Tag: God

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Creating a Great Church, Together (Part 1)

Old Church

Over the next several weeks, I am going to share some thoughts and challenges on how we can create a great church, together, at New Passion. I hope you’ll tune in each week.

The first step to creating a great church is to ARRIVE EARLY.

Notice, I didn’t say arrive on time. Typically, if we aim to arrive “on time” we set ourselves up to arrive late, especially if we face traffic issues or other complications along the way. It may seem elementary to ask people to arrive early, but here are some reasons why it’s important:

1. Glory not Guilt: We don’t aim to just be on time with anything of importance. When I go to Athens to see the Dawgs play, I don’t aim to just arrive on time. I want to get into the stadium, find my seat, go to the bathroom, purchase refreshments and be ready for the kickoff. I’m excited to be there and I don’t want to miss anything.  If I aim to just get there on time, something can happen and cause me to miss a portion of the game. When Nicki and I recently went to see Expendables 3, we didn’t aim to just arrive on time, just as we don’t with any other movie. If we arrive in the theater as the movie is starting that means we’ve missed the previews, we’re going to end up in a horrible seat and once again, something could happen to make us late and we’d miss a portion of the movie. There’s no way I’m missing a second of Stallone on the big screen! I like to get to the theater, get my seat, go to the restroom, and catch all of the previews for upcoming movies. I am sure some of us try to arrive just on time to work, but some like to get in the building, get settled and clock-in without having to rush, risking a late clock-in….that could eventually cost you your job.

I don’t say these things to make you feel guilty. I have found guilt is a poor motivator. I can motivate with guilt until that guilt wears off and then the old behavior returns. I challenge you to arrive early for God’s GLORY. If we arrive early to those things that we value, that we’ve invested in, and that we don’t want to miss, why would we want to give God anything less than what we have given our favorite sports team? Regal Theaters? Or, your place of employment? Paul said, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV) I don’t want to miss anything that we do on Sundays at New Passion. I don’t want to give God less than I give my job, my favorite teams, or my favorite actor; none of those people or things provided my salvation like God did through Jesus. One of the ways that we create a great church, together, is by arriving early. God is not glorified when we are slack, he is glorified when we give him our best and give him our all. David said, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory….” (Psalm 115:1 ESV)

2.For the Community of Faith, not Yourself: It would be easy to share all of the benefits that you gain by committing to arrive to church early, but to be straight forward with you, as Christians we are not called to live our lives for ourselves, but rather we are called to do good to our faith community. Rick Warren opened his famous book, The Purpose Driven Life, with this life-altering statement, “It’s not about you!” Paul said, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

“Everyone”: It’s disheartening to guests and to new families, who have only been to New Passion a few times to look around and see an empty auditorium when the service starts. By being early, you have the opportunity to be in your seat when the service starts, but you also have the opportunity to connect with those new guests and families when they’re sitting in seats all alone. This is just one way that we have the opportunity to do good to everyone, simply by arriving to church early.

“Household of Faith”: Our band works hard to provide a service that is uplifting to our hearts as we sing and worship our Savior and God, together. The band has a weekly practice where they take time out of their personal schedules to rehears the Sunday set list and learn new songs; they arrive early (7am) on Sundays to set up the stage, the tech booth and to rehearse the songs before the service starts (10:30am). The band does this to provide quality music during that portion of our worship service…and if you ask me, they do an amazing job. HOWEVER, it is extremely difficult to sing and lead worship to an empty room or a room with just guests, who don’t know the songs we sing and therefore stand silently. By arriving to church early, you have the opportunity to be there with the first strum of Jonothan’s guitar, you get to help fill the room with worship, as your voice fills the air, you get to help make guests feel comfortable in a full room and you make it easier on the band to actually have people to lead and sing with. You arriving early and participating is vitally important to the worship service. The band is not there to sing FOR us, they are there to lead us, so they can sing WITH us.

Another way you do good to the household of faith, by arriving early, is that you enable other people to enjoy the entire service. If you arrive at 10:30 (when church starts), or even at 10:35, the Guest Services team does not have the liberty to go into the auditorium because 1) we want everyone to receive a warm welcome, but 2) if you have children, they will need assistance getting checked in. By arriving early, you serve your church family by helping them get ministered to through the music portion of our service.

