The Best Is Yet To Come

Feb 13, 2006

I am sitting here in my office trying to find the words to describe yesterday. I am amazed at all God has done over the past six years…and yesterday He allowed us to see an aspect of the vision He has given us come true—we worshipped together in our brand new building.

Many are wondering what our total attendance was—it was 6,931 people—AT CHURCH! Can you believe that? And we were not even giving away free water bottles!!!

What pumped me up the MOST though was last night when I found out that at least 17 people had accepted Christ in our two morning services—and I am not sure yet about last night.

I am sure yesterday was not what some people expected. Many have been to “building dedication services” before. You know, the builder says a few words—the architect speaks—heck, I’ve even heard of the pastor acknowledging the largest givers from the stage. (And that makes we want to throw up!)

But we felt God leading us in a completely different direction—we knew there would be hundreds of visitors with us…so we seized the opportunity that God gave us and recast the vision and shared the Gospel. We didn’t want to sit around and blow smoke up our rear end for an hour and then go home—we wanted to share Jesus—and that’s exactly what we did.

NewSpring is not about a building—we never have been. Some have asked why we built such a large facility…well…so we can tell more and more people about Christ. We’ve got room now—and so we literally are praying that God will fill these seats every week…and that we will have to go to four services very soon.

Is it about numbers? ABSOLUTELY! We are not content with the fact that large numbers of people in the upstate region do not have a relationship with Jesus…and large NUMBERS of them will go to hell unless they receive Christ—and so we want to see a switch in the NUMBERS, we want to see SUBTRACTION in regards to the kingdom of darkness…and ADDITION to God’s kingdom!

I thank Jesus that we are here—but keep in mind we have NOT arrived. As a friend said to me in the gym this morning, “Yesterday was awesome—but the best is yet to come.” I believe that! I believe that with all my heart! This is STILL the beginning of the amazing things God has in store.

Think about it—if He has brought us this far in six year—what will the next six years look like?

One more thing—I can’t brag on our staff enough—we had people here past midnight every night last week…they wanted to make sure that everything was just right. And to those of you who did—you saw yesterday the fruit of your labor—lives were changed…

And the best is yet to come!!!

UPDATE: We had 26 people receive Christ yesterday—and another 19 received Christ at our middle school meeting last night…and several more indicated yesterday that they wanted to be contacted by a pastor…

As I said—the best is yet to come…