I was speaking to a friend the other day in the gym who told me about a conversation he heard two local pastors having in a restaurant…they were talking about NewSpring and the “gimmicks” that we use to reach people. (He did approach them and asked what they were referring to…and they were speechless…which I think is very funny!) :-)
Pastors—if you have a passion to reach people far from God…AND you begin to do that very thing with ANY amount of success then believe me…other pastors (who are not reaching ANYONE) are going to accuse you and your church of using gimmicks and “watering down” the Gospel. I mean…heck…if people’s lives are being changed then you MUST NOT BE PREACHING the Gospel, right? :-)
(By the way—the pastors in your community that ARE reaching people for Christ will not criticize or condemn you because they do not have the time to do so!!!)
SO…this all created a thought or two inside of me…and I admit—we are TOTALLY into gimmicks here at NewSpring Church. I started to market the idea and make a million bucks off of it…but then decided that I would just share it here—so here goes—all of the gimmicks we are into.
#1 - We Talk About Jesus All Of The Time!
Seriously…HE is the reason for the church; in fact, He said in Matthew 16:18 that it is HIS CHURCH! So we decided a long time ago that if the church is supposed to be about him…well…then He should be THE MAIN FOCUS…how He is alive and is changing lives.
Let me be clear—we talk about Jesus. We do not talk about the lottery, how all Christians should watch FOX news, blue laws and video poker. While we DO acknowledge that we live in a messed up world—we do not think that the world is messed up because bad people keep making bad decisions…but rather the world is messed up because people don’t know JESUS!
Churches can choose their soapboxes and issues all day long—our issue is Jesus…He changes lives.
#2 - We Use The Bible
I have heard from some people that if you preach from the Bible then people will not come—NOTHING could be further from the truth.
I love God’s Word—LOVE IT, every single verse…and I believe that NO ONE SCREWS UP THEIR LIFE by following God’s Word…so, in each and every service we have we use the Bible in an unapologetic way.
From time to time we will hear in this community people say, “They don’t use the Bible over at NewSpring.” When a person makes that statement they are merely proving their stupidity because there has never been a service in the history of this church where the Bible wasn’t taught.
Where do most of our ideas come from? Uh…the Bible! It’s the best book ever!!!
#3 - We Teach The Bible In A Way People Can Understand
One of the things I hear from time to time is, “Hey Perry, I wish at times we could go deeper.” Let me translate this for you—what this person is usually saying is, “Hey Perry, I wish at times you could confuse the heck out of me so that there is no application point…that way I can walk away feeling smarter & also not feeling a need to actually apply anything.”
I my mind I have two questions to answer in message preparation time. The first is what do I want them to know. I feel it is my job as the pastor/teacher to teach God’s word in an understandable way so that when people leave NewSpring Church they know at least one thing they didn’t know…OR they are reminded of at least one thing they had forgotten.
The second question is what do I want them to do. I believe a message preached without any application is a great mistake. PEOPLE DO NOT NEED HISTORY LESSONS—they need practical help with their lives. And so as a pastor it is NOT my goal to confuse the people who attend NewSpring by spewing out theological mumbo jumbo and having them think I am a really smart person…but rather to take God’s Word and show how He desires to communicate to all of us where we are.
(To the critic who now wants to e-mail me and say that I have no love for theology…please…save it…I read that stuff all the time…and I love to read Piper, Spurgeon, and some others…however, I learned a long time ago that when it comes to speaking I need to do the cooking in the kitchen and bring the people a fully prepared meal.)
That’s enough for now—check back for part two tomorrow…