Howdy NewSpring Church, FOUR things I want to share with you today…
#1 - Sunday was special…it will be one of “those days” that I never forget! I really do love my church…and the video at the end of the service where we got to see names associated with the numbers we hear about so often moved me to tears each time I saw it. Seriously, it was a great reminder that every number has a name, every name has a story and every story matters to God!
#2 - I announced my sabbatical on Sunday (there will be a video of it on this site later this week.) Don’t worry…I’m not working today, I “time stamped” this post yesterday! I won’t give an explanation here, the video will accomplish that. I will just say that our church is in GREAT hands. First of all…it belongs to Jesus and He loves His church more than any of us do! Second of all, the leadership team that is in place here as well as our campus pastors are amazing…and they are MORE than capable of making awesome and incredible decisions without me! :-) I am officially out of the office until Monday, July 9 and will not be speaking live again in our church until Sunday, July 29. (My first time speaking will actually be the first night of the GAUNTLET…I’m PUMPED!) And…do not worry, the messages this summer are going to be AMAZING…Clayton King, Dan Lian, Brad Cooper will all be “bringing the heat,” as well as a surprise guest and a couple of pre-recorded messages that I did last week. It’s true…I won’t be here…BUT THE PRESENCE OF GOD WILL BE…and HE is the DIFFERENCE MAKER!!! So…bring your friends, I can promise you it will be awesome.
#3 - Our online Bible study/devotional has been a blast so far. If you haven’t joined us yet then simply scroll down on this website and you will see yesterday’s post “Found People Find People” as well as today’s, “Saved People Serve People.” I would encourage you to jump in with us!
#4 - AND…last but not least, on Sunday I issued a 90 day tithe challenge (you can go here for more info!) Basically we said as a church that we believe you cannot out give God…and we believe it so much that we are challenging everyone to tithe for 90 days…and at the end of that 90 days if you do not feel that God has blessed/taken care of you then all you need to do is call the church office and we will refund your money—period!
BUT…for those who are tithing we are asking them to take their next step (see II Corinthians 8:7) and give to our “Take The Land” initiative. (Here is the website where you can find out how you can give an offering to this.) Now, if you are not tithing we are asking you to take the 90 day challenge first. But, for those who are faithfully giving we are asking you to partner with us by making a sacrificial contribution to this initiative BEFORE July 1st. There will be other steps along the way…but…this FIRST ONE is SO IMPORTANT! We are asking everyone to NOT GIVE COMFORTABLY, but sacrificially!!
What does the “Take The Land” Initiative include? It will go towards…
- Helping us begin a Clemson campus that will launch at the beginning of next year. It will take 2-3 million dollars to up-fit a facility with assembly and kids space that will allow us to reach over 3k people per weekend.
- Helping us up-fit the Greenwood campus, which is slated to officially launch towards the end of this year. We have purchased the old Wal Mart building and are aggressively working to get that facility ready…it’s going to be awesome!
- Helping us relocate our existing Columbia campus to a facility (that we are under contract with) that will allow them to DOUBLE their current seating capacity!
- Helping us launch a second Columbia campus within the next 18-24 months.
- Helping us find a permanent facility for our Spartanburg campus as they have already outgrown the facility we launched them in just a few months ago!
- Helping us locate land and/or up-fit a facility for our Florence campus.
- Helping us locate land and/or up-fit a facility for our Charleston campus. (AND…getting our FUSE student ministry and place to meet RIGHT NOW as they are literally out of room where they are currently meeting!)
- Helping us locate land and/or up-fit TWO facilities for our Greenville campus as we are seeking to launch two campuses within the next 24-36 months out of the current place we are meeting.
- Helping us renovate our existing children’s building in Anderson as it is near capacity at 9:15 and 11:15 every Sunday! Currently the building is children’s space on the bottom floor and office space on the 2nd floor, the plan is to relocate the offices and use the entire building for children’s space.
- Helping us locate land and/or up-fit a facility for our Myrtle Beach campus.
Whew! That’s about it (for now!) The total investment in all of these projects over the next three years is going to be around 80 million dollars, and we are praying & believing that this is going to happen! I’m pumped because this is going to definitely put us in position to reach 100,000 people for Christ!!!
The first step in this is for everyone in our church to participate in this initiative by giving a sacrificial gift before July 1. Sacrifice is different for all of us…all we are asking is that you pray and ask the Lord what He would have you give…and then do what He says (keeping in mind that you cannot out give God!)
That’s is for today…I LOVE MY CHURCH…and the BEST IS YET TO COME!