Tag: Ministry

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At Least Thirty Two Reasons to Hate Red Kettles and Bells

It’s that time of year again!

All would be okay in the Christmas season if it weren’t for a little red kettle and a tiny annoying BELL! Oh, how I hate you tiny little bell.

You can’t enter your local mall, Wal-Mart or favorite grocery store without the constant ringing of the tiny annoying bell. Not even Quietus can cure the constant ringing from everyone’s despised Christmas bell. Therefore I’ve compiled a list of reasons to hate this Red Kettle and annoying tiny bell!

32 Reasons to Hate Red Kettles & Bells at Christmas:

  1. In 2012, at least Sixteen (16) men in the Augusta, GA CSRC (residential substance abuse rehab) Program placed their faith in Jesus for Salvation.
  2. In 2012, Sixteen (16) men graduated the Augusta, GA CSRC Program. Many of which now hold jobs, have reconciled with their families and have received a new start in life. That’s an increase of 267% from 2011.

At least 32 lives transformed through one program in 2012.

See. These bells lead to no good!

It’s all the bells and kettles fault! Ridiculous! All of the donations they receive by annoying people with ringing in the ears directly funds programs like the Augusta, GA, CSRC Program.

The CSRC Program is a gospel-centered, nine month residential substance abuse program for men. We do not receive government funding for this program, we only receive private financial support because we will not teach that hope is found in a “higher power,” rather we teach that hope is found in Jesus Christ alone. In order to keep the teaching of the gospel at the center of all we do, this program at the Salvation Army is funded 100% by private finances. So, when you endure the Christmas bell from Hell and you give a generous gift in the Red Kettles, you are directly involved in these lives that have been transformed and created anew in Jesus. You are helping do that!

More Reasons to Hate the Red Kettles and Bells 🙂

  1. Seasonal Employment: The Salvation Army is able to provide seasonal employment to individuals who are in financial need including the homeless and transients who are being provided some of the many Salvation Army services. Who are you impacting with your donation in the Kettle? Look at your bell ringer. You may be providing him the money he needs to extend his nights at the Emergency Shelter. You may be helping a single mom put food on the table for her children.
  2. Nightly Emergency Shelter for Transients and Homeless: Men who need shelter can receive 8 free nights in the Salvation Army’s overnight emergency shelter. After their 8th free night they can continue to stay for $7 per night (includes dinner through the soup line and breakfast). When you donate through a Red Kettle you are helping fund the shelter and when the bell ringer is a homeless or transient individual, you may be providing him an extended stay in the emergency shelter through his paycheck. The Augusta, GA shelter has an in-house professional counselor available to the men who frequently stay in the shelter to help assist them in getting off the streets and back into normal society again.
  3. Women and Children’s Shelter: The Salvation Army provides shelter for “in need” women and children and/or abused women and children for approximately 30-45 days. Social workers through the Salvation Army work tirelessly each day to help these families obtain permanent housing.
  4. Project Share and Other Social Services: The Salvation Army partners with Georgia Power, the United Way and other local agencies to help assist families who are struggling financially with utilities and rent. As the winter season approaches and utility bills go higher and higher, these services help assist families keep their power and heat on to provide a safe environment for their children.

So,  yes, those tiny bells can be annoying and we all get tired of fundraisers, but this is one opportunity that presents itself one time a year that you can look and see a difference. You can touch the difference through a handshake or a hug from a life that has been transformed. You can hear the difference in the voices of men who have overcome addictions and now teach Bible classes or in women who have come from the depths of despair and now live in a safe home with their children. The impact can be experienced through services provided by men who were once homeless but now are back on their feet and contributing to society once again.

It could be coins one day, a dollar the next; some have given large amounts and others through checks. With modern technology today gifts are given online, no matter how one chooses to give one thing remains true, people are different because of you!

*This is my personal blog. The views, opinions, and statements made within the blog do not reflect the views or opinions of the Salvation Army, they belong to me!*

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It’s Time for an Upgrade

 

I owned one of the first Samsung Galaxy S Android smartphones that came out.

