Davinci Decoded (And A Few Other Thoughts)

May 7, 2006

WOW—my mind is reeling from today…I cannot sum up how I feel, it has to be one of the most emotional Sunday’s in my life.

Our most conservative estimates put the number of people who accepted Christ at NewSpring today right at 100 people. It was truly amazing to see everyone stand today and tonight that received Christ.

My buddy Dan introduced me to a couple tonight who he had invited to NewSpring—the lady was visiting for her second time and the husband was a first timer…he came up to me after the service and told me that both of them had received Christ.

I thought, “WOW—that’s it—INVEST in people’s lives and INVITE them to a place where they can hear about Jesus!” I want to say “thank you” to everyone who invited someone to church…one thing NewSpring has always done well is step up to the plate when we ask people to invite lost family members and friends!

So…the series Davinci Decoded is over. As of right now we have seen over 300 people receive Christ over the last four weeks! Isn’t that awesome?!?!?! When we were preparing for this series we actually had a few people to contact our church and tell us that we were ungodly and pagan for doing this type of series…thank GOD we didn’t listen to them! I know of at least 300 people that are eternally grateful that we listen to the Holy Spirit! :-)

There are those who call in and e-mail from time to time wondering why we are seeing these types of results and asking us what we do. Actually—ALL we know how to do is talk about Jesus and teach from Scripture how real and relevant He is to our lives today…and we do it in a way where people can understand it.

This coming Sunday we are going to begin a new series called, “XM Satellite Radio,” with the first message being a special Mother’s Day deal entitled, “Captivated!” Trust me when I say we are going to deal with some “women issues” from the book of Proverbs…and I will be addressing some things that many pastors are afraid to mention!

I thank God that I get to pastor NewSpring. Folks—He is doing an amazing thing here! I know you may hear criticism in the community from time to time; however, keep in mind that Scripture says have NOTHING to do with foolish and stupid arguments! Stay focused and stay thankful…let me just repeat it—300 salvations in four weeks—THAT’s GOD!!! There is no other explanation for that!!!

(One of the things I hear from time to time is that we “steal church members.” Uh…just a question, how exactly does someone “steal a church member?” Can’t you just see a team of people from NewSpring, dressed in all black, breaking into churches all over the upstate every Sunday and dragging people to our church? Uh…nope…me neither. One thing about it folks—if people are showing up at NewSpring every week it’s because they want to—NOT because they were stolen!!!)

If you met Christ this weekend…or you invited someone and they received Christ please shoot me an e-mail with your story…

Whew—a few other quick thoughts from this weekend…

I did my 20 mile run this Saturday—my time was 3:16:18. People ask me, “How was it?” IT HURT! IT STILL HURTS!!! I came to the conclusion that no rational human being would run 20 miles!!! (And then I discovered that I am not rational!)

The route was fun…I went to NewSpring at about 6:15 and ran five miles…then I met up with the running crew and we ran from our building to Tillman Hall in Clemson. Props to some of the CU soccer girls who brought us orange Gatorade!!!

The run got a little exciting right outside of Pendleton. What made it exciting? A big German Shepherd!!! I thought I was going to get eaten and I was totally prepared to kick this stupid mutt…but when it got right up to me I yelled at it and it ran away!

I will post some of my thoughts from the excellent speakers I heard at the leadership conference I was at on Friday. I can say this—THANK GOD I DO NOT HAVE TO ENDURE ATLANTA TRAFFIC! WOW—I’ve never seen so many crazy people! BUT…I will have to say that the drivers in Atlanta are super nice—every time I looked over at one of them they were pretty insistent that I was #1!

That’s all for now—can’t wait ‘till Sunday!!! :-)