Hey NewSpring! I’m so excited to bring you this week’s edition of Perry’s Letter To NewSpring. My name is Lee McDerment; I’ve served as NewSpring’s Worship Director since 2000.
Here is the latest news from NewSpring:
#1 – Sunday’s message was absolutely amazing. One of my favorite quotes from Perry was, “Greed will kill the work God wants to do in and through you.” If you steal something from God, you can’t use it (remember Achan’s story in Joshua 7?), but when you’re generous, you open yourself up to the work of God in and through you!
At NewSpring Church, we don’t want anything FROM you, we want something FOR you. Freedom. We want you to be completely free in every area of your life. The love of money and the withholding of things like forgiveness will absolutely put chains on you. But having a generous heart toward others and stewarding money God’s way is part of an abundant, stress-free, purpose-filled life.
#2 - I love that our church talks about money so much. As a worship leader, my heart bleeds for people worshiping Jesus Christ alone. I love to see people come alive in the presence of God with no walls, no bondage… completely free to worship the God of the Universe. Jesus was clear in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” If you don’t tithe… if you aren’t obedient to God in your finances… then you might be offering fake worship when you sing on Sunday! God said in Isaiah 29:13, “these people come near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” We want to be a people genuinely close to God, who worship Him in Spirit and Truth. If you don’t worship Him with your money, then you’re not worshiping Him at all!
Start tithing today, folks! Take the 90 Day Tithe Challenge. Let your worship of God be authentic in every way! Remember, YOU CAN’T OUTGIVE GOD!
#3 – Night of Worship. Trust me, church… you do not want to miss this. On August 24th and 25th, our church will unite as one across our state to worship Jesus as a family and to pray for life change. If any of you were able to attend our ten year anniversary service, you know what I’m talking about. These events at the Colonial Center in Columbia and the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville will be very much like that event for our Church. Worship leaders from nearly every campus will be on stage leading us, and Perry will bring the Word. It will be an unforgettable night. Don’t miss it!
#4 – The Gauntlet. Any of you who have been to the Gauntlet know how life-changing it is! Whether you’re a student or a volunteer, you will never be the same. I’ve gone for the past several years and have been blown away by how God sets our Fuse generation on fire. We need you to start praying for our students, staff and volunteers! Ask God to save students, to call students into ministry, and to make them like a light to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6)!
You can still sign-up to volunteer at The Gauntlet. We have close to 2000 students coming to The Gauntlet this year, and you have an opportunity to be a part of the life change that will happen. If you’re interested in volunteering, go here!
#5 - This past month, our NewSpring Worship staff took a group of musicians on a songwriting retreat! We took a couple of days to pray and to write and to seek God for new songs. It was truly unbelievable! I can’t wait for you guys to hear the new music. We hope to begin sharing a lot of it with you this Fall!
#6 – Join me in continuing to pray for Perry as he finishes his sabbatical. God has richly blessed our church during this period! Did you know that God has saved more than 16,500 people at NewSpring Church over the past twelve years? That’s an amazing number. Even more amazing is that more than 2300 have been saved THIS YEAR! And nearly 700 people have been saved at NewSpring since Perry’s sabbatical began about six weeks ago! If you can’t tell, God is getting us ready for something HUGE! When our pastor gets back, the doors are coming off! Let’s join together to pray that Perry and our Leadership Team would be filled with humility, authority, influence, discernment and wisdom. The best is yet to come!
#7 – Finally, don’t miss next week! It’s the last week in our Weird series. I have loved every week so far and am so pumped to see how it’s all going to wrap up! Glory Glory Glory!!!