Tag: New Passion Church

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Velocity 2010 – Steven Furtick

stevenfurtick-buttonVelocity 2010 Church Planters Conference

Speaker: Steven Furtick (Twitter)

“Jesus Told Me To”

“Imitate the faith of others, not their miracles”

“The most important criteria that will determine your church plants success (outside of God’s power) is your ability to sense what God wants you to do next along with the courage to do it & the leadership to get others to do it with you.”

There is no substitute for the gospel

Mark 11:1-6

[Jesus tells the disciples to go get the colt…if confronted, reply “Jesus told me to…”]

If Jesus didn’t tell you to plant a church…DONT!!!

Jesus May Be Telling Us To:

1. Make a Costly Personal Sacrifice as a Leader –

Velocity is not generated from the outside in, its generated from the inside out.

“Its the things you do when no one sees that produces the results (fruit) that everyone wants.” – Craig Groeschel

– – There’s a cost to your calling.

2. Painful Relational Shifts –

Some people cannot go to the places where God is calling you.

If someone can walk away from you, let them walk.

Steven Furtick – “I live by the value, leave people in better condition than you found them” [Do not use and abuse people. Love them, but don’t let them hinder you from doing what Jesus tells us to do]

3. Repent of Secret Sin –

4. To Take a CS (Crack Smoking or Christ the Savior) Step of Faith –

Its valuable to have a team that says I’ll go get the colt with you, even if we get arrested, we’ll go to jail together.

Steven Furtick had 7 “crack smoking” families help him launch elevation

[MY NOTE] New Passion – – We had 20 “crack smoking” adults plus our children help us launch New Passion. We had VERY little money (even had to borrow money), we had no guarantee of success, very little equipment (and what we have is mostly borrowed), very little skill (that’s me!). All we had was “Jesus Told Me Too…” Thank you all for Embracing a Faith Bigger than Ourselves…I can’t wait to see what God does through all of us! He’s already changing lives 🙂

Velocity Conference: Main Session 1 Highlights – – Main Session 2 Highlights – – Breakout Session 2 with Pete Wilson Highlights – – Main Session 4 Highlights – – Breakout Session 3 with Tony Morgan Highlights – – Main Session 6 Highlights

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52 Days

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On Sunday we kicked off our 52 Day Campaign believing that we serve the same God that empowered Nehemiah and his workers to completely rebuild the wall around Jericho in 52 days. As a community of faith, we are learning that Jesus has called us out to be on mission to change the world. I believe if we are going to move with God, we must be willing to take Risks, Sacrifice personally, and Mobilize people to take this journey with us.

Our goal is to see a 52% increase in our overall attendance at church by Easter Sunday. You may ask, “Why are you worried about increasing attendance?” Well, I am happy to answer. By increasing our attendance by 52% that gives us concrete evidence that we are fulfilling one of our goals as a church, to reach people. That’s 52% more people that we have the opportunity of leading to a passionate relationship with Jesus, its 52% more people to partner with us in this movement of God to see the hungry fed, the needy clothed, and the brokenhearted loved. It’s 52% more people who can discover the passions God has placed in their heart in order to serve mankind, locally and globally. 52% may very well be a challenge to us, but it is mere simplicity to God. In New Passion’s first 5 months we’ve seen God grow our community by 100% – I’m trusting Him for an additional 52% by Easter.

Hey New Passion! Are you with me? In the next 52 days, let’s find ways that we can Risk, Sacrifice, and Mobilize in order to fulfill the mission Christ has called us on. Join the Social Media revolution! Grab the main picture (right click & “save picture as”) and place it on your blog or facebook photo albums, or grab the photo below (right click & “save picture as”) and replace your Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace avatar with it. If you are on Twitter, tweet how God is using you to Risk, Sacrifice, and Mobilize and tag it with #52Days, so we can all check out what God is doing in your life!  What can you do to live out Jesus’ mission this week?

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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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New Series: REFUEL

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We are kicking off our new series “REFUEL” this Sunday- The series really began last week as we canceled service for “REFUEL Weekend” and asked everyone to take time with their family and with God to prepare for the new year. I am excited about 2010 for New Passion! We are hitting the ground running as we kickoff our 3rd children’s environement, a new group for two year olds in The Grove. We are also kicking off Community Groups for the first time as a church. We’ve had a HUGE response from people interested in sharing life with one another in community! So far we have right at 50% of our weekend attendance signed up for a group. I’m totally blown away by the response. Our groups will correspond with the message series, and each group will be traveling together through the Refuel book by Doug Fields.

I hope to see you this Sunday as we discover how to have uncomplicated connections with God. [Directions]

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2009: What A Year!

2009

I heard on the radio this morning that people had a shredding party to end 2009 and this decade. Since I am headed out of town for a few days, I thought I would go ahead and list some of the things I am thankful for in 2009. It’s been an interesting year, but I still have plenty to be thankful for:

1. My amazing wife Nicki. I, along with the rest of the world, am thankful that she is definitely not me. God knew what he was doing when he put us together. We couldn’t be any more different from each other, but that is not a bad thing. We help balance each other out. Nicki is full of mercy…I try to be, but its not my strength. I’m the type that calls it like it is, and I’m okay with that. Nicki has been a huge help to me in our new endeavors this past year. She is a great mother to our children, I couldn’t ask for a better woman to live my life with.

2. My amazing children: Gavin, Tristan and Hailey…yes they are still more amazing than your children 🙂 Each have their own personalities and characteristics. I love the way they make me smile. They are definitely a gift from God!

3. New Passion Church – Wow! I cannot believe it actually happened. There were days I just didn’t believe it was going to launch. There were so many thoughts and ideas that I had about launching this church that when they didn’t happen, I thought I had made a mistake. On September 13, we launched with 109 people and averaged 91 in our first month. We’ve now settled in the upper 60’s to low 70’s every week including our volunteers, children, and adults. We’ve already lost families to deployment, some of which jumped in and assisted from day one…I hated to see them go; and we’ve lost others because we didn’t fit their idea of church, it’s funny, I’m definitely at peace about that. We purposely started with our series “Rediscover Church” because we know we will not be for everyone. I am blown away by these numbers because we started with Nicki, our three kids, and myself, so yes, I am amazed at what God has done so far! I can look back over the first three months and see answered prayers and life change, and I know New Passion is definitely a movement of God and its definitely been worth it. I am thankful for the amazing team that God has assembled, they have huge hearts, have sacrificed greatly, and love Jesus with a Passion. They were definitely gifted to be church planters. I am thankful to everyone who has selflessly invested financial and material resources to help New Passion be successful in living out its vision to “lead people to a passionate relationship with Jesus.” I can’t wait to see how God uses us in 2010.

4. True Friends – “Best” friends is an overrated and overused term. “True” friends are what matter in life. I’ve come to realize in 2009 that “people’s actions are rarely as big as how they promote themselves…” A true friend is someone who you can rely on and who is honest. I think those two characteristics and qualities go a long way.

5. Jesus

Of course there is plenty more I could list, but this should be sufficient. I hope you all have an awesome send off to 2009 and a Happy New Year!!!