Alright, I am in the middle of a crazy stretch of a speaking schedule (10 things in 10 or 11 days). Tonight and Sunday are the two things that I am JACKED up about. Tonight I am speaking for FUSE, the high school ministry of NewSpring Church, and I have not spoken at FUSE in a looooong time! Actually, the last time that I spoke for FUSE, I spoke on the issue of sex. Needless to say, it was tense, fun, and amazing all rolled into one message. Anyways, I am really excited because this will be the last service for FUSE. On Sunday, I am speaking for IGNITE, our middle school ministry, and this will be our last service. I am excited about the message God has laid on my hear to share with the Middle School and High School students that attend NewSpring.

I know some of you maybe asking why are both of these ministries having their last meeting all in the same week? What is the deal with this and what in the world is going on? Is NewSpring no longer doing middle school ministry on one night and high school ministry on another night? Well, the answer to that is YES! NewSpring is no longer doing IGNITE, middle school ministry and FUSE, high school ministry. We are going to be changing things up a little, well actually…a whole lot.

Beginning on October 31st, we will be…….

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meeting together (6th grade-12th grade) as a UNITED Student Ministry, on the same night, at the same place, at the same time. Over the past couple of months, we have really felt hat God is leading us to try something different. There are many reasons for our change.

Here are a couple of the quick reason why we are making a change:

• The current facility we are in, the 2Seven, is at max capacity and we are not going to be in our new building for another year. Currently, we are out of room to grow and if you are out of room to grow, you will NOT continue to grow. Solution: We are going to move to the main auditorium on the NewSpring Campus. (This will give us over 2,000 seats to grow into!)
• We believe that we will better stewards of the resources God has given us.  We will also be able to work/excel in our individual strengths and passions as a ministry staff.
• Most importantly, God is leading us in this direction.

I think that this move and change will be amazing stretch of ministry for our students and our church.  We are looking forward to this and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do!

With that said, most of my post will be focusing more on student ministry as a whole instead of being middle school specific.  I am looking forward to journaling and blogging about our experiences.  I got to run to prepare for FUSE tonight!  Peace!!

Tonight was a great night! We decided to go without chairs. It was crazy, sometimes you get those groups of students who talk a little bit more without the structure of chairs. Although it was sort of neat to see all the students clumped up together at the front! We had a lot of first-time visitors, which is always great. Best thing of tonight was that we had 6 students accept Christ as their Lord and Savior! Also we had over 277 people accept Christ at the main service at NewSpring! God is so awesome!

Here is the recap from the night:
Attendance: Above Average - Up from the previous week…always a good thing
Music: Average
Message: Above Average - Felt the message went really well. I started the invitation within 19 minutes from starting. I always try to keep it right at 20 minutes.
Topic: HEROES: FAITH - David
Fun Factor: Above Average - We played “Straw War,” where you divide the room in half, each student gets a straw and you throw out 2 different color q-tips. They shoot them through the straw to the other side, etc.
Crowd Involvement: Above Average
Volunteer Involvement: Below Average - We were missing a lot of leaders…Small groups were crazy due to the lack of attendance of our leaders, but I am sure that will be corrected next week!

Here are my notes from tonight:

HEROES: FAITH - DAVID
1 Samuel 17 & Hebrews 11:1

David faced Goliath in an epic battle of man vs. beast.

Why did David believe that he could face the giant, when no one believed that he could? FAITH

Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

There are a couple of things we need to remember:

• David was sure that the giant could be defeated. v.32-37
• David never saw anyone beat the giant. v.24
• David’s faith was in the Lord Almighty. v.45-47

Because of David’s faith…He was able to:

• Stand strong.
• Accomplish more than anyone else.
• Defeat the giant. v.50

Here is an update of the service projects we have done the past couple of days:

Tuesday:

• Yardwork for the Anderson Crisis Pregnancy Center at their new home for unwed pregnant ladies.
• Trash Pickup at Lakeside Middle School (Lakeside is one of large feeder schools to our ministry).

Wednesday:

• Yardwork at the Calvary Children’s Home
• Trash Pickup at McCants Middle School (McCants is our largest feeder school to our ministry).

Also we had an increase in the number of participants…76 for the past two days. Tomorrow is our last day of our mission to continue to serve the community. Tomorrow we will head back to AIM and also go to Wren Middle School to pickup trash and help clean the campus.  Got to get some sleep before the EARLY morning rolls around.

Simple math…simple addition…not so simple when planning an event. This week we have Mission:Anderson, an opportunity for our current 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to minister to the Anderson community. During these four days we are going to spend time learning what it means to serve others by doing various projects in the Anderson area!

On Sunday, we had 45 students signed up. On Monday morning at the end of check-in, we had 70 students ready to rock and roll. After some scrabbling to get an extra van, we were ready. By the way, what an awesome problem to have…more and more students wanting to serve their community! We had two groups serve at the Boys & Girls Club of Anderson and Anderson Interfaith Ministry (AIM). Both groups finished earlier than expected, so we were again scrambling to find work for them to do in a mission to serve the community.

Needless to say, it was HOT today! The average high for august is 89 degrees. Today the temperature was a whopping 98 degrees with 35% humidity. It is not expecting to set any easier for us on a mission to serve Anderson…we are expecting 99 degree weather. Check out the information here. We will be hot, but honestly…it is hotter in hell. (Speaking of Hell, please go and watch the service from this past week. Awesome, great, exciting! You will be surprised!) Also, who said serving was a easy thing to do…sometimes serving take commitment and a little bit of extra effort. Please pray for us as we endure the heat. Peace!

