Try Something New…And Other Random Thoughts! May 18, 2006

So I went to Wal-Mart on Monday night…something I do not usually do! (I love the variety at Wal-Mart…but it seems there is only one or two lines that are open every time I go…maybe that’s God working on my patience!)

BUT–this trip turned out to be an amazing blessing because…

For the first time in my life I bought some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I am a self confessed ice cream snob…and have said on this blog that I am usually a Mayfield man…BUT as I walked down the ice cream aisle in Wally World Lucretia got my attention and said…”Hey Perry, check out this ice cream…it’s chocolate & vanilla mixed with chunks of cookie dough and brownies.”

Uh yeah, she had my attention! So I looked at it & decided to buy it…it’s called “Half Baked.” So I’ve got this pint of ice cream and on Tuesday afternoon I decided to eat it–BUT before I did I snuck a glance at the nutritional information.

BAD IDEA!

Obviously Ben and Jerry have no regards for health–but after tasting the ice cream I feel that I am ok with that!!! This was a new experience for me–and I LOVED IT! I got out of my ice cream rut & pushed the edge!!!

That’s the way we need to live life–push the edge, try something new!!! And let it go beyond ice cream–take it into your walk with God, your marriage, your workplace–ANYTHING! One of the things that is a shame when it comes to us human beings is that we allow ourselves to fall into boring and predictable lifestyles–we are creatures of habit and we resist change…but God wants us to be creative!!!

A few other thoughts…

My quiet time this morning was AWESOME! WOW–I was reading in Romans and had the following thoughts…

#1 – Without Jesus we are completely screwed when it comes to life and eternity!

And…

#2 – Without Jesus we are completely screwed when it comes to life and eternity!

Sorry for those who may have wanted something “deeper,” but that, in my opinion basically sums up the entire book; in fact, it pretty much sums up the Bible.

Oh yeah, I listened to an incredibly challenging message by Driscoll this morning on Ephesians 4 and the five-fold ministry! He said something that we have been teaching at NewSpring since day one…that maturity in the Christian faith is not a result of being informed…but rather being transformed…and a part of being transformed is actually allowing God to mature and develop you through you using your spiritual gifts in serving other people…and NOT expecting to sit and be served all of the time.

Bottom line…someone who is maturing in their faith is NEVER content with coming to a church service every week and then going home…and thinking that there attendance was their contribution to the kingdom…a person who is maturing in their faith is someone who wants to be involved and actually allow God to work through them to reach other people.

One more thing…I am sitting in a coffee shop listening to two people have a fascinating conversation about astrology! People are deeply spiritual beings…and they desire spiritual things…so why are so many people rejecting the church? Maybe it is because we’ve put God in this HUGE box…just a thought!

Have an awesome day!

My First Book Review!!! May 17, 2006

WOW…I am SO pumped! I was asked by my friend, Andy Stanley, to do a review for his upcoming book entitled, Communicating For A Change. So…here are my thoughts.

First of all I was so excited when I discovered that Stanley had written a book about communication. In my opinion–he is one of the top five speakers in America, hands down. And so that fact alone gave the book a certain “authority” if you will. I would rather read the thoughts of an excellent communicator than sit in a seminary class and listen to someone talk about preaching, but couldn’t preach there way out of a wet paper bag. (Just being honest & speaking from experience!)

In this book Stanley is incredibly transparent about several things–one being the struggle that pastors face when they walk off of the platform and the immediate thought of, “What did people think” flooding their mind! Face it–it matters to us what people think–we want people to be captivated by the message; however, for as much as we want people to be captivated, Stanley points out that EFFORT must be put forth in making that happen.

(I personally blame boring messages on the one who is presenting the message–the Bible is exciting and those who make it boring are sinning in my opinion! God is not boring…His messengers should not be either!)

Some would argue that merely “preaching the word” is enough–Stanley disagrees! Here is a quote from page 153…

Now, for you “purists” out there–don’t take this the wrong way or blow it out of proportion, Stanley consistently affirms the reliability of Scripture and the need for life changing messages–but his point is well made in that unless people know why they should be listening, they probably won’t listen…and like it or not, creating an interest is OUR responsibility as a communicator!

I also love the fact that Stanley affirms the fact that preachers need to be honest, in fact, he says at one point in his book, “If you preach from your weakness, you will never run out of material!” WOW–if that is true (and I believe it is) then I will always have something to talk about…my stupidity and selfishness sometimes knows no bounds!

