A few quick reminders for our church…and an explanation…
#1 - Acts 4:29-31…let’s be bold in the prayers we pray and the words we say and do all that we can to bring people to church this weekend as we are believing that God is going to do GREAT things as the Gospel is clearly communicated and lives will be impacted for eternity!
#2 - Anderson and Columbia campuses…remember that for this week only we will be moving our normal Sunday evening services to Saturday evening. So, Columbia will have services this weekend on Saturday night at 6:00 and then Sunday at 9:15 & 11:15 with no Sunday night services. Our Anderson campus will have services on Saturday evening at 4:00 and 6:00 and then Sunday at 9:15 & 11:15 with no Sunday night services.
(We will go back to our regular schedule the following Sunday!) :-)
For those who are new to NewSpring I would love to take a minute or two to explain why we made the decision to do this…
This coming Sunday night is the Super Bowl, one of the most highly televised events in America.
I’ve been in church work for over 20 years and the one thing I can say is that attendance on Super Bowl Sunday night in church has always been awful! (AND…the people who are there are pretending to be looking at youversion on their phone…but they are really checking the score of the game!) :-)
One of the things that I heard Andy Stanley say last year is that one of the things the early church was obsessed with is making a difference and not making a point! And that’s exactly what we feel like God has called us to do here at NewSpring Church…
Our church has existed for 12 years and anytime we’ve tried to compete with the Super Bowl…well, it just hasn’t gone well. We’ve tried different approaches to remedy this, but nothing has worked, people just have NOT came to church…until…
Last year we made the decision to NOT try to make a point but rather make a difference! We want people to come to church, and we think church should do whatever it takes to get people in the doors. With that in mind we had the idea of moving our worship services from Sunday night to Saturday night.
When we did so a very small number of people raised a concern that this could be viewed as some sort of “compromise;” however, nothing could be further from the truth. There isn’t a specific verse as to the number of services or service times a church has to have. AND…we knew that in making this move that people were more likely to attend church on a Saturday evening and bring their friends with them…which meant more people hearing about Jesus…which meant more possibility for changed lives…which we’re all going to agree is a major WIN!
Yes, we could make a point by having a service in direct competition with the Super Bowl…or we could make a difference by making a change that allows us to reach more people and in no way compromises any Biblical command or precept.
AND, what’s even greater is that this move allows hundreds of small groups across every campus to host Super Bowl parties, which is another on ramp where they can invite their friends and family members who do not know Christ to come and experience Christian community. Once again, that’s a win.
We will have more people at our church this weekend, more people hear about JESUS and more people meet Him as their Savior because we as a body of believers decided to not try to make a point but to make a difference…we did what we could to leverage what God has given us to reach more people for Jesus…
AND…none of us will have to miss those awesome commercial!
Can’t wait for this weekend! I LOVE MY CHURCH!