A few thoughts on one of the top five days in the HISTORY of NewSpring Church!
- I LOVE MY CHURCH!
- Preached on Ezekiel 37:1-10 today…LOVE IT!
- For some reason if you say “I love ice cream” people think you are normal…but if you say “I love my church” they think you are a part of a cult! (Usually because they don’t love their church…they endure it!)
- God changed my life through the local church…what the church does matters and I have given my life to it.
- When we say we love Jesus but don’t love the church we are basically booing the bride at the wedding…something the Groom will not tolerate!
- Yes, the church is full of jacked up, hypocritical people…and there is room for one more!!!
- There is not a perfect church!
- BUT…the church is HIS (Matthew 16:18), He said He would build it…and…He is!
- The church was SO important to Him that He gave His life for it, established it and now sits at the head of it…if all of that is true then IT MATTERS!
- We’re not called to attend a church…we’re called to belong to one!
- We are changing things at NewSpring…we no longer have “members,” we have “owners!” We are changing membership class to ownership class…a member has RIGHTS, an owner has RESPONSIBILITIES!
- I used an Andy Stanley phrase today when I spoke in regards to the best way to make sure your kids one day drop out of church is force them to attend a church that you secretly wished that you didn’t attend!
- As a Christian I MUST celebrate because I WAS DEAD and now I am ALIVE IN CHRIST!!! (See Ephesians 2:1-10!) When people cross over from death to life…it’s time to get ROWDY!
- I had a lot of fun talking about people who say a church can get “too big,” it will be on the podcast on Tuesday!
- The potential of the church is AMAZING…and NewSpring, if THIS is what God has done the first 10 years then what are the next 10 going to look like!
- God didn’t die on a cross to raise an audience but rather to raise an army…and an army is willing to do whatever it takes to win!
- Next week we begin our “I Love the 80’s” Series…I cannot wait and am so excited about what I am speaking on next week that I will be in Greenville on Monday night to talk about it live…
- And then I am going to be in Florence next Tuesday night (August 10th)
- And then Columbia on Wednesday night (the 11th)
- And finally in Anderson on the 12th…
- More details to come about this on Sunday…I can’t WAIT to speak live at every campus next week and meet people!
- AND…the deadline for our Early Bird registration for our leadership conference is August 13th…you can go here to sign up!
One more thing NewSpring…I really do LOVE MY CHURCH! I am here…I am not hopping from church to church every three to five years. I am bought in! People sometimes say to me, “Oh sure, you love your church because it has 10,000 people.” What they do not understand is that I loved this church when it was in a living room and I could barely get 15 people to come!
I love this church…and am so thankful for those of you who have taken ownership and invested time and treasure into this place at every campus and have been a part of what God is doing!
I love my church…and I love you guys. Thanks for allowing me the honor of serving you as pastor! We’ve had some amazing times these past 10 years…but THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!
I LOVE MY CHURCH!