I still can’t get what I saw this past Sunday out of my mind…amazing!
For those who were not here…let me give a brief explanation. I did a message on evangelism—NOT the kind where people put on sandwich boards and scream hell and damnation at people…but rather the kind that is demonstrated over and over in Scripture…the kind where someone meets Jesus and then they go and tell those close to them about Christ…and then they bring them to a place where they meet Jesus…and then Jesus changes them…(Please see John 1:35-51…this process actually happens in back to back stories!)
(Just a thought—MAYBE the reason that evangelism is NOT taking place in many churches across America is because “Christians” don’t know any non-Christians. Many are simply in their holy huddles—discussing theology and trying to redeem culture—when Jesus had a goal of hanging out with “sinners” and trying to redeem them!)
So…the challenge this past Sunday was to invite people to church next week who need to hear the Gospel—I promised that next week we are going to do a straight up gospel presentation…and a VERY powerful one at that. I personally think that this coming Sunday will be the best service that NewSpring has had in our six year history!!!
To make the challenge memorable I asked people to write the names down of their lost family members and friends and bring them forward and lay them on the stage…and our church responded with passion! There was brokenness…there was hope…there was a sense of urgency that was outstanding. One guy shot me a text message about how he began calling his friends as soon as he got home…another dude has called me several times, asking me to pray for his friend that he is going to be bringing this weekend. There were some people who left here fired up!!!
A staff member went down and counted the names on stage yesterday—our church wrote the names of 3,814 people—FOLKS—3,814 people—WOW! The lead team stopped our meeting yesterday to go down to the auditorium and pray over those names…there were already staff members down there doing the same…folks—God is going to do an amazing work here this coming Sunday—PLEASE PRAY AND INVITE AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE!!! I promise this presentation will be unlike anything you have ever seen or experienced.
I said it Sunday—but I will say it again…one of THE main reason our church is growing is because the people inside haven’t forgotten what it was like to be outside. The people who have received God’s grace are still aware of those who need God’s grace. The people inside are NOT content with playing Christian games…but rather are bothered by the fact that there are people right here in this community that, if they died today, would spend eternity in hell…and that fact does not allow us to rest at night.
NewSpring…as long as we have a passion for Jesus…a passion for people…and a passion to see people meet Jesus—we will continue to see God do amazing things.
Two more things…
On a personal note—please be in prayer for me. The enemy knows what is going to happen this Sunday and is NOT happy about the whole deal. I have literally had nightmares for the past two nights…and haven’t gotten a lot of sleep. I am traveling this week as well—so pray the Lord will keep me safe.
Second—this is for pastors/church leaders. We present the Gospel in some way every Sunday…this was obvious during our recent series entitled Deal or No Deal…the series was on how we handle our money…and people received Christ here during that series EVERY SUNDAY! You KNOW it’s God when you preach on MONEY and people receive Christ.
BUT…about once or twice a year I do a talk on evangelism…about the need to go out and invite people to church…and then I say this, “Next week we are going to do a salvation message—it’s going to be the most basic yet powerful presentation of the Gospel we have ever done…I promise if you will do your part and get your friends and family members here…that we will do our part to make it relevant and real!”
Our church has ALWAYS responded in an incredible way—we have seen God do amazing things on these particular Sundays—the fewest we have ever seen accept Christ on one of these Sunday’s was 27…and literally on one Sunday we saw over 100 respond. Do it with meaning and purpose—pray like crazy…work like crazy…and then watch what God does…it’s amazing…it works…give it a shot…and let us know if we can help out in any way!