Category: New Passion Church

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No Risk…No Reward

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One of our core values at New Passion is to Embrace Faith that’s Bigger Than Ourselves. That statement would sound really cool, even if we chose not to live by it, but ever since I committed to following what I felt God was calling me to do in starting New Passion Church, that has been a motto of my life and our ministry. I believe that Christ has called us on a faith journey where we must always be reliant on him and his strength. I want New Passion to be the kind of church that has nothing to loose and everything to gain. I want us to be a church that is willing to take unimaginable risks, because without risk, there is no reward.

New Passion did not start as a “daughter” church of another church. No one came to me and said, “Nick. we desire to start a new church, would you be the planter for that church?” I only had what I knew to be God’s voice calling me out. We had no money, no equipment, nothing, but my family and a friend who agreed to be our CFO for legal reasons. A couple of months in we started asking some people to consider taking this journey with us and we had some agree, while others could not make the commitment. We were at a place where it would have been easy to declare that I was wrong and things were just not working out and I could have pulled the plug and looked for a staff position somewhere, but I held on. Some weeks later, I got a call from a friend who had planted a church a year earlier than us and he wanted to meet. When we sat down he said that his church, being small could not do a lot to help us, but they wanted to do anything they could, so they offered us a loan to help get things off the ground. I went and spoke to my CFO and my wife and a few people I trust (like my dad).

I’ve always heard DO NOT get a loan to start a church. Well, at the time, our sponsoring church did not know what they would do to help us financially and we did not have any other churches coming along side us. Here was one of my biggest crossroads as a new pastor. The loan was going to be interest free and we only had to pay back 10% of our offerings each month, with no deadline on paying the  money off, but at the time, we were a small launch team with no guarantees even on a meeting place. This was my opportunity to embrace faith that was bigger than myself, or to look for a solution that I could wrap my arms around and see the outcome for. I don’t even think the few people on our team that was aware of the loan fully supported it, but I had to make the decision at this juncture of our church, and I signed the papers. Up to this point we’ve made two payments, until yesterday…

A couple of friends who own a business came to me and said that they made a commitment to see lives changed through their business, and once they got to a place where they could increase what they were already doing, they were going to find ways to impact the Kingdom. I got a call from one of them yesterday to see if I could meet them somewhere, so we decided to grab a quick lunch together. We sat down and they shared their heart with me about their desire to be used by God and then handed me an envelope. I held it and they shared some more and then asked me to open the envelope. I looked at them and they were smiling as big as a child on Christmas morning. They were so excited at the opportunity they had to make an impact in people’s lives. I looked at the check, and it was for the exact amount that we had borrowed from the local church. I was blown away and a little in shock!

There is NO way we would be where we are today as a church had we not taken a risk up front and embraced a faith that was huge at  the time by taking that loan. I am excited to say that we are now debt free (as of next week when they get the final check) and 10% of our budget is freed up to do more ministry! But we are not going to get comfortable. That small risk was only to prepare us for bigger risks that I know lie ahead of us.

Join the Conversation…When have you had to take a risk in your life and saw how big God is through it?

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21


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Theres An App For That

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We kicked off our new series today at New Passion Church called “There’s An App for That.” During the series we will be exploring how the Bible has an app(lication) for some of the tough issues we deal with in life. Today we kicked off with “Hope in Distress.” Below is the schedule for the remaining 5 weeks:

November 8 – Healing for Broken Relationships
November 15 – Healthy Finances
November 22 – Harmony at Home
November 29 – Guest Preacher Tim Carnes
December 6 – Honor in our Uniqueness


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Praying Small and Selfishly

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“So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Matthew 9:38

I read a devotion today in My Utmost For His Highest. It was talking about the key for a missionary in carrying out the Master’s orders.  The focus was on prayer and how prayer seems foolish to us. I guess I got a little sidetracked and off focus, because Oswald Chambers said, “From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world.”