Face it–if you are a public speaker of any kind–the pressure is on! Everyone in your audience has some sort of expectation–some want line by line, verse by verse, others want to feel good, and others want help with their life because it is falling apart. AND–there is NO WAY that any pastor can meet EVERYONE’S expectations…that is why Stanley believes that preaching for life change is the best solution!

He sums this up really well when he says…

WOW–great point…and unless you have ever spoken publicly you just can’t identify!

I will say this–I honestly believe that ANYONE can take this book and, by applying the principles that Stanley outlines, improve as a communicator! He makes it simple–if you take God’s Word, create an interest–and explain to people WHY it is important and that IF they apply it then their lives will change for the better…then life change happens…and that should be the goal of a communicator. To see lives changed for His glory!

What I LOVE is that Stanley does not write in a boastful way & claim, “I have found a way to communicate…and this is the ONLY way to communicate…and if you do not do it my way you are a loser and the judgment of God will fall upon you…” He merely presents the way he plans, prays, and organizes his messages and seems to say, “Hey, this has worked for me and I think it will work for you as well.”

Let me close by saying that this book is an incredibly easy read. If you read his book, “Seven Practices of Effective Ministry,” then you will discover that it is part II. The parable in that book continues in this one. I have A-D-H-D and so I give a book three chapters to get my attention…and if it doesn’t it goes on a shelf. I can honestly say that Stanley’s book CAPTIVATED my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through.

Every speaker should want to improve! This book has challenged me to review some of the ways I prepare and present…and I can’t wait to see the outcome. It should be in the stores by the third week in June…but you can pre-order it here if you would like.

Thanks Andy for a well needed book on this subject! You hit a home run!!!

Tampons and the Righteousness of God May 16, 2006

Got your attention yet? Grossed out? Offended? Please continue reading–there is a method to the madness! :-)

It bothers me when pastors and teachers of Scripture do not make it obvious what the Bible says! I am highly offended at people who will not declare the entire counsel of Scripture…and it ticks me off when people back off of the truth because of a fear of offending someone!

So–I am going somewhere today that few will go…and I am not concerned with who I offend!

A disturbing pattern I have noticed in my sixteen years of ministry are people who think they are going to heaven…and when you ask them why they think they are going on this trip they reply, “Well, I am a good person…I have gone on a missions trip…I have a Bible with my name on it and I read it 30 minutes a day…I tithe 11%…I have grown up in church.”

Have you heard these before? Have you said them? What are you depending on to get you to heaven?

All too often people claim they are going to heaven because of what they DO! They think they are a good person and that one day when they get in front of God that He is going to be SO impressed that He’s going to say, “Come on in…you are an all-star up here already–in fact, you should be sitting here instead of me…”

But nothing could be further from the truth…stay with me here…

The Bible says this in Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

All too often we skip over this verse; however, I want to explain it in a way that is very obvious!

The literal translation of the highlighted section is, “All of our righteous acts are like a woman’s minstrel cloth.” In today’s language God is basically saying, “On your BEST day–the BEST you can do is equal to a tampon.”

That’s gross I know–it’s offensive…it makes us want to throw up; however, it’s the same deal, when we try to depend on our “good works” to get to heaven–its offensive to God! And so He lets us know how offensive it is by letting us know that the best we can do is a tampon!

In other words–we can’t work our way into heaven…and thus the need for Jesus! In order to get into heaven we need to be declared righteous…and if our righteous acts are like a tampon then we are in trouble!

Enter Jesus Christ! The Bible tells us in II Corinthians 5:20-21 that Jesus takes our sin and makes us righteous! HE makes us righteous…not all the stuff we do…not our Bible studies…not our perfect attendance in Sunday school–HE, Jesus makes us righteous!

Jesus was never intended to be someone we hang a picture of in our living room to make us feel better about ourselves after a touch day. God knew that we were screwed when it came to eternity–He knew we could never achieve a righteous life on our own–so He sent Jesus! And Jesus died on a cross, paid for our sins and made us righteous…but…

The question is, “Have you received Christ?” As you look back over your life has there ever been a time where you realized, “I am separate from God because of my sins”? AND then you realized, “This separation could never be reconciled by my good works–they are like a tampon in His sight…I NEED JESUS!”

Salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone. You are not going to heaven because your parents are Christians. You are not going to heaven because you are Catholic or Baptist…or because you were baptized as an infant–those are things that we do–righteous acts–TAMPONS…salvation is God’s work–not ours…and salvation is found only in Jesus Christ.

Has there ever been a time in your life where you received Jesus? He’s necessary for salvation!

THE reason for the success at NewSpring is that we preach Jesus! We are not into boycotts or politics…we don’t major on the minors…Jesus Christ is the reason our church is here…and we lift Him up and beg Him to use our church to draw people to Him! NewSpring will always be about the person and work of JESUS! If you take Him away…we go “out of business!” He’s our focus and we exist for Him!

For those who now are sick to their stomach…good…I hope I have put it in terms you can understand. For those who are offended–GET OVER IT! For those who need Christ–drop me an e-mail!

Weekend Reflections May 14, 2006

Quick weekend wrap up…

Saturday morning we did a 12 mile run…and things were going great until about mile eight…that is where my legs felt like cement blocks! BUT I made it…this week we are down to 10 miles.

Funny story…we were on about mile seven and ran by a house with two dogs in the yard…I didn’t see the owner on the porch…and all of a sudden I hear, “Don’t go in that road!” I thought, “Did that dog just say something to me…am I losing my mind?” I had to turn around and look and then saw the owner…I was relieved!

Saturday night was our baby dedication service. WOW! It was awesome…BUT…if anyone wants to know why we do not allow children in the service at NewSpring…well…let’s just say you should have been in this service.

First of all let me say that Lee McDee did an awesome job of leading “kiddy worship.” Seriously, he looked so cool pretending to be a crocodile! (For those who were not there–you missed him doing motion songs!)

But the babies being dedicated is what got me. WOW–it was an awesome sight. Please understand that this service did not make the child a Christian…it was merely a time when the parent dedicated to raising the child in a godly home. Parents–remember that we are going to do our best to partner with you at NewSpring to reach your children…but you’ve got them for 167 hours per week and we’ve got them for one!

Today was awesome…I feel the women were challenged as we explored what the book of Proverbs had to say about them. I did get a few dirty looks–especially when I talked about the way women dressed AND the way they talk about their husbands! BUT…for the most part I believe the women LOVED the challenge that was issued. REMEMBER ladies–the goal is not to change the way you behave…the goal is to fall in love with Jesus and allow Him to change you!

And…last but not least…my favorite comment of the weekend. I was talking to a man who will remain nameless and he was saying that he meets a person from time to time who says NewSpring is a “feel good church.” He told me, “You must not go that often because every time I leave I feel like someone kicked me between the legs!” OUCH! I’ve never heard conviction described that way…but it works I guess. :-)

My posting will be a little sporadic this week–but I will be around…I promise!

A Wedding Marathon May 12, 2006

This weekend begins the wedding marathon for the Noble household–three weekends, three weddings–only one of which is in Anderson.

I love weddings, well, actually, I love SHORT weddings (just being honest.)

BUT…and this is something that breaks my heart–I have noticed that in preparing for marriage that TONS of time, energy and money is spent on the wedding day…but not that much attention is given to the years that should follow that one day!

Marriage is AWESOME…don’t get me wrong–it isn’t always easy–but from my vantage point it’s wonderful. It takes a commitment from BOTH people to make it work…and the marriage MUST be entered into with the attitude that, “no matter what–this is going to work.” Lucretia and I made a promise to one another to NEVER use the “d” word–in fact, we don’t even use it in a joking manner!

(By the way…if you are engaged and are thinking, “Well, this might not work out,” or, “If this doesn’t work out…” then do yourself a favor and either postpone the wedding or call it off! I have heard that you can’t be 100% sure…and I say that anyone who says that is as full of it as a constipated elephant! Not only CAN you be sure–you SHOULD be sure!!!)

And…things are NOT always going to be easy. Let me use an example of a couple of things that happened to me this week. I received two free meals at two separate restaurants this week because my food kept getting messed up. When my food was brought out to me and it wasn’t right I didn’t storm out of the restaurant and swear to never come back. I didn’t say, “You guys ALWAYS mess up my food at this restaurant, I am certain that another restaurant would never do that.” I didn’t scream at the restaurant thinking that my yelling would solve the problem. I was patient with them–they were patient with me…and it all worked out!

