Category: Ministry

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Stay in the Boat by Judah Smith

This is the message by Judah Smith from the New Spring Leadership Conference I attended several weeks ago. The actual title was “Matters of the Meantime” but the overarching theme of the message was “Stay in the Boat.” I was following Judah on Twitter, but I had never heard one of his messages. I was kind of blown away by his attire, I had never seen a man wear leotard before (okay they were skinny, skinny jeans), but he preaches the Word with boldness and blew me away with his message, so he can wear leotards if he wants 🙂

Check out more videos from the New Spring Leadership Conference.

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The Space Between

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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What Lion Do You Need to Chase?

I absolutely loved this message by Craig Groeschel that we at New Passion opened our One Prayer series with this past Sunday. It’s called “Unstoppable Courage” and it hits home because I have some friends right now who are staring some Lions in the face and they are either going to have to decide to chase the Lion and kill it, or allow the Lion to destroy them. I pray they have their eyes opened to how big their God is:

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Thank You New Passion and Friends

supplies-in-vanHey New Passion Church and our friends who jumped in with us to help out Cross Point Church with their flood relief efforts! I just want to express how thankful I am to you all for caring enough for other people that you would sacrifice your time and money to send a van full of supplies and a financial gift to a church you may never visit and to a people you may never meet.

That’s what real love is all about.

The Good Samaritan helped a complete stranger who was overlooked by everyone else when he needed serious help. We love helping those who we know, but I believe it is an even stronger reflection of Jesus when we are just as willing to help those we don’t know, and at that, just like the Good Samaritan, go above and beyond just helping.

I really hoped that we could have done more to help in this situation. The news ran a story, the Christian radio even promoted what we were doing, yet the response came down to our church and a few of our friends, so thank you!

Here is what you did by the numbers:

  • $1,700 Financial Gift – This is huge! This was raised in less than a week and it is equivalent to half of our monthly income as a church (our monthly rent at the school for 4-weeks is $1,740)
  • 35+ Cases of Water
  • 3 Wheelbarrows
  • 8 Bottles of Bleach
  • 15 Pairs of Gloves
  • 48 Rolls of Toilet Paper
  • 7 Plastic Containers
  • A bunch of Cleaning Supplies (Sponges, Buckets, Etc.)
  • 3 Utility Knives with Replacement Blades
  • 2 Crowbars
  • 2 Flashlights
  • And a bunch of random items to help

2010-05-10-190213Not too shabby for a church that turned 9 months old this past Sunday and who runs an average of 80-85 people, half of which are children.

Pete Wilson, lead pastor of Cross Point, sent me this message: “Dude!!!!!! I was blown away by the financial gift you guys gave. Holy cow that was generous. Thanks so much Nick. Your church is amazing!!”

Ryan Bult, Missions Director of Cross Point, was very grateful for everything you all did, he expressed it many times to Billy and me personally.

Everyone who we talked to  who is in the middle of this crisis and are trying to put their lives back together again expressed their gratitude for your sacrifice and gratitude for them. Your love for them was evident in our being present and delivering the items you donated.

This crisis is not over! We will continue to partner with Cross Point in the future. Billy and I are discussing our best approach, so stay tuned as we reveal the next phase of our Nashville Flood Relief Effort. We’ll also talk more about this Sunday!

Thank you all…I’m proud of you all!