Most of you that read AldenEllis.com know that I was born and raised in Florence, SC. It is also the place that I began serving in full-time pastoral ministry. I served at First Baptist Church of Florence, my home church, for two and half years as the Minister of Students. I have many close friendships and fond memories of Florence. It is the place where my mom and dad, my dad’s side of the family (multitude of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) still reside.

With that said, NewSpring Church will open its THIRD campus in Florence, SC this fall. Perry announced this from stage today at our Easter Services, which you will definitely need to watch!! Over a year and half ago, he told the congregation that he felt the Lord was leading NewSpring to have a campus in every major city in South Carolina. Well, Florence is going to be the first of many other campuses across South Carolina!

I moved from Florence to begin serving at NewSpring Church back in August of 2005, since that time I have always thought that Florence would be a GREAT place for a campus of NewSpring Church. I truly believe that the community of Florence will be greatly blessed by this campus. I know so many people that are far from the Lord in Florence and this campus of NewSpring will be a great tool to get them connected!

Please be praying for the leadership of NewSpring as plans are being made and finalized. You can rest assured that as soon as the plans are able to be announced you will see them here on AldenEllis.com. If you are interested in connecting with this exciting news, please contact me through the contact page and I will send your information over to the Campus Pastor of the Florence Campus, Micheal Brown!

You can also check out more information about the excitement from Tony Morgan, by clicking here!

Get ready Florence…it is going to be an awesome and amazing ride!!!

If you are ever in a drought and you want to end that drought, here is what you need to do….Start a MAJOR Building Project! I believe that this is the first time in 2 years that we have a surplus in precipitation. Of course, my statement about ending a drought is nonsense, but I do believe that is shows God’s sense of humor! I know that it has made me laugh multiple times and it has made me realize that we must rely on Him for everything! For my plans are not His plans…we have to trust and believe that He knows what we need, WHEN we need it.

NewSpring is in a MAJOR building project to build a youth facility, children facility, and a campus in Greenville. For more details on each project jump on over to the NewSpring Gametime Update site. You will also be able to see some of the progress on the Youth Building.

I am so excited about the number of students that will be ministered to in and through this building. The fact that we will have a 1000 seat auditorium, breakout space, an awesome gaming area, gym, and outdoor field is simply AMAZING! It is my prayer that thousands and thousands of students will meet Jesus because we provide a place that they want to hang out in!

Be sure to check back on the Newspring Gametime site or here my blog for more updates!

We all want to be the first to do something at some point in our lives. Well, you have your chance…Be the first to sign your student up for the GAUNTLET 2008!! Registrations are up and running! Go to the NewSpring website and get all the information. It is going to be awesome and if you are a student you will not want to miss it!

I am loving the feel/look for this year! What do you think from the image above? This is a Joshua Blankenship original!! Is there anyone else out there looking forward to the GAUNTLET? Let me know who you are!!!

Joshua Blakenship, Creative Director at NewSpring Church, has just finished up the website for UNLEASH. UNLEASH is a one day conference that NewSpring Church hosts to challenge, encourage, and motivate church leaders to take action in reaching their communities for Jesus Christ.

If you did not get to come and want to watch the videos from the main sessions that Perry taught be sure to catch up on them. You can also get the transcripts from all the breakouts…including the Student Ministry Breakout Session that Brad Cooper and I led.

Also be sure to read what Joshua wrote about the site…here!

UPDATED:  Here is a list of Student Ministry Bloggers that attended UNLEASH, at least the ones that I know of…if you attended and you are not on the list, please let me know so I can add you!

• Dave Holt - LifePoint Church, Wilmington, NC
• Lee Clamp - First Baptist Church, Barnwell, SC
• Nathan Wright - OakLeaf Church, Cartersville, GA
• Sean Rheaume - Pointe North Community Church, Moncks Corner, SC
• Dave Farwell - Sonlight Church, Chesapeake, VA
• Matthew Ray - THE ROCK of Wilmington, NC
• Chris Gastardi - Barefoot Community Church, Myrtle Beach, SC
• NEW!! Jeremy Isaacs - Mt. Paran North, Marietta, GA

Seriously, if you attended the Student Ministry Breakout and you have a blog, please let me know! I will update with the ones that come in soon!

