In my new role, I get the privilege to respond to a lot of correspondence that we received here at NewSpring Church.  The other day we received a letter from a correctional institution in Florida.  Check out this excerpt from the letter:

“Today, due to some crazy weather, we had to improvise our afternoon chapel service. We showed week two of the Illuminate Series, you preached on “Nailing It Down,” putting Jesus into our heart and receiving Christ. When you gave the call to stand up SIX men in our chapel stood up and received Christ.  IT WAS AMAZING!!!”

I was blown away and blessed beyond measure by this!  Thank you Jesus for using NewSpring even in places that we did not know we were being used…

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”   Matthew 25:36-40

So many times we allow things to get in our way of our desire and passion. Questions I have would be, “What is my true desire? What do I truly desire to see happen in my life, my family, my relationships, my ministry, my whatever? Do I know that? Does that desire sink up with the desire that God has for my life?”

Sometimes it is easy to get upset, mad, or angry when a decision, action, or plan goes against what our desires. Which sometimes is justified, but sometimes it is NOT justified. Just because those plans or actions go against your desires does NOT mean they are wrong. It does NOT mean that the people who made them are out to get you. I know, I know, I know that it is hard to believe that, especially in the moment! Sometimes we have to trust, sometimes we have to have faith (trusting without seeing the end result, trusting without seeing the reasons)! That is what God is calling us to do.

I will pose this question to you, do you believe that your desires are the desires of God? Do you believe that the things you long for in your life, ministry, relationships, etc are the things that God desires for you? Maybe they are, maybe they are not. I can’t tell you and neither can anyone else, but God DESIRES to tell you! He DESIRES to give you HIS DESIRES!

At some point in all of our lives, we all get pulled away from the desires that God would have for us, but that doesn’t mean we have to stay that way! When I was thinking about desires, I was reminded of a song by Jeremy Camp titled, “My Desire.” Here are the lyrics to that song. Read them, let them soak into your mind, your heart, and your soul! For the sake of your desires…lay it all down before the KING!!!

“My Desire” by: Jeremy Camp

You want to be real
You want to be empty inside
You want to be someone laying down your pride
You want to be someone someday
Then lay it all down before the King
You want to be whole
You want to have purpose inside
You want to have virtue and purify your mind
You want to be set free today then lay it all down before the King

This is my desire
This is my return
This is my desire to be used by you

You want to be real
You want to be emptied inside
And I know my heart is to feel you near
And I know my life
It’s to do your will
It’s to do your will

All my life I have seen where you’ve taken me
Beyond all I have hoped and there’s more left unseen
There’s not much I can do to repay all you’ve done so I give my hands to use

I am currently listening to the musical goodness of Starbore, the solo debut of Chris Brown! This album is amazing. I have always thought that Chris has an amazing voice and this does not disappoint.  Great vocals, great lyrics, GREAT album!

I have know Chris since he was a freshman at Anderson University, he was awesome then and is phenomenal now! This is a great project, so do yourself a favor and go buy it! You can get is at the following places:

• iTunes
• Digistation
• CD Baby

Chris, keeping doing your thing man! God has his hands all over you!

Last season, my lawnmower started to have some problems, but I was not to stressed out about because it was the end of the grass cutting season.   Well, that all caught up with me this past week.  Deanna and I went out to cut the grass and our lawnmower was doing awesome for a couple of minutes, but then I realized that I had not taken care of the problem.  I let the problem sit and I did nothing to fix/remedy the problem.

Well, that caused our grass to get way out of control…weeds everywhere and tall blades of grass. It looked horrible, well the other night Deanna and I went to dinner and to the grocery store and as we were driving into our neighborhood, Deanna was commenting on how everyone’s grass looked awesome and well groomed, which made me feel awful. Of course, that was NOT her intent, but as we came up the hill to our house, we realized that our grass had been cut! Someone has taken the time to cut our grass for us!

We found out that our next door neighbor cut our grass for us.  Now, keep in mind, she had no clue about our lawnmower being broken.  She could have just got tired of seeing over grown grass, but anyway!  We walked over to thank her and she was so kind about it.  She told us that while she was cutting her own grass that she just felt like the Lord was telling her to cut our grass. Of course,  after hearing that we proceeded to tell her about our lawnmower and what a blessing she had been.  It was awesome and such an unexpected blessing from the Lord.

