I literally don’t know where to begin. I remember standing on stage at NewSpring in 2006 and announcing we were going to begin a Greenville campus. At the time I had no idea how…I just knew it was something that Jesus had placed in my heart.
Today that “dream” became a reality. Here are a few highlights…
- We said if we had 1,000 people at the Greenville campus that we would call it a successful launch—we didn’t quite have 1,000…we actually had 1,710.
- THAT BLOWS ME AWAY! In 1999 when we started NewSpring Church we had no idea this was possible. God’s dreams are always larger than ours!
- What we did not expect is the INCREASE in attendance at the Anderson campus! I literally thought we would be down in A-town…but we had QUITE A FEW first timers.
- Today was the largest non-Easter attendance for the year…and it’s JULY 13th…the majority of our college students aren’t even back yet!!! (We had almost 9,000 people today total! Seriously, I NEVER thought that would happen!)
- Tonight’s service was by far one of the top five worship services we’ve EVER had! EVER! I think we are going to continue to see the 6:00 service gain momentum!
- To say that we hit on a subject that people are “interested” in today would be an understatement!
- I will have to say that it was one of THE most INTENSE messages I’ve ever preached…anytime you deal with the subject of sexual immorality it just gets tense.
- (By the way…here’s the blog post on Masturbation I did around two years ago.)
- Why is it that the church refuses to deal with issues such as masturbation, porn, oral sex and swinging couples? It’s something that everyone has to deal with during the week…why not simply open up the Scriptures and see what they have to say—God is NOT silent on the subject of sex.
- Oh yeah…by the way…we saw at least 50 people receive Christ today!
- Next week we will be dealing with the subject, “Can you lose your salvation?” I believe it will be intense as well.
- Oh yeah…let me say this again…do everything you can to get people to church next week (Anderson AND Greenville)...the Gospel will be presented in one of the most clear presentations ever.
- Please pray for our youth group as they will be traveling to Panama City Beach, FL for our youth camp, middle school this week…high school next week.
- And…please pray for me, I did the math and I will actually be preaching 19 times (including today) over the next two weeks! Pray my voice holds up!!!
NewSpring, let me say this one more time…today was one of the best days in the history of our church. Tonight at the 6:00 service I wept like a baby when we sang, “How Great Is Our God.” I’m amazed that He is allowing me to be a part of this. I am loving this journey He has called me to take with you.
Words can’t describe how overwhelmed I am. I am rejoicing right now…and I don’t know that I will get a lot of sleep tonight.
This pumps me up about our Florence campus launch in September…our internet campus launch early next year…and the two more campuses we feel that Jesus wants us to open in 2009. (We are actively looking for locations!)
NewSpring…pray! Pray harder than you’ve ever prayed…beg God to allow us to see 100k salvations in the next 15-20 years. It started today…50 stepped over the line of faith. Who’s next? They could be in your circle of influence…and maybe just one more invitation will get them there this Sunday!
I love you guys!!!