Tag: Church

Posted on

Make Money Going to Church?

churchlottery
Click Image to Watch Video

A Chicago church has started giving away $1,000 each week in various amounts through a weekly lottery. Church attendees who are sitting in the winning seat win whatever the amount is for that drawing. Needless to say, the church attendance has increased dramatically since the lottery began.  I definitely have some questions of my own about the idea and I think William Schweiker, the Theological Ethicist from the University of Chicago, who was interviewed in the video brought up some great points as well, about what this may promote & teach. So, now its your turn…What do you think about the idea of a church holding a lottery to draw new attendees from the community? Is it a bad thing? Does it allow for more people to hear the Gospel (if its preached)? Does it promote a “Prosperity” Gospel? Can we really speak clearly on Pastor Dan Willis’ motives? Dive in…What’s your thoughts?

Video via CNN

Posted on

People of the Second Chance

There’s been a buzz around Twitter today. Here’s what its all about. Keep your eyes open for this: I Copied this from POTSC –


potsc_logoToday something starts anew.

It is the first small step into officially beginning People of the Second Chance (Website).

What is People of the Second Chance? Truthfully, we’re still sort of figuring that out.

But we do know this…we have dreamed for years about a movement of people that would let radical integrity and radical grace consume them in their life and leadership.

And in God’s perfect and ironic timing, People of the Second Chance is no longer just a nice concept with some stickers and tee shirts, but the very story we are living out right now.

In the past few weeks of learning, loss, tears, and experiencing a significant valley in our lives, we are more certain than ever that God does his best work in brokenness.

But let us be very clear here. This isn’t about us. It never has been. You see we have this simple belief that deep inside of all us we are desperately wanting grace, forgiveness, second chances and a fresh start.

We realize this is a little sloppy, unclear, and a bit rough around the edges. Even so, we still want to humbly and with sincerity invite you to join us.

Every journey must begin somewhere. This is our very simple somewhere. Welcome to the People of the Second Chance

Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite

Posted on

No Risk…No Reward

embrace-faith-mountain-climber-copy

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


Posted on

Church Planters Don’t Come In a Box

cardboard-boxI haven’t joined the MAC cult as many of my friends have. I’m very curious about owning my own MAC, but my main decision to stay PC has been solely financial.

One of the things that attracts me to the MAC is the out-of-the-box uniformity. With PC’s we have the good family members and then we have the distant, red headed step cousins that we wish weren’t at the family reunions, no names…E-Machines and the like. With PC there are vast differences between a Toshiba and an E-Machine.

The more time I log in this “Church Planting” journey the more I am coming to realize that church planters and new churches (known as church plants…not the fake green things) are more like PCs and not like MACs. Church planters do not come in a box just as new churches do not come in a box.

I allowed myself to be defeated in the early days of our launch. It seemed like everything I’ve heard in conferences or read in books or listened to on Podcasts simply didn’t happen for New Passion. I allowed myself to have high hopes based on plans I created and from the promise of support and help from groups and individuals and even from the closest of friends. Though I can never control the circumstances around me, I’ve come to the reality that though God uses people in the most powerful of ways in our lives, there are times that he has a specific plan for us where we have to fully rely on and fully trust in him alone. I came to the realization that God was building New Passion in such a way that HE alone would get the glory.

There are things that all church planters experience and have to go through. I understand that. I consider these the mouse and the keyboards of the industry. We all have to have them to function properly. However, there are some things based on each church planter’s circumstances that they cannot learn from just anybody. The sad reality is, some church planters will spend a ton of time looking at attractive “successful” churches and adopting just about everything they do, but they never see or understand the realities that led that “successful” church to adopt those programs or processes. There are some church planters who want to be everyone but themselves and though I  have dealt with the temptation of falling into that trap, I am slowly seeing that many of the “successful” churches I could look at  haven’t dealt with what New Passion has to deal with.

It would be much easier if all church planters came in a box packaged with $75,000-$100,000 to start with, a launch team of at least 100 people,  a partnering organization that fulfills their purpose, all of the equipment needed for success, and every promise made to them fulfilled, and the ability to launch as a full time pastor, etc.  (That DOES happen for some)

My box consisted of…$15,000 ($5,000 of which was a loan & a majority of the remaining amount provided by some amazing generous individuals), 23 adults on our launch team, an organization where my “coach” abandoned his team and that has given no local support, not 1 church supporting us  financially on a monthly basis, several broken promises by other churches and by *gasp* friends, equipment loaned to us by an amazing church for about a year (maybe more), and a job from another Kingdom minded church where I can work and still launch our church bi-vocationally.

I don’t say this to complain. I say this to point out that church planters do not come in a box. New Passion Church is New Passion Church and God has given us this path to travel because I believe he has a specific plan and purpose for our church. If we whine and complain that we didn’t get to launch like other churches or if we whine and complain that life’s not fair, then I believe we set ourselves on a path that will miss what God has for us. Trust me, I am a student of other churches and what they are doing to have success, but I want to be careful not to miss what God has for us! What can’t God do with New Passion Church? I believe he has put us in a place where he can blow our minds, and make everyone else wish they could have a little bit of the credit. 😉

Join the Conversation…What Did Your Box Look Like?

Posted on

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?