This will sound arrogant, but I am not intending it that way, but there will be some punk out that takes it that way, but anyway…here goes.

NewSpring Church Loves People!

I am so thankful that I am a part of church that cares about people.  I have had the privilege to meet with a some couples that are living together that are not married.  Each of them have their different circumstances and reasons, but they all have been willing to meet and talk about their situation. Well, to make a long story short…I am getting ready to leave to officiate the wedding of one of those couples.

They came and meet with me a couple of weeks ago to talk about how they want to live for Jesus.  So I asked their intentions and they said they wanted to get married.  So I walked with them through a couple sessions of pre-marital counseling appointments that talked about love, roles in marriage, lies that we are told about marriage, expectations, sex, intimacy, etc.

Because NewSpring cares about people, I am able to officiate the wedding of two people that want to follow God’s will for their lives and live the way Jesus wants them to.  Unfortunately, some churches would have beat them up emotionally and verbally and told them leave their church and then come back AFTER they got straightened up….not NewSpring.  We love the people and help them get out of the sin.  We don’t tell them to go clean up and then come back!  We know that we are a hospital for sinners and not a country club for sinners!!

God calls us to LOVE people, NOT their sin!!  We must be willing to deal with that sin and speak truth in love to them…this is messy and draining, BUT so rewarding!!

So be sure to ALWAYS love Jesus and love people!! Now, I am off to a wedding!!

Today is a FREAKING huge day!  I am starting at the Greenville Campus…I am going to be serving as the Associate Campus Pastor.  I talked about the transition in this post.  I am super excited about what the future holds and all the stuff that I am going to be working on!  The team of people that are on the gorund and have been running STRONG for over 6 months are AWESOME!  I am looking forward to learning from them and getting challenged in some aweome way!

Be praying for me as I will now be traveling 35-40 minutes every day to get to the campus.  I look forward to posting more about the transition and what it all entails.  Also pray for me as I am going to have a car mate this AM!  Pudge Huckaby is hitching a ride with me this morning, so it is sure to be a CRAZY, LOUD, and FUN ride!!!

For the past six months I have been serving as the Care Pastor for NewSpring Church. I dove right in and started immersing myself in all that we do for care at NewSpring Church. I have learned so much about myself and also for caring for people. We have made some subtle changes that I believe will really enhance how we are able to care for people that attend our church.

Six months ago, I also wrote a post titled, “Change is Good!!”. In that post I stated, “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.” If you are unwilling to change, you will die! If you are unwilling to see the growing needs of your church and change to meet them, then you will fail. God is about change. He desires to change our lives from death to life. He desires for us to change as people…to be people of growth in wisdom, knowledge, etc.

In the previous post mentioned, I also stated, “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!!!”

With that said, I am making another transition at NewSpring Church. I am transitioning to our Greenville Campus, to serve as the Associate Campus Pastor. I will be serving directly under Howard Frist, Greenville Campus Pastor. Some of the tasks that I have been asked to tackle and lead are:

• Care Ministry:
  • Counseling
  • Pre-Marital Counseling
  • Baptism
  • Development of Bereavement Team
  • Development of Hospital Team
  • Development of Meals Ministry
  • Sunday Care Team
  • Recruitment and Training Care Ministry Volunteers
• Home Groups Ministry:
  • Starting new groups
  • Shepherding current and future group leaders
  • Monitor the health of all Greenville groups
• Membership Process
• Benevolence Process
• Of course, the little line in any job description: anything else that is deemed necessary.

I am looking forward to this new opportunity as I believe that it is the BEST move for NewSpring Church and myself. I really think that it will challenge and stretch my leadership. I am looking forward to the development that I will have over the next couple of years as I serve at our Greenville Campus. Multi-site ministry is something that has ALWAYS fascinated me and I look forward to learning more about it and helping Howard Frist lead the Greenville Campus.

Coming up on October 4th we are having a HUGE baptism. It is going to be awesome. We have asked our people to join in the parking lot for some tailgating before we get the baptism rolling and if last year is an indication….DANG….it will be AWESOME!!! Last week we had over 400 people sign up for the baptism and we are expecting more to come in the very near future.

If you want more information on baptism, go to this link or if you know that you need to be baptized, go to this link and sign-up today!! We would love to have you join us.

So bring out the RV’s, tents, frisbees, grills, footballs, golf carts, and all the food you can. Tailgating will begin at 3PM and Baptism at 5PM!!! Don’t miss it!

Also here is an article about LAST year’s baptism!!

There is a guy over in Greenville that is doing some awesome stuff with our students! Do yourself a favor and stop by the Internet home of Davey Blackburn, Student Pastor at NewSpring Greenville. You will be abel to get an inside look at all they are doing to reach students for Jesus in the Greenville area. I am very excited about some of the things that they are trying! I look forward to seeing how it all plays out! Also here is a post that Tony Morgan wrote about what we are trying in Greenville>

Keep up the great work Davey!!!

Also for your enjoyment here are the 3 latest videos that he has produced for their small groups that meet on Wednesday Nights:

TwoADays #1:

Two A Days from Davey Blackburn on Vimeo.

TwoADays #2:

TwoADays_Wk2 from Davey Blackburn on Vimeo.

TwoADays #3:

FuseGroups Wk3 from Davey Blackburn on Vimeo.

Check out some of the following links…

• Perry’s Series of post on weight loss here, here, and here…by the way, these were writing in response to a sermon on alcohol…Is it okay for a Christian to drink alcohol?
• Shane’s post on the things that tempt leadership.
• Brad’s post on MTV and culture.
• Tony’s video about his upcoming book.
• Jump over to Ben Coleman & check out some of the videos he has been putting together.
• Enjoyed reading how Pudge is having to ADAPT in his new role in Greenville.
• Awesome to see my boy, David Hall, with so much EXCITEMENT for what God is going to do in Florence.
• Great story from Sherry’s blog about an awesome volunteer’s family!

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

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!!!!