I got robbed in Costa Rica last Summer and my Galaxy S was among the booty that the thieves acquired so I was able to upgrade to a HTC 4G Sensation. I love it! I can use it as a wireless hotspot and as we discovered during a Saturday set-up at New Passion, the 4G has enough power to stream live college football games through my laptop and onto a projection screen. Oh the beauties of technology. At times, it’s worth the upgrade.

One of the guys at work just bought the new Samsung Galaxy S III. Like my HTC it’s 4G and carries some of the same specs on the camera, etc., but it has some awesome additional features like motion sensors, no more need to swipe, just motion; tap to share and other great features. Holding it just makes you want to upgrade to it.

There are times where it’s beneficial to upgrade things. If the mobile phone you use is still in a bag, it might be time for an upgrade…just sayin! There are times where you need to upgrade your vehicle, your house or your technology. And, when we feel that we can justify that upgrade, we don’t hold back. It’s what we want…It’s what we need!

Now I’m talking to my New Passion family! It’s time to upgrade our church! It’s not time to upgrade so we can say we have a cool new auditorium or that we are using some great technology for our services. It’s not time to upgrade for any reason outside of the expansion of the Kingdom of God. The technology, the auditorium and the larger children’s worship environments are all a bonus and they will help us as we draw more people, but they are not the end goal for our upcoming move.

Upgrades are investments. You are investing in a tool and a resource that will benefit you in a variety of ways. Likewise, this upgrade or expansion of New Passion is no less of an investment, in fact, it is a greater investment than any technology we can buy. The Grovetown High School is a tool and a resource that God is providing for us to serve as a platform for the preaching of the gospel and as a launching pad for us to live that gospel message out in our community. This is an investment for your neighbors’, your friends’, your family’s and your children’s eternity! If you are a regular at New Passion, you know that the gym is not the ideal location for a worship service, it works and we make it work, but as we continue to grow the gym will become increasingly difficult to use and will require a lot more work on our team to make Sundays happen. In addition we are almost out of space for our PassionKidz worship environments and with just a little more growth this will be come a major problem. We’re a very fertile people…what can we say? The bottom line for us is this, the upgrade to Grovetown High School is a necessary and beneficial move for our future.

Friends, if you know me, you know that I am going to shoot straight with you and it will be no different here. We need to raise $10,000 in less than two weeks. Praise God, we have already received approximately $4,000 of that goal and are only $6,000 away. I believe God can provide our needs and I believe he will use HIS people to do it. Will you consider how God would have you invest in the short-term with this expansion opportunity he has brought our way?

In the long-term, we have to increase our regular giving by at least 30%. I am challenging all of New Passion to consider how God would have you to do that. The bottom line is this, a large portion of our people allow a smaller portion to carry the financial load of the church. God has not blessed us with jobs and finances so we can invest more in our technology upgrades than we do in our Kingdom upgrades. The Lord uses the faithful, worshipful giving of his people to meet the needs of his local church. For some, it may be that you are not giving anything at all, or you are just giving what is convenient and reachable in your pocket. Pray and ask God what he desires from you on a regular basis. This is the church where God has assembled us all together at and we are a family. Let’s reach this goal together! Let’s not hold back!

For us to understand the gospel we must understand that generosity is not an option it is a lifestyle.

Give a donation towards New Passion’s Expansion:


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A REALLY Big Announcement

As many of you know my position at my former job was dissolved back in June. Needless to say, it has been a very interesting couple of months. There have been some great God moments and then there have been some disappointments.

I am excited to announce that as of Monday, I will be the new Assistant Manager for the Men’s Residency Program with the Salvation Army. I will share more about this role in the future, but in a nutshell, it is one of the many great programs offered by the Salvation Army to assist people who are in desperate need. This position works directly with the program that helps the homeless receive counseling for addictions, assists with job training, Bible studies and many other programs to help men get reestablished into society and in some cases reunited with their families.

It is a great honor to be chosen to be a part of the Salvation Army team. They have a great reputation of helping people and seeing their lives transformed through the gospel of Jesus. Here is what their About Us page says:

The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.

I look forward to being a part of the mission God has given the Salvation Army in the CSRA. I believe it is the mission God has called every church to.

I would like to thank everyone who has been praying for our family while I was without a job, for those who have been praying that the right door would be open, and for those who have assisted us through various means over the last couple of months.