Last night was awesome for me. I decided to take a break from speaking…to prepare for future messages and to get ready for a camp I am speaking for this week for Millbrook Baptist Church NewLife Student Ministries…which is always a little difficult for me. Whenever I do this, I always see stuff that needs improvement and stuff that needs to receive a little care to improve our ministry. A lot of the time it is the small stuff, nothing major or huge, but stuff that bothers me. Stuff that i do not want to bother others when they attend our ministry for the first time. Regardless, it was fun for me to sit int he back and be an observer for tonight. Here is the run down from tonight!

Attendance: Above Average - Up from the previous week…always a good thing
Music: Above Average
Message: Above Average - Andrew Sentell gave the message and did an AWESOME job. He rocked it out last night!
Topic: Play It: Sorry - Accepting Forgiveness
Fun Factor: Average
Crowd Involvement: Above Average
Volunteer Involvement: Above Average - Small groups were crazy but seemed to be very effective tonight!

Last night was the first night for our rising 6th Graders. It was a whole of fun because new 6th Graders bring a whole bunch of energy with them! they were through the roof last night!

Here is a pic from my Motorola Q from the side of the stage:

Attendance: Above Average
Music: Above Average - Daniel and the guys rocked it out!
Message: Average (little on the longer side than normal)
Topic: Play It: Risk of not living with Jesus
Fun Factor: Average - We did have an adult eat a tub of creme dessert filling in 7 bites it hilarious (a trash can was close by for obvious reasons)!!
Crowd Involvement: Above Average (New 6th Grade energy)
Volunteer Involvement: Above Average (We had a good number of observers, people who want to get involved in our ministry who come and check it out!)

We had 11 students accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. It was AWESOME! Overall it was a great night and a lot of fun. The staff and I are really looking forward to having this new crop of 6th Graders with us for the next 3 years!

Mark 12:30-31, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“The true leader serves. Serves people. Serves their best interests, and in doing so will not always be popular, may not always impress. But because true leaders are motivated by loving concern rather than a desire for personal glory, they are willing to pay the price.” Euguene B. Habecker

These are the two things that I shared with our leaders Sunday night in our IGNITE Staff Meeting. I casted some vision to let them know that we are about to get in over our heads in ministry. We are expecting close to 200 students next week at IGNITE with the rising 6th Graders attending for the first time. We are taking 80 of them with us on an event this week called the UPRISING.

With that in mind, I challenged them to be on the look out for GREAT leaders. Those people who will be leaders in the truest sense of the word…a servant. A person who will come to IGNITE and a have a desire to serve the students in their small group and will be willing to do it when they do not get all the praise in the world. A leader who is motivated out of a desire to serve Jesus through serving our students. A leader who understands that it is worth the price to serve these students. A leader who is willing to listen to the sad stories, broken hearted laments, wipe away the tears, listen intently to what they are saying, and do their best to relate to them.

As a leader it takes time, energy, effort, preparation (spiritual, emotional, mental), and love. As a leader this is the price we pay to work with our students. Please know…IT IS WORTH THE PRICE WE PAY! The rewards and benefits are through the roof. When a student accepts Christ…it is worth the price we pay. When a student grows in their faith…it is worth the price we pay. When the light-bulb comes on after multiple conversations… it is worth the price we pay. When they tell their friends about Christ…it is worth the price we pay.

Come join us if you would like to see an infinite return on your investment into the lives of students! Contact us here is you are a member of NewSpring and want to be part of something amazing!

Ignite was awesome last night! It was the last night for our 8th graders, as they will be rising up into FUSE. We did not focus a lot on them leaving because it is not a sad thing. I am excited that they are moving on because it represents the growing process. They need to continue to move on and grow into the person that God made them. They need to experience new things and learn new things…that is exactly what they will do in FUSE. They will have the opportunity to grow in some awesome ways within our high school ministry and that is AWESOME!

Here is the breakdown from the night:

Topic: PLAY-IT - Scrabble: The Power of Words
Link to Main Graphic:
Outline: James 3:1-12
My Words Will:
1. Hurt People - My words can be a like a fire…you can neither control them once it is set in motion nor reverse the damage done. I burned some paper on stage to illustrate the point and showed pics of a house burning and remains left.
2. Help People - We need to encourage one another and that can be done in many different ways (spoken and non-spoken: texting, email, note card, written letter, smile, hug, etc.). I used this time to encourage a couple of our 8th Graders. I called them out individually and told them some qualities/straights that I have been impressed by that I have seen in them. It was pretty cool!
3. Reflect My Heart - I explained the difference of a salt water spring (bitter tasting, burns on a wound) & a fresh water spring (quenches thirst, brings relief, cleans a wound). I also pulled out a mirror and told the students that mirrors give a true representation of what we look like. Not only does a mirror do that, but our words give a true reflection of our hearts.

I closed with challenging them to ask these three questions before saying something:

• Are my words true?
• Are my words necessary?
• Are my words kind?

Overall, it was a great night! Attendance was up, energy was high, band was great, students had fun, although pickup was a little quirky! I love hanging out with our middle schoolers!