Also, we are putting the finishing touches on the email packet to send out very soon!

Thursday was an AMAZING day! So many things happened, that almost seems like a huge blur, but here are some of hte highlights of my day:

• The volunteers of NewSpring knocked it out of the park.  We had close to 450 volunteers there to serve the over 2000 church leaders attending Unleash. They did an amazing job of making everyone feel welcome, cared for, and important!
• Got to reconnect with some old and new friends from Florence.
• Main Session #1 with Perry was amazing. Check out Tony’s notes here.
• The Student Ministry Breakout was SLAMMED in the first time slot.  It was good being able to talk about some of the practical things that help shape our ministry.
• Chic-Fil-a for lunch is ALWAYS a good thing, but even better when you can network with a bunch of cool people
• Second Breakout was just as slammed.  It was good doing the breakout twice because the questions we received from the group were different. I always love getting questions because it makes you stretch and be able to flesh out every part of your ministry!
• Once again Perry knocked it out of the park in Session #2. Check out Tony’s notes here.

I am going to be posting some of the websites of the Student Pastors that I connected with in the next couple of days.  be sure to check out some of the things that they are doing!

Unleash is only a couple of hours away!  We are sold out and it is going to crazy!  I am looking forward to tomorrow morning as we will be cranking up all day long with 2000 other church leaders!  If you are not able to be hear, we will be posting outlines from the breakouts, etc on the web at www.newspringministries.com!  Be sure to check it out later on.

Are there any Student Ministry PEEPS that will be making the trek to NewSpring tomorrow?  Let me know, but if you can’t be sure to be at the breakout.  Come loaded with questions, so we can dialogue during the breakout session!

Here are some of the things that are happening around here at NewSpring:

• Student Ministry tonight…we start a new series called FORCE!
• Transformation of our parking lot into TENT CITY! Whenever I see tents go up, I think of this video. Check it out!
• Golf carts arriving to transport people around.
• The construction crew is starting to dig some holes for the footing of the Youth Building!  I am so stoked!!!
• Parking lot being setup with massive amounts of cones!
• Brad and I put the finishing touches on our Student Ministry Breakout and got the outline finished…I am excited about this breakout, because we both wanted to make sure that it practical and full of transferable principles.  Anyway, I could go on forever about it, but be there…also be ready to ask questions.
• Perry made a HUGE announcement today to the staff!  This secret is going to kill me, so be sure to be here on EASTER the announcement!
• Tom Pellerin is the new worship leader at NewSpring Greenville!  I love Tom, he is going to do an AWESOME job! Read the announcement here!
• Student Ministry Worship band is putting the finishing touches tonight, as we speak!  It is loud and awesome!

That is about it for now.  Got to get ready for our students! Hope to see you tomorrow!

This past Sunday after the 6:45 service, I went to Arby’s to get a quick bite to eat for dinner. I was surprised to see that there were two students, Jake and Kaleb White, from our student ministry in there getting some to eat as well. I knew that I was not going to be able to sit and eat with them, so it was good talking to them while I was trying to decide what to get and they were waiting for their food.

Oddly enough, I was having a very hard time deciding, but one of the students stood up there with me. I finally made a decision and Jake asked me what I was going to get, so I told him! He preceded to give the lady enough money to cover my meal.

Of course, I tried to tell him not to, but he was persistent! His response to me was awesome. He said, “Alden, I would just take that money and spend it on something useless, at least this way I can bless someone.” WOW!! It challenged me to think about the times that I could bless someone and I have not done it! I know that from this experience I will be more aware of my surroundings and the people that are present. We should all look for those opportunities to be able to bless others! Jesus has blessed me so much, that I should see it as a privilege to be able to give something to other people.

Jake, thank you for teaching your youth pastor a lesson the other night! I am proud of you for listening to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide you. You have grown is some amazing ways since the first time I met you. I am looking forward to seeing how Jesus is going to grow you and lead you in future. Keep making Jesus famous in your life!