilege of preaching in the service where Noah placed his faith in Jesus for salvation. That in-and-of-itself is awesome, but what makes this story even greater is the fact that I was going through my own “prison experience,” although it was without the orange jump suit and the jail cell.

I was fired (“laid off”) from my job a week before having the opportunity to go speak at this camp. Needless to say, I had a lot on my heart and mind at the time, tons to worry about with a wife, three kids and bills. I didn’t get my way, God closed a door and allowed me to be placed in a very difficult position, but God placed me in that position at that time for his glory and for the salvation of Noah and anyone else who placed their faith in Jesus for salvation during that week of camp.

Sometimes I wonder if Christians think sermons are just a bunch of fancy talk, but can’t really be applied in their own life and in their specific situations. I think some people get excited to hear a different take on Scripture to bring out a point that they’ve never seen, but by the end of the service, the whole point of the message is lost. Today’s sermon was more than “just a sermon” for me, it was real life, it was my life just a year ago. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to lose my job which freed me up to prepare for a camp where a young man, plus others were saved. Noah, is my modern day prison guard. God used my difficult situation to share Jesus with him. Life is not about me, my job or my comfort; it’s about people seeking and feeling their way towards God to find him (Acts 17:26-27). I want to be a part of helping them find him. Thank you, Shane Padgett for allowing me to be used in the middle of a difficult season and thank you for having such a huge vision for students through PHAT Camp.

What situation do you find yourself in right now? Does it feel like Prison, maybe even Hell? Look around you, those are the people watching you to see how you will respond and how you will act. In the middle of living your faith out, you will have the opportunity to share the answer for your hope. Will you take that opportunity? It’s more than just a sermon….