Marriage is a lot like my experiences in the restaurants–walking out when things are not going your way is never the answer…beginning to look for “other restaurants” when things are not happening the way you would like is not the answer…screaming and yelling and becoming focused on winning the argument rather than settling the conflict is never the answer. However, commitment is the right thing…and once again–it takes commitment from both people!

I have heard it said that in a marriage there will be “wow” days and “vow” days…and commitment is called for in both.

I wish I could say that I have the perfect marriage and that all anyone really needs to do is come and observe me being a perfect husband for ‘Cretia…but if I did I am convinced that lightening would strike!!! Marriage is a learning process…a serious dedication must be made to be a student of your spouse and a student of yourself. I am learning…and in the mistakes that I make are lessons that are invaluable and applicable to the future.

Bottom line is that marriage was designed by God–it was His idea. Dr. Phil did not invent marriage–neither did Oprah…yet we often look to them and others like them for advice and teachings on how marriage should be…and God’s Word is ignored in favor of pop psychology. However, when God’s ways are followed and two people are willing to fall in love with Jesus and one another–marriage just works!!!

So here we go–three weddings in three weekends…and then on the fourth weekend I will run the marathon! Sounds exciting! I can’t wait!

How Many Staff Do You Have? May 11, 2006

It seems to be a good week for answering questions here at NewSpring…and another of the questions we often get is, “How many people do you guys have on staff?”

The answer, for now, is 59–39 full time and 20 part time.

What is funny is the reaction we get when we tell people this–many of them make a remark about how awesome that is–but from time to time we get the “why in the world does a church need that many people on staff?”

If I can be honest right here–we really don’t have enough on staff (I will explain in just a second); however, we are able to get an incredible amount of work done because of the enormous amount of awesome volunteers that are involved in this ministry.

Now on to the staff explanation…

I remember the days when staff meeting was me sitting in my living room & having a conversation with myself in the mirror. (I wanted to feel as if there was someone else there.) AND…I did everything from preparing messages to returning phone calls to organizing events. (It is a miracle we survived.)

Oh yeah, I led worship as well…the Bible says that we should make a joyful noise…and that’s about all I could do! So…we decided to hire a worship leader.

Now keep in mind that our philosophy here at NewSpring has always been to hire ahead…to hire someone before you need them and let them get acclimated to the ministry so that they can grow as it grows. In my opinion…if you wait until you can afford to hire someone then you have waited too late! And trust me–when we hired Lee (the worship leader) we could not afford to do it. At the time we were only taking in about $3,500 a month–BUT we just knew this was what God wanted.

AND–let me say this–Lee has more than paid for himself–a good staff member will pay for themselves in six months or less!

So…we continued to grow and decided to hire a ministry administrator. Why? Because Lee and I were doing much of the organization of things (once again–it’s a miracle we are even here!) AND–we began paying a extremely part time secretary and a part time children’s minister. (At the time we were running about 150).

As time went on we hired staff as we saw the need. I remember sitting in meetings with Trustees and the guys asking, “Is there ever going to be a time when we can stop hiring staff?” The answer then, and today, is no! (By the way–EVERY person who used to ask that question are now on staff!!!)

“But Perry–59 staff members–isn’t that a little overkill?” Not exactly–let me explain.

In the research I have conducted the average church member/staff ratio in America is about one staff member for every 40-50 people. Let me share an example or two…

In my first church there were about 120 people coming every week…(this is a typical size church here in the south) – and there was a full time pastor, a full time secretary, a part time music dude, and then me–the part time youth & disrupter of the peace. That’s one staff member for every 40 people.

In the second church I served we probably averaged around 200 a week…and there was a full time pastor, a full time secretary, I was full time, a part time church hostess, a part time children’s pastor. Once again it was one staff position for every 40 people.

At NewSpring, just since moving into the building we have had an average attendance of 5,461, now keep in mind with 59 staff members that is one staff member for every 92 people that show up–when you look at our ratio compared to others it is amazing.

Let me break it down a little further & share some examples.

Take the children’s ministry–right now there are 11 people on staff in our children’s area, five full time and six part time; however, this crew ministers to about 1,500 kids every month. (We are averaging about 900-1000 per week–but around 1,500 cycle through every month.) That’s amazing–once again–we could not do it without volunteers!