I am guilty of praying small and selfish prayers. I see the big need that New Passion has as a new, small church for volunteers and laborers for the harvest in Grovetown, the surrounding area, and the world. I try my hardest to pray for local churches as well as churches throughout the nation and the world. However, when it come to praying for laborers, I fall short of thinking “the world” and I think “my nation” (New Passion Church). I don’t think I’ve ever prayed that God would provide the laborers for churches in Alabama or South Dakota, or China, or Germany, or the church down the street.

My heart desires to be Kingdom minded, but often times I find myself selfishly living out a small view of God. I know that we are a small piece of Christ’s puzzle called the church. We are no greater than any other church and we are no less. May we continue to join arms for the common cause of the Gospel.

Join the Conversation…What’s your biggest struggle in being Kingdom minded?



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Revolutionary Change

106Sunday we complete week 5 of our Rediscover Church series at New Passion. This week we discussed how we value creating Revolutionary Change through our Local and Global Influence.

We focused on 3 main questions after looking at 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

#1 What am I Becoming? – Paul said he became all things to all people. We looked at the story of Dorothy from Entertaining Angels and how she chose to live poor in order to reach the poor, the homeless, the prostitutes, and the drug addicts. Her effort to create Revolutionary Change required that she bring herself on the level of the people she reached out to versus elevating herself above them.

#2 What is my Motive? Paul said he made every effort to reach out to those who were different than him and to become like them for one reason…to lead them to a loving relationship with Christ. His goal was not to become famous or to build his own following, his motive was to lead people to Christ.

#3 What am I Changing? Paul and Dorothy alike saw people embrace their vision of Revolutionary Change and they too took action. Change can only happen if we decide to start influencing the change.

I was reminded of the trip I took with a former church after Katrina hit Biloxi, Mississippi. It started with a simple idea of taking water down to the victims, within a few hours we were on the road with water and a few groceries in hand to do what we could, our desire to be involved led into 4 total trips, three to Biloxi and one to Texas. I’ve posted video of our first trip and our second trip. The video from trip #1 is 18 minutes long. We used it as a part of the following Sunday’s message to show the need in the area, the second trip is the relief trip we took our church on. We were literally larger than the Red Cross relief effort in the same area. The point is this, what may start as a small idea or a small effort, God can use for Revolutionary Change in the life of those you are  investing in and influencing for Christ.

Katrina Relief Trip #1 from Nick Carnes on Vimeo.

Katrina Relief Trip #2 from Nick Carnes on Vimeo.

Join the Conversation…How are you participating in creating Revolutionary Change? What are your dreams to see Revolutionary Change happen in our world?

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Authentic Community: Take Off the Mask

batmanSunday at New Passion was great!

I got to preach half my message as Batman.

Here was the opening thoughts to my message…We are less than a month away from Halloween. Halloween is the one time of the year where it is expected and celebrated to take a risk and be someone totally different than who we are. It’s almost like a free pass to wear that crazy outfit that you’ve always wanted to wear, or to try your hair in a different color. Most churches take a strong stance against Halloween, yet they promote a form of it all throughout the year.

A lot of churches encourage people to wear a mask & to dress in a costume, in order to feel accepted or to feel a part of the church. We overwhelm people with the burden of being someone they are not.

At New Passion, we value having an “Authentic Community” and we believe this will happen only by having “Genuine Relationships.” Both Authentic and Genuine mean real. So we are simply saying we desire to have a Real Community formed from Real Relationships. When we are pretending to be someone we are not, when we are pretending to have our lives all together, when we act like we have all of the answers…when we put on a mask and costume, we aren’t being real.

I already had this post planned and then I went and read Pete Wilson’s post today, so after you Join the Conversation here, go participate in his post about “Authentic Community” today as well (Simple but Not Easy)

Pete is right, “Authentic Community” is a huge buzz word in the Christian culture today. At New Passion we want it to be a part of our DNA as a church and as Christ followers. I have to go first. I have to take my mask and costume off so that others will do the same.

So now its your turn: How have you worn a mask as a Christian pretending to be someone you are not, and how can we as a church (Globally) ensure that Authentic Community is not just a buzz word, but a reality?