Through that experience the Lord really impressed upon my heart that I needed to be on the “look out” for ways that I can bless others.  You see, the Lord has given so much to each one of use and we need to be looking out for ways that we can give back to others.  How about you?  How can you give back and bless someone else?

Since I “officially” started my job on Monday, I have had so many things to learn.  Of course, this will take a lot more time, but here are some of the things that have consumed my mind lately:

• Trying to be intentional with getting to know my new staff
• Learn and understand some things that were getting ready to be changed
• Learn and understand the current structure of ministry
• Read through a 7 Section (75+/- page manual) of the Care Team Structure, Policies, and procedure.
• Read through the “How to pull off Membership Class” manual
• Determine how to utilize my assistant/membership coordinator
• Grasp how much training has been done and what was taught
• Brainstorm future training sessions
• Begin to brainstorm what type of method we will use for our volunteers to know how to help/care for people
• Learn the Benevolence process
• Conduct potential intern interviews for the summer

Also had to go to the Doctor to get treated for Poison Oak/Ivy, whatever you want to call it!  Which the medicine is wonderful but it makes me really, really drowsy!!

Time to go learn some more!  I am out!

I hate it when things get in the way. I hate when something slows me down on the path that I am traveling. Think with me for a moment…you are in a HUGE hurry to get somewhere, you are riding along, you seem to be catching every light at the right time to flow on through, but then…you get stuck. You get stuck behind someone driving slowly, acting like they have not a care in the world! They are not in a hurry, they could careless about the speed limit because they are going slower than you could run! It is such an inconvenience, it is such a seemingly waste of time. We cannot get to where we want and/or need to be. We cannot accomplish what we want to and/or need to. It is frustrating! It simply gets in our way of where we want to go.

I will be honest and say that I have allowed things to get in the way.  Sometimes I ask them to get in the way, sometimes I allow them to get in the way of my desire and passion.  So many times I allow circumstances and situations to control me, well, not necessarily the situation, but maybe my thoughts and attitudes towards the situation. I know for me that there have been many times that I disagree with a decision, action, plan, etc. and sometimes when I disagree I allow my own displeasure to get in the way.

How about you, has this ever happened to you? Have you ever found yourself in a situation that you were not necessarily happy with and allowed that displeasure to get in the way of other things?

When I allow that to happen it is so selfish! My own desires are not more important that the situation at hand. It is my prayer that I remember that I serve a God who is capable and able to do everything without me. May I take a backseat and enjoy the ride of a lifetime in His will.

Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

May I be still and know that He is God, so that He can received the honor and the glory in my life!!

One of the things that I love about NewSpring Church is that we are not afraid to change to meet the growing needs that our church has. Change is sometimes a very hard thing for people to cope with. They struggle with it, they agonize over it, and sometimes they are flat out against it! I believe that the reason so many struggle with change is because it is hard for them to let go. Let go of pride, position, power, etc.

The characteristic of our leadership team that is so prevalent is that they SOAK every decision in prayer. If they are going to change, they make sure it is what God is calling them to do. Now, understand that our leadership team is tasked with leading our church, which sometimes requires change without getting approval from everyone and their momma. They do not have time to get everyone’s approval because we are in desperate times…people are dying and going to Hell. My trust is in the Lord God Almighty and if God told them that we need to do something or change something, then lets strap on the boots and get to work! The church has the solution, and I am so thankful that our leadership team will not sit on the sidelines and watch people die and go to Hell! Because it is GAMETIME!!!

So with that said, I am changing positions at NewSpring Church. I am going to be transitioning out of the Student Ministry as a Student Pastor and taking on a leadership role in our Care Ministry. I will be serving alongside the best Care Ministry Staff in the country. My role will be to serve as Care Pastor for NewSpring Church with my responsibilities including overseeing and managing:

• 3 Other FABULOUS Staff Members
• Membership Process
• Baptism
• Pre-Marital Class and Counseling
• Benevolence
• Bereavement
• Hospital Team
• Meals Ministry
• Weekday Prayer Team
• Sunday Care Team
• Weekday Care Team
• Weekend Care Team
• Counseling for Men
• Recruitment and Training Care Ministry Volunteers

So many things to do and accomplish!! It is going to be exciting, so please pray for me as I begin a brand new area of ministry. I am looking forward to being able to serve Christ by serving people in a very real and tangible way! Let the adventure begin!!!!

I have been taking an intentional blogging break, but I will be announcing some exciting news either later today or tomorrow!!!  Peace!