Or take our care and outreach ministry–we currently receive about 60 first time visitors cards per week (all are followed up with before the end of the day on Tuesday) and we also received 170 prayer requests cards per week–which all receive some type of follow up. How many people do we have serving in this area? Five!!! That’s amazing that five people can do that much work–how do they do it? Once again–volunteers!!!

It is our goal here at NewSpring to have a lean staff, pay them well, and try to involve as many people in the ministry as possible. My advice to church planters would be to take steps of faith when it is necessary–hire ahead–and hire someone EARLY to work with your volunteers!

Props to our staff–you guys do an amazing job. AND MAJOR props to our volunteers–this is not my ministry–it is OUR ministry–we are doing this together…and it is a privilege to serve as your pastor.

How Much Money Should A Church Spend On Missions? May 10, 2006

From time to time we get the question here at NewSpring as to how much money we spend on missions. I believe that is an incredibly fair question; after all, we are charged with going and telling the good news all across the world.

However, since the beginning of NewSpring, our philosophy on missions has been a little different (imagine that). Every church has a different way they tackle missions–and here is our philosophy.

(Disclaimer: To those who e-mail desiring debate on this subject–it’s not going to happen my friend. I am not saying that every church needs to adopt this approach…but I am saying it is our approach and we feel that this is the direction that God has called our church to take. So…if you want to write in and tell us how stupid we are–that’s awesome! You will not receive a response because…well…to be honest–we don’t have time for it!)

Now, on to missions… :-)

In Acts chapter one Jesus tells His apostles that they will need to reach Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and then the ends of the earth. And…if you go through Scripture you will see a clear picture of this taking place–Jerusalem in chapter two, Judea and Samaria in chapter eight, and then finally the Gentiles in chapter ten.

So…that is the way we desired to do missions when we began NewSpring…we wanted to reach Anderson first, then the upstate, and then on to the United States and the world.

You see, I have a serious problem with a church that will organize a mission trip overseas, stay in five star hotels, pass out Bible’s for a half a day…and then celebrate that event for the next ten years.

I have a serious problem with a church that will get focused on so many things but forget the needs that exist in their own community. You see, we have homeless people in Anderson, we have hungry people in Anderson, we have single moms in Anderson…and it is our desire to make sure we do all we can to minister to these people AND THEN begin to go outside of this area.

So how much money do we spend on missions? Answer–every dime that is given every week. Anderson is our mission. You see, I am not content with the fact that we have teenagers in this community that do not know Christ…and so we need the proper staff and resources to reach them–that is missions.

I am not content with the fact that there are children in this community who do not know Jesus! So…it is our desire to provide a creative and exciting atmosphere for kids to come and worship…AND to reach their mother and father with the Gospel and see lives changed–that is missions.

I am not content that 48% of our county is unchurched–folks–48%, and it’s not because they can’t find one–it is because they have walked away and want nothing to do with them. In reading the New Testament it is so obvious that church is necessary–and so it is necessary to do all we can to reach them–that is why we built a facility…so we could reach more people–that is missions. (And it is working–our average attendance is up over 1,200 people in the past six months.)

Not only that–we have handyman teams here at our church that go out and build handicap ramps in the community–we are doing a single mom’s oil change soon–we partner with Anderson Interfaith Ministries and Crisis Pregnancy Center financially. We are a church that is all about this community.

(Mark your calendars NOW for Friday, June 30–the NewSpring band will be doing a concert and having a fireworks show at the ampi-theatre here in Anderson…and every dime we take in will go to Anderson Interfaith Ministries and Crisis Pregnancy Center.)

BUT–not only are we all about Anderson–we are taking steps to do some work outside of this community as well…

Over the past several months we have sent teams of people to New Orleans and have partnered with a church down there…the stories we are hearing are amazing and…well…yes, that is missions.

AND…we have a meeting scheduled in two weeks with an organization that we are considering partnering with to do missions work in India. You see, I don’t want our church to take up an offering once a year and feel that we have done our part–I want us to be involved. So…we are going to adopt villages–build schools, churches….our church will take mission trips every year to the same places–we will know these people by name…and they will know us…and we will see entire regions of that country reached for Christ–that is missions.

We are all about missions–BUT–we consider EVERYTHING we do to be a mission. People DO matter all over the world–BUT they matter right here in Anderson as well! AND–we are going to do all we can with all we’ve got to make sure as many people as possible hear about Jesus!

How much money should a church spend on missions? EVERY dime they take in!