Teamwork

I get way to much credit!

Seriously, I will be speaking with someone in our community and they begin telling me what an awesome job I am doing and how God has used New Spring to radically impact their life. I always love those conversations; however, I am way too smart to think that New Spring is an extension of the thoughts and ideas of Perry Noble. Trust me—this whole deal is WAY beyond me.

First of all—New Spring is a God thing. What we are experiencing in this community right now is nothing short of a modern day miracle. To go from 15 people to averaging over 3,000 every week in a county that only has 170,000 in it—wow, yeah God.

But in my opinion (wow, this will get some attention) is that when people say that what is happening at New Spring is “all God” that they are merely declaring a partial truth. If what were going on in our church was JUST all God then I believe that every church in America would be experiencing radical growth; after all, have you ever been in a church where they actually said that God is NOT welcome? Nope! So there has to be something more.

I think an accurate statement is that what is happening at New Spring is all God working through people who are sold out to His leadership and passionate about His kingdom and not their own.

I know that what is going on at New Spring is not a result of me—it is God working though the incredible teams of people he has blessed our church with.

First of all there is our executive staff and our trustees. I make no decisions in our church without first discussing it with the people on this team. Why? Because I have been stupid in the past and made decisions that were wrong and that could have been avoided if I had merely swallowed my pride and sought godly council. These people are incredibly gifted leaders and they love Jesus and our church. I listen to them and together God has been faithful to lead us in the right direction.

Then there is our staff in general—and they are awesome. We get incredible ideas from our staff—and I try to communicate over and over that there is no unimportant position in our church—we are all working together to reach people for Christ.

Then there is the creativity team—these guys are girls are awesome. I don’t know about you, but I have sat through way too many boring and dull sermons. I think I have identified the reason why so many are like that—there are too many pastors out there that think they are the only one in the church that can hear from God and so they limit their congregation to their thoughts and their ideas—get the picture?

I learned a few years back that team creativity is a powerful concept…and our team meets once or twice a week. We brainstorm ideas, concepts, titles, videos—I usually don’t do or try anything unless I have ran it by this team. That is why Sunday’s are so good—not because of me, but because I have learned to listen to the people around me. There have been many times that I have had a “wonderful” idea and ran it by them…and they just stare at me like I am from another planet. It is a very humbling experience to hear that my idea might be dumb—but our church wins in the long run.

And last—but certainly not least—are the volunteers at New Spring. I can’t say enough about them. We have about 300-400 people every week who plug into our church and make things happen. I firmly believe a church can never reach its full redemptive potential if it has only 5-10 people doing the work and the rest advising them on how to do it.

I want to say to our staff and our volunteers at New Spring—you guys are awesome and I love you! I have always heard it said that “the teamwork makes the dream work,” and because of your work and dedication God’s dream—the local church—is slowly becoming the unstoppable force that we were designed to be.