Alden Ellis

Last Thursday was a GREAT night.  We had 36 people attend our first vision event. We are hosting another Vision Event, TOMORROW night at 7PM at the Saluda Shoals Park River Center.  Feel free to invite your friends and family or anyone that you know that needs to hear about NewSpring Church!

Also, we are having a Campus Cleanup Day, this SATURDAY, Aug. 29th at 9AM.  Bring gloves and any tools you may have, especially: shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, weedeaters, etc.  We would love to have you join us! This is a great opportunity to start serving the people who will be attending the campus!!

Lastly, we will have our FIRST Membership Class on Monday, Aug. 31st at 6:30 PM at the Saluda Shoals Park River Center.  You can sign up for Membership Class by going to this link.  Be sure to select the Columbia Campus.

We are excited about being in Columbia and look forward to meeting all of you.  Hopefully will see you soon at one of our many events in the next couple of days!

A location has been set!  Perry announced today during our services that we have signed a lease for a building on Broad River Road off of I-26 (Exit 101-A).  The property was used by Gateway Baptist Church to do some amazing ministry.  God has blessed them with new facilities and they have been gracious enough to allow us to rent their old facilities.  Gateway has been AWESOME during this time!  They are VERY KINGDOM-MINDED and want to see the name of Jesus made famous in Columbia and all over the world!  God is using them to reach people and we pray that God blesses them in some amazing ways!!

We are VERY excited about the potential this holds for reaching the Columbia area. We are looking to launch by the end of September, so get ready Columbia!  It is going to a GREAT ride.

Here is a shot of the location from Google Maps:

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On April 1st I went to lunch with Lee McDerment and Stephen Cope.  I had spoken to a couple of people about Stephen and had heard a lot of good things about him.  I, also,  had spoken to him on the phone a couple of times and was looking forward to seeing what God was doing in his life.  It was a great lunch and both, Lee and I, felt that we need to interview Stephen for the worship leader position

Over the next 2 months, I have been able to meet with him on numerous occasions, seen him lead worship, had dinner with him and Cindy (his wife), and put him before the fire squad by getting belted with questions from some of the all star staff members of NewSpring Church.  It has been through this time that I have found that Stephen is the real deal.  Stephen loves Jesus, his family, and the local church.

So I am stoked to say that Stephen accepted the call to be Columbia Campus Worship Leader.  I am looking forward to him being a part of the team that will make the name of Jesus famous in Columbia.  He will do a GREAT job and be a key part of us being able to reach thousands in Columbia.

Here is a just a little bit of information for you to know about him…

• He has been married to Cindy for 3 years
• He has an adorable little girl, Natalie, who is a little over 3 months old…she has the best hair ever
• He loves to eat at great restaurants: Bellacinos, Soby’s on the Side, Sassasfras, McAlister’s Deli, and the best place of all…Bucky’s BBQ
• He is a Green Bay Packers Fan…not sure about that one
• He is a Apple Macbook junkie
• He just saw Footloose for the first time about 10 months ago

This is what he has to say about being a part of the Columbia Campus:

yes, i have a new job. and for me, the phrase “dream job” would be an understatement. i guess i’ll just go ahead and say it…

i’m going to be the new worship leader for newspring church at their columbia campus…

its still surreal for me to say, so i’ll probably be posting more in the coming weeks to months as we get going, but for now, i’m just soaking in the fact that i get the privilege to work in such and unbelievable organization.

Here is a link to see him lead worship at NewSpring a couple of weeks ago. Take a moment to check out his twitter page and his blog to see what God has been doing in his life.

Welcome Stephen, glad to have you on board!!!