Archive for September, 2006
Day One Of The ICC September 21, 2006
WOW–what an awesome day! Granger Community Church has it going on!!!
John Maxwell says that everything rises and falls on leadership–if that is true (and I believe it is) then it is obvious why Granger is seeing such tremendous growth–this church is being led by a leader of leaders–Mark Beeson.
Mark did the first session today…and THIS SESSION ALONE was worth the price of the conference. He told how he made an “F” on his first sermon in preaching class in seminary (that made me feel a little better about myself…I made a “C.”) When he asked the prof about it the dude told Mark, “You talked too fast and you said way too much about Jesus!”
Mark said since then he is not a preacher–he just likes to talk & tell stories about Jesus…and I SO connected with that.
Tim Stevens did the next session and did an incredible job at talking about how to create buzz.
After lunch I did a break out session on how to prepare a creative message…I HAVE to admit that I felt like I was WAY over my head…and yes, I will a tad nervous…but the session went awesome, thank you to everyone who prayed!!! PRAY HARD TOMORROW…I am speaking in one of the main sessions!
The final session today was done by a dude named Rob Wegner…probably one of the most passionate dudes I have ever seen in his presentation style. He LOVES seeing people “get it” & that came out in his talk. You can check out the following sites that have notes posted on them about today…
A few more things…
They KNOW how to take care of people up here–HOLY COW–I have eaten more candy than a middle schooler over the past 24 hours. My FAVORITE candy is the dove chocolate…and they had a bag waiting on me when I arrived this morning–NOT GOOD!!!
I had six shots of espresso today…I had to have something to keep me going after getting in bed last night and then going to the gym this morning. Yes, I was & am hyper!!
Oh yeah–they didn’t tell me that it was going to be cold up here. I understand to them that 41 degrees is not cold–but that is FREEZING in the south!!! When we went outside to get in the mini-van to go to the gym this morning we were shocked!!!
That’s about it for now–more updates later!
Travel Update… September 21, 2006
This morning is going well–the alarm went off @ 5:15 & I had an AWESOME quiet time…and then…me & the crew headed out to the gym. (There are six of us on this trip–five went to the gym…and I am not telling anyone who didn’t go!)
OK–so I will–Jason Moorhead didn’t go!
Anyway–talk about a battle already…a intense battle that I have never had to deal with. I ran into something this morning that I have not ever had to face in Anderson. The enemy was trying to distract me…and he was hard at work.
“In what way,” you ask. Well–on the WAY to the gym we passed a Starbucks…AND…A…Krispy Kreme with the hot/now sign on!!! I fought the desire to pull in–the battle was intense…but I prevailed and made it to the gym. I am still have thoughts of doughnuts dancing in my brain–pray for me!!!
This Sunday is going to be awesome…have I mentioned that yet? I received an e-mail AND a text message last night from A-town from people who attend NewSpring that they are bringing TONS of people this Sunday!
I am doing a breakout session today on how to prepare a message. Pray for me…I feel like I am WAY over my head. I know that there are men & women here who are MUCH more qualified to teach this stuff…and for some reason God is allowing me to do it…I guess that is evidence that the Bible is true because in this case He truly will be using the foolish to confound the wise!
Trip Update So Far… September 20, 2006
We are here…AND the airline did not lose my bag!!! YEAH!
We flew over Notre Dame…I am NOT a Notre Dame fan…I have been told I should not announce that very loud in this community.
We dined at an Applebees tonight–great food…but no sweet tea…yes, these people need southern missionaries!!!!
AND then tonight we went over to Tony’s–that was a lot of fun. One of my favorite parts of going to these conferences are the talks that take place outside of the meetings…good stuff…and a TON of networking!
More updates coming later…
I’m About To Flippin’ Explode!!! September 20, 2006
I have several things I want to share–my mind is RACING and I just had a double shot of espresso–God help us all!!!
- This Sunday…I can’t wait!!! Not only am I excited…but our staff is PUMPED…Lee was about to come out of his skin yesterday (I am glad he didn’t–that would have been gross) in regards to this weekend. There is an atmosphere of excitement in our office that is contagious!!!
- AND…I have received a lot of e-mails and phone calls assuring me that it is not only me that is excited–but tons of people in our church are excited as well…and are inviting people left and right. Folks–Jesus is going to do something amazing this Sunday at NewSpring!
- Pray for me and the team traveling with me today to Granger for their Innovative Church Conference. I am so pumped about this…I have never spoken at a church conference. I have requested a translator for those who are not fluent in “redneck.” AND pray that the airline does not lose my luggage–after my last experience I am paranoid.
- Please pray for Lucretia…she loves the fact that I am getting a chance to speak and tell others what God is doing here at NewSpring…but she HATES it when I am away…which is a good thing. I NEVER want her to LOVE IT when I travel!!!
- AND…pray for Jason Moorhead…I will be rooming with him and he snores REALLY BAD!
A few more things I wanted to share…
- Tony Morgan has been doing a journey through the Bible and posted his recent thoughts on the Song of Songs here…I about spit water all over my computer reading this…it’s AWESOME!
- Mark Driscoll, one of my favorite leaders, has this awesome post about what God is doing at his church and Seattle…it is a long post BUT worth your while to read. Mark has been the target of a lot of criticism from people and has kept his focus on Jesus…something I am learning to do!
- I am finally going to get to meet this guy at the ICC…AND the dude responsible for this blog…I can’t wait. Hey Scott…YOU OWE ME some Starbucks dude…you have tortured me with your Starbucks posts for months…and now you will pay!!!