One final way that you do good to the household of faith, by arriving early, is that you do not cause disruptions to the PassionKidz environments, or to the adult service. It can be a major disruption when a large number of people are dropping children off in the Grove and the Ridge, after they have already started, as well it causes disruptions to the adults when a large number of people are walking in late and looking for seats.

If we want guests to be excited about what’s happening at New Passion, that excitement has to first flow through and be seen in us. Let’s work together to create an environment that is God glorifying, where we do good towards our community and the household of faith.

Let’s make a commitment, together, to arrive early and be in place to start the service powerfully each week! Instead of thinking of church starting at 10:30 a.m., think of it starting at 10 a.m., after all, each of us are the church, so “church” begins as soon as you walk through the door.

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I Asked God….

I asked God to see through His eyes, so He made me a pastor.

I asked God to help me understand His grace, so He sent me addicts and alcoholics, and then he let me watch them relapse.

I asked God to help me love like He loves, so He sent me the homosexual who has been made an outcast by society….and even churches

I asked God to help me understand His patience, so He sent me the greedy who are more concerned with themselves than their neighbor

I asked God to help me understand His forgiveness, so He sent me parents of wayward children

I asked God to know His mercy, so He sent me the self-righteous

I asked God to understand His promises, so He sent me couples who are struggling in their marriage

I asked God to show me who I really am; He told me to simply open my eyes and look around me

The greatest pleasure of my life is to pastor New Passion Church and to serve as the manager of a local substance abuse program. Everyday I have the opportunity to share life with people who struggle to make it each day; they are messy, they are broken, and they definitely aren’t big on social graces….they are human. My daily experiences have shown me God in ways I would have never seen Him, doing anything else. The gospel is a beautiful and powerful message. I am grateful God has called me to pastor myself through many different people.

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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….

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There’s Hope for a New Generation of Young People

Nicki was cleaning the house the other day and found a paper airplane one of the boys had made lying on the floor. As she went to put it into the trash can she noticed that it had writing on it, so she opened it up and found a note Gavin had written. Apparently, Gavin had a class assignment where he had to write a note which included all of his spelling words. Nicki showed me the note, I was totally amazed.

Gavin is 9 years old and is writing about God as if he has known him for 25 years. I wish I had this level of understanding about God when I was 9 years old and now that I am 31, I wish more adults had this level of understanding about God. I am biased being that I am Gavin’s dad, but I am proud of him that he would write something like this for school, but also because he seems to truly understand our God. I read this and immediately felt confident that there is hope for the upcoming generation of young people. May God continue to raise up a generation of young men and young ladies who will live gospel-centered lives for the glory of God.

Click on the image to enlarge it, if you still can’t read it, I typed the words out below and underlined his spelling words as they appear in the note.

CLICK Photo to Enlarge

 

I live in the state of Georgia where we lively honor God. He wants us to be honest. He will direct us away from evil. He is the direction. There is no doubt that he is good. He is not doubtful of people who worship him. I know he is good and not evil. He is not unknown he is known by people who love him. He can make me relive. He is living and there are statues of him, but we worship he himself. He is honorable. Honestly, I love him. He is my director. He will not indirect us, he is always leading us in the right direction. He is undoubted and always trusted. He gives us knowledge.

My favorite parts:

He is living and there are statues of him, but we worship he himself.
Honestly, I love him.

 

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Only God Can Get the Glory

I hate preparing a budget. It’s not fun at all. Especially when you have to look at the reality of how much it costs to run a church and the reality of how much money actually comes in to the church; and then there’s the balancing act of budget requests. I never really liked it when I was younger when my dad would tell me that money “doesn’t just grow on trees.” I’ve not only come to realize that as an individual trying to provide for a family, I’ve definitely learned it as a pastor. I could add to my dad’s statement that “God doesn’t just put money in the bank account either, even though its his church.”

I met with our CFO last night and as I was preparing for our meeting I was listing our income versus expenses for the last quarter, laying out some of the things we need to purchase right away, some of the things it would be nice to have right away, and of course the new budget for the second quarter of 2011 (we do a quarterly budget right now since everything is so fluid as a church plant). I was almost tempted to get depressed by what we didn’t have and how little we do have, but in the midst of looking at actual numbers, I was excited and thankful. We are not rich by any means, but we are still breathing and we have what we need to operate and to do a little extra as we need to. See, it wasn’t always this way…

It was only about 22 months ago when things were quite depressing although I made sure to put my happy face on. I wouldn’t recommend starting a church the way I did unless you are absolutely 100% SURE you are called to do it. Most experts will tell you to raise $125,000 or more to do it right, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. At this point I had asked three friends to be as stupid as me and help me launch  the church, two friends couldn’t do it, and the other, Billy Wilson, agreed to launch with me as New Passion’s Mission’s Director. We absolutely had no money. The only money we had was our tithe and the pastor at the church where we were members recommended that I start tithing to New Passion. We had no choice, we had to.