For those wondering, of course, I am still pastoring New Passion Church 🙂

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Unprepared

Have you ever felt unprepared for something?

I remember it wasn’t too long after I said ‘I Do‘ that I realized marriage was much more complicated and required much more responsibility than dating. The closer Nicki got to giving birth to our first child, I remember thinking that I was definitely not prepared to be a father, then Tristan came, even less prepared for two, oh yeah, then we had Hailey…three kids!? I’m still unprepared.

Have you ever just stopped and thought, “How much preparation would it require for me to feel prepared?” Maybe you feel unprepared because someone told you they didn’t think you were ready or qualified for a certain responsibility. What would it take for those people to see you as ‘prepared?’ Many times we don’t have a gauge at which those people would be pleased, but we allow them to point us in their direction for our lives.

I’ve never felt more unprepared for something than I do in my new role as a pastor and church planter. I am constantly facing new challenges and struggles that I’ve never experienced in other roles. You can tell me that you think I am unprepared for this role, and I’d agree, in fact you’d only be preaching to the choir. Although there are times I feel unprepared and I know that there are areas in my life where I am definitely unprepared, I had to make a choice whether I would listen to my feelings or past voices in my life or would I be obedient to God by listening to his voice. If I based having children on a timetable of feeling ‘prepared’ Nicki and I probably wouldn’t have the three amazing children God’s blessed us with.

We started a new series this past Sunday called ‘Ready, Set, Go!!!‘ – In the series we are exploring the journey that Christ calls his Church to and how he wants us to be obedient to that call.

We started off by looking at Jeremiah and the mission God sent him on as a Prophet to Jerusalem. There were several reasons why Jeremiah felt unprepared to fulfill this mission God had called him to. If Jeremiah were in our present time, I am sure there would be a “Prophet Assessor” or a “Senior Prophet” that would give Jeremiah a failing grade in this mission God called him to, but God declared him as prepared.

My encouragement to New Passion on Sunday is that when it comes to obeying the instructions of Christ #1 We are Prepared Because We are Called (Matthew 28:16-20) and #2 We are Prepared Because We are Gifted (1 Corinthians 12) – It was the same for Jeremiah. God Called him (Jeremiah 1:4-5) and God Gifted him for the mission (Jeremiah 1:7-10).For some of us, our obedience in pursuing Christ may not be anything huge (I.E. Planting a Church, Foreign Missions, Etc.), it may just be simple obedience in things like sharing the Gospel with a friend, loving those who are in distress, providing for those who are in desperate need.

Join the Conversation…Is there something that you are standing still on because you feel unprepared? Have you allowed other people’s opinions to hold you back from pursuing what Christ has called you to?

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A Stepping Stone

stonestairs
Friday night, we had our first annual adult Christmas party for New Passion Church. I believe it was a major stepping stone for our church and that this one little party could serve as a huge turning point for us.

I believe relationships are the key to success in any church and in any ministry. I remember starting small groups in our student ministry at a former church. I believed in creating smaller environments where our growing group of students could be known and cared for. It worked. I remember our high school group starting in Billy’s 3 bedroom apartment. We had 4 and 5 groups meeting in that one apartment. We utilized bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen…anywhere we could fit kids, we did it.

They were successful. I believe for several reasons. Students felt like they were involved, they found out that there were caring adults who were genuinely concerned for them, and they grew spiritually. I think this environment made it comfortable for students to invite their friends, therefore we grew even more.

I saw some great chemistry on Friday night. Wives who literally just met were standing around talking as if they were friends for 18 years. People who literally come through the doors of the school where we meet, drop their kid off, attend service, pick their kid up, and leave for home (in that specific order) were able to stop for a little while and interact with our team and with other people from the church. There was a lot of smiles and a lot of laughter. It was a great night. Sunday rolled around and some of those same people who are in and out of the church in a flash, slowed down just a little bit and enjoyed conversation with some of their new friends from the church. There was a buzz surrounding our Community Groups which will be kicking off on January 10, 2010.

I believe healthy relationships are a key ingredient to a healthy church, and I believe Friday night’s party helped add that ingredient to New Passion Church…I can’t wait to see what happens once our groups get off the ground. New Passion will be an unstoppable force! I guarantee it 🙂

npcchristmasparty