- (By the way…I heard from a pretty reliable source that a Starbucks is heading to Anderson…and to think, there are people out there who think that God isn’t real and does not answer prayer!!!)
Exciting Times! September 19, 2006
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!
Sharing The Love…And A Few Other Random Thoughts… September 18, 2006
WOW–so much is happening right now…I LOVE LIFE!!!
First of all–how ’bout them Tigers. WOW–it was an awesome football weekend…Notre Dame got beat, Clemson beat FSU AT FSU…and Carolina had to pull out all the stops to beat Wofford!!!
I am PUMPED about Clemson’s win! BUT…please pray for ‘Cretia and I…you see, she is a HUGE FSU fan, and things are a little tense around the Noble house. I am trying not to make frequent references to the game…but sometimes they just slip out. I am trying to remind myself that she is a 2nd degree blackbelt and could whip my tail…I guess if I show up to church next week with my nose missing you will know that she ripped it off!
(Yes, she really does love football. I KNEW I wanted to marry her when we were talking on the phone once and she said something about the QB calling an audible. I asked her, “Do you even know what an audible is?” “Yes–it’s when the QB reads the defense and checks off at the line of scrimage to a different play,” she replied. It was at that moment I began to BEG God to please let me marry her!!!!)
Yesterday was…AWESOME! I can’t get over what I saw at church…I will blog more about it tomorrow…what I can say is this…GET PEOPLE HERE NEXT WEEK if you want them to hear & see a presentation of the Gospel that WILL impact them!!! Once again–what I saw at church today blew me away…and next week we are praying for over 500 salvations. (You can download the message here if you want to know what I spoke about.) I can say this–we will probably be the only church in the world to do a song by Nickelback and Avalon on the same day!!!
I am speaking at my first conference ever this week…it is going to be held at Granger Community Church in Indiana. I am SO excited!!! I checked the conference schedule & I am the only red-neck speaker that they have…they might need someone that speaks “Southern” to translate. If you are heading up there I would LOVE to meet you…I hear this guy is going to do a breakout on blogging…I will be in there!!!
For those of you who HATE stupid church signs…you have got to read this...I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry…good job CMS!
My buddy Bob had an AMAZING post this week as he looked back on six years of ministry–you can check it out here…good word Bob!
That’s about it for now…more later…seriously, I really do need a day to reflect on what happened yesterday before I write about it!
A Passionate Desire NOT To Be Stupid–Part Two September 15, 2006
(For #1 & #2…see yesterday’s post)
#3 – Seek Advice From Godly, Wise People
The Bible says in Proverbs 15:22 that our plans fail because of lack of counsel–NOT because they are not good–but because of lack of counsel. NOT because satan is mean and nasty–but because of lack of counsel. NOT because God hates us and wants us to fail–but because of lack of counsel.
Bottom line on this–there are too many of us running around in this world making rash decisions that have life changing implications…and we discuss them with no one–we just make them & pray that God will work it all out…and that is plain STUPID!
In find it interesting that Solomon, the wisest man in the world, penned the verse referenced above. If ANYONE didn’t need advice it was Solomon–yet he chose to say, “Get advice!!!”
One of the decisions I made early on in my ministry and life was to surround myself with wise and godly people…and to always seek their advice before making any type of decision.
When it comes to decisions in my family–I always discuss the decision with Lucretia…God has poured out an incredible amount of wisdom and discernment on her…and she has protected me from making some really stupid, costly decisions. The man who will not talk to his wife about decisions that affect the home is an arrogant, self centered man.
I remember one time desperately wanting to purchase a car…and making a huge list of reasons in order to convince her. She listened to me and loved me through the process…but in the end she kept coming back to the fact that buying the car just wasn’t the right thing to do. She was right–and I realize now that if I had not listened to her that I would have made a HUGE mistake!
When it comes to decision in this church…I have surrounded myself with some very wise and godly people. I don’t make decisions by myself–we do it all by a team concept around here…and the men that God has placed around me are so wise.
I have literally had people say about me, “Perry always gets HIS way at NewSpring.” Let me make you a promise…if we had always done what I wanted to do…I promise we would not have 6,000 people a Sunday…we would be LUCKY to have 6 people in my living room. True leadership is the ability to recoginize when someone has a better decision than you–and then being willing to humble yourself enough to put their recomendation in place over yours.
When it comes to a financial decision…I have two people in my life that are incredibly wise with their money–they are not some person who has declared bankruptcy three times and will just tell me what I want to hear–but rather they are men who are where I would like to be one day financially. So–when it comes to making decisions I ask them–and God provides the wisdom that I do not have through them.
(Let me say this…if there are people in your life that you refuse to talk to when it comes to making a financial decision because “you know what they are going to say,” then, once again, you are a self centered, arrogant person. You want what YOU WANT and do not care about wisdom…you RUN from people that God has put into place to help you NOT make stupid decisions!!!)
When I was dating…I sought dating advice from people who were SUCCESSFULLY married–not other singles. Singles always get mad at me when I talk about this–but single people are…SINGLE. Why ask someone who is where you don’t want to be how to be successful at something? Why not ask those who ARE successful…just a thought!
When it comes to leadership and pastoring…I seek advice from people who are SO much smarter than me. Within the past week I have had the opportunity to sit and ask John Maxwell and Andy Stanley questions and borrow the wisdom that God has given them…and it’s helped me SO much.
There are other ways to get wisdom–reading books–through mentors–whatever…but I want to challenge you to constantly pursue it–no matter what…its work–but the payoff is a lot better because you don’t have to go around apologizing for the stupid things you have done quite as much. :-)