Convictions That Guide My Life

There have been people who have asked me, “Hey dude—why do you do what you do?” In my opinion this is one of the best questions EVER because if you do not know the answer to it then one day you will begin looking for ways out of doing what you do.

I love what I do! Being the pastor of NewSpring is a gift from God…and this is all I want to do for the rest of my life. There are some things, though. that have caused this…and I’d like to share them today if I could.

It bothers me when people say, “I just need God in my life.” (STAY WITH ME HERE!) The reason being the name “god” means so many things. To a Muslim it means Allah, to a Mormon it means who they are striving to be…to a new age person it means them! And to a Christian it means God with a capital “G”.

But when you say Jesus—well, His name removes all doubt! And so that is why I preach Jesus with passion and urgency.

When we started NewSpring we discovered that 48% of the people in this community do not go to church…that BOTHERS me…how are they going to hear the message of Jesus? And so we started a church that is unique—but kept the message of Christ…and it’s making a difference.

From time to time I hear people say, “All NewSpring is doing is taking people from other churches.” It’s true that people have came from other churches—but what we are discovering is that many are coming to NewSpring and…get this…accepting Christ. I ask—is that a bad thing?

I said it this past Sunday—church should NOT be a place where you come and make out your grocery list OR color pretty pictures with your five year old on the back row. Church should be a place where the people who work there actually CARE about the people walking through the doors enough to go all out to make sure the message is ready and will captivate their attention.

I heard about a comment on a local radio station about NewSpring “spending all that money on big screens.” A couple of thoughts here—no one ever complains when a church spends a lot of money on a steeple or choir robes…and BE HONEST…when was the last time someone came to Christ “because of that incredible steeple with those wonderful bells?” :-)

The second thought is this—(thanks to a lady who works in our financial area)—why is it that some people would complain about big screens in the church—and yet when you go to their house you see a BIG SCREEN in their living room? Hmmm…could that be considered hypocritical? :-0

As long as this church exists—we will push the edge on creativity and never compromise the message. God is creative. (Did anyone see the sunrise this morning…it was AWESOME!)

It has been my goal ever since we had 15 people meeting in a living room to teach the church to not be dependant upon me. I saw that we were hitting the mark this past July when I nearly died and was out of commission for three weeks—the church never missed a beat. Decisions were made—services were held—and ministry took place—and I didn’t do any of it, not because I didn’t want to—but because I could not!

Let me be honest here…and this will ruffle feathers…but I mean exactly what I say! There are some pastors in this world with incredibly weak and fragile egos that need to be needed. They want people to call them—they want people to have problems—they want to be the one that holds people together. And so they take their cell phone with them everywhere they go and are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound in order to assist someone who has stubbed their toe! (And in turn they neglect their wife and kids…and then the church wonders why the pastors kids are little hellions…)

And then, after about 22 months (the average stay for a pastor in a church in America) they leave…and the church falls apart because they learned how to depend on the “dude who did it all” and forgot how to love one another—serve one another—encourage one another, you know, things the Bible says we ought to do!

At NewSpring, since day ONE, I have taught that I am not going to do everything. I heard a former pastor once, who was commenting about our church, say, “When I was a pastor I always visited everyone in my church that was in the hospital.” He went on to say, “If a bunch of people got sick at that church (NewSpring) I am just sure that no one from the church would come and visit them.”

WRONG ANSWER!!! If someone is in the hospital here…and we know about it…they ALWAYS get a visit from someone. They always receive ministry with level 10 excellence. And no, it’s not me doing the visiting. Why? Because there are people in my church that do it better than me—they WANT to do it—they are more EFFECTIVE at doing it…and for me to try to do everything is to rob people of their opportunity to exercise their spiritual gift. (See Ephesians 4:11-16 for a further explanation.)

I believe this—I am not saying it to get some “Amen’s” from the cheap seats either.

Take a look at what is happening in our country. I hear people say that they are concerned with NewSpring and churches like ours…they think we are not going to make it and that eventually fizzle out.

However…it’s NOT the churches like NewSpring that are dying. (And churches in America ARE dying…an average of six per day are shutting their doors!!!) In fact, churches “like NewSpring” have doubled in the past seven years. It looks like God is up to something!

We are seeing it! People that were far from God are now coming to church—receiving Christ…wow…I had a conversation with a dude the other day who, just a few years ago was so far from God…and the other day he asked how he could get more involved in the ministry that is going on here. We are seeing people who were through with church coming back to church. We are seeing children and teenagers getting fired up about Jesus. We are seeing it—it’s starting to happen! And God’s doing it through the church.

That is why I do what I do. I believe in the ministry that NewSpring is doing…I am smoking what I am selling. You have my promise as a pastor that this church is going to do everything we can to reach as many people as we can for as long as we can! Whew—I am PUMPED! I can’t wait for Sunday!!!!!!!!!

Wow—this was long—but good I guess. Have an awesome day—and Tony, Ken, and Gary—I will be doing that thing that you “tagged” me with tomorrow. :-)