Tag: Jonothan Powell

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180Weekend at TrueNorth Church Recap

I had the opportunity this weekend and on Wednesday to participate in a movement of God.

A couple of months back Adam asked my friend Shane to speak for TrueNorth Church’s 180 Weekend for their students. Shane was not able to speak because his student ministry at Greenbrier Church was also hosting a similar weekend with their students, but Shane gave Adam my name.

The Theme for 180 was Collide, so I went to their normal Element mid-week service to set things up and give a preview of the weekend. I left on Wednesday really impressed with the genuine worship from both the middle school and the high school, I also left feeling a little nervous. These kids are special and I felt like I may end up hurting what God was trying to do rather than help. After all, the previous two weeks have been CRAZY at home, at work and New Passion. I worked 52 hours the week before 180 at my normal job not including my second job pastoring New Passion and my primary job of husband and dad. I was facing 6 messages between Wednesday and Sunday, so I had no idea what to expect, and for most of the week I just wanted to just stop and shut my eyes. At times I didn’t feel like I had 100% to give this ministry and this special weekend. Of course, God is sovereign and he can use a donkey if he wants to, so I knew He was in control of the weekend.

I thought it was funny to learn that Cliff Jennings was leading worship. I have never heard of Cliff, so I had never met him, however, he is the Worship Leader at Stevens Creek Church in Grovetown. They meet just up the road from us, so here two Grovetown ministers were going to lead at TrueNorth (Come to find out his dad is Gene Jennings, the Executive Pastor at TNC). It’s funny how God puts things together. Let me add right here. Stevens Creek is blessed with a great worship leader, he’s almost as good as Jonothan 🙂 – I got to talk with Cliff for a little bit after the final session, he’s a great guy, and Stevens Creek is blessed to have him.

All I can say is I felt the presence of God strongly at the Blok. A few students shared with me a little of what God was speaking to them from the weekend. If God so chose to use my feebleness, I am truly blessed and thankful.

I have a special place in my heart for North Augusta. My wife and her family are from there, my kids spend the weekends at my mom-in-law’s house there, I lived there for a while, went to school and church over there, and I eat lunch there sometimes. I’ve heard for several years that God is doing something great through TrueNorth, and now I’ve experienced it first hand. I heard things continued over into the Sunday service as well. I cannot wait to watch and see what God does next as they prepare to move onto their new property and continue to take the gospel to the community.

I can only pray that God ignites a fire in New Passion as he has in TrueNorth. Their people are excited, passionate, and the love of Jesus flows through them. I know that God is using their pastor Steve and youth pastor Adam as well as their other leaders greatly. I hope God does the same in Grovetown through New Passion and Stevens Creek what he is doing through TrueNorth.

P.S. We have a bright future. I’ve had the privilege to meet, speak to, and hear from a lot of local students over the last 4+ years, and Jesus has won their hearts and they are going to transform this world like we’ve  never seen before. I just know it!

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The Influence of Sacrifice

In my post yesterday I shared how New Passion Church has committed to selling a portable sound system that we are not using and is in storage so we can give the money to Cross Point Church for their Nashville Flood Relief Efforts. We’ll only get $300-400 for the system, its not a lot of money, but it’s just one more small part that we can contribute.

In all honesty, this sound system is special to me. It isn’t to my worship leader Jonothan. In fact, when I first showed him the system, I think he laughed really loud inside his head & then verbally asked how much money we had and said our first major purchase when we got the money would be for a new sound system. Not because it is not a good system; only because it would not fit our needs for growing into the future. It is however special to me. Why? Well, because its New Passion’s first sound system. Given the money we had and the sacrifices we had to make, the $800 we invested to get the mixer, speakers, mics and cords was a huge deal. I was excited! In fact, instead of getting rid of it, I’d rather  plate it in gold and put it in a trophy case.

So, why is it easy for me to let it go? Because of the influence of sacrifice. Jonothan understood that we were limited in our early days financially. We still are, but we are in a much better place than we were 1-2 months in. We are in a better place financially because of people like Jonothan who are willing to sacrifice and therefore influence the entire DNA of our church. Jonothan had a prized possession; his motorcycle. He sold that motorcycle to purchase new NICE speakers and a new NICE sound board for New Passion to use in our worship services. We’re still developing our band, so its kind of funny right now to see two singers plugged into a 32 channel Allan and Heath board 🙂

allanheathboard
Every time New Passion and our people have sacrificed for a Kingdom cause, God has blown us away with his response. We’ve never given or sacrificed to get a response, only to be obedient. This Sunday as we collect supplies and financial gifts for our Nashville Flood Relief Efforts, we don’t expect anything locally to come of it. We do however expect God to use our efforts globally in Nashville for the BIG church. We don’t sacrifice to get or to gain. We sacrifice to influence others for Christ. There is no better church in the world that I would want to partner with than Cross Point Church. It has been amazing to see the influence they’ve created out of their personal sacrifice. Their pastor, Pete Wilson, said the other day that this is being called the 1,000 year flood, he sees it as a once in a 1,000 year opportunity to reach out to those who are in crisis.

Will you join us this Sunday? If you can’t be there will you join us online HERE or HERE to donate to their relief efforts? Even a sacrifice of $5 can influence a changed world for someone. Will you bring one or several of the requested supplies? We’ll be collecting supplies at Cedar Ridge Elementary School (1000 Trudeau Trail, Grovetown, GA 30813: Directions) from 8 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. You don’t have to stay for the service, you can simply drop off and leave. Will you share the link to our website and our Facebook Events page on your Facebook or with your friends through Email or other Social Media sites? Even if you are from another state, you can get involved, you can get others involved. Join the people of Nashville. Influence others through your sacrifice!