A friend who pastor’s a house church sent me a message and wanted to meet with me. He said that their church wanted to help us, but because they were only a small group of around 8 people and had little money themselves, they could only offer us a loan of $5,000 which would have no due date, no interest, we would just pay them 10% of whatever we brought in the offering every month. We had no money, no building or location to meet, no equipment, we had a CFO outside the church, Billy Wilson and his family was the only leader who had committed, and we had only one other family who was praying about jumping on-board, and I wanted to borrow $5,000. Do you know what you can do with $5,000? A lot with God. I don’t think any of them thought it was a GREAT idea, but they knew we didn’t have too many other options, so they gave me the good ‘ol ‘whatever you think pastor‘ commitment and we signed the papers.

I think I came to the realization at that moment and it has been my personal slogan and motto ever since that “God was going to build New Passion in such a way that only He can get the glory!” Which honestly should be the story of any church. Let me put this into a little bit of perspective though. Between our church logo (one of the first things we bought), our trailer, our first community, “Hey where coming to the area come join us” event, and our mix-matched sound system over $3,800 of that loan was spent. Here’s a few more notes of interest:

  • We launched with a team of 35, oh yeah half of those were children and they can’t serve.
  • When we secured a location, it was an Elementary School, the school board just doubled their rates, we were looking at a lease of $1,740 on a four week month and $2,100 for a five week month.
  • We didn’t have a worship leader until one month before we launched. I asked five other leaders who didn’t work out.
  • We had no other churches partner with us. We had two churches give us $1,000 each and tell us they were praying for us, the spiritual definition of that means, “Good Luck!” 🙂
  • We did have some individuals give us one time gifts while one friend gave us a re-occurring gift for 6 months.
  • We finally (right before we launched) got $5,000 in start-up funds from the GA Baptist Convention.
  • By the way…Our Church Planting “Coach” left mid-way through our launch process, so we really had no help or guidance in the last couple of months of our launch.
  • All said and done, we launched New Passion with $15,000; $5,000 of which was a loan (oh yeah…and a lot of PVC).
  • Jonothan Powell and his family came on-board as our Worship Leader in August and we launched in September. One of the first things he asked to see was what we had for sound. I showed him our $800 investment, his immediate response was a giggle and a reply, “So, how much money do we have?” We used that sound equipment for a couple of months or more until Jonothan sold his personal motorcycle and used the money to buy a very nice sound board and two very nice speakers.

We were also fortunate to have received a phone call from a guy who I had only talked with a couple of times on the phone and connected with through the internet. His church had some equipment they were not going to be using for a while, so they loaned it to us (cafe items, lights, children’s stuff, etc). This was huge because we couldn’t afford any of it.

I can go on and on and on and tell story after story of small and big risks we took and how we shouldn’t even be breathing as a church. If it were up to the belief others had in us, we’d be dead. However, there is only one thing I have had to cling to over the last 18+ months, this is what I know God called me to do.

Sure we aren’t running thousands of people. This isn’t an Elevation story. This is the story of New Passion in Grovetown, Georgia that has about 15,000 residents. We’ve seen God take a team of 35, most of which have gone back to their own churches, and turned it into a weekly average of around 110 (including children), he took a group of nine people $5,000 in debt to a church that is averaging approximately $6,000 per month in giving (which could literally be doubled if more people would embrace Biblical Giving). We’ve already been able to send more financial support to two churches each, one in Baltimore, MD and the other in Surfside Beach, SC, than we received total from any other church to help us. Most importantly, we’re seeing lives changed by the gospel

God is literally building this church in such a way that only he can get the glory. There is still a lot of stuff we cannot do as a church, but we will be able to in God’s timing. I have nothing to complain about, I can only stand amazed at what God has done in 18 short months.

Happy 18 months New Passion. May God continue to always receive the glory from our church.