Sunday Night (AND SATURDAY NIGHT) Reflections!

I can honestly say that this has been one of the most amazing weekends in the HISTORY of NewSpring Church…and I have tons of thoughts running through my mind…so here goes…

• We baptized 562 people on Saturday!!!  We had three pools, baptized two in each pool at a time…and it still took over an hour!
• Last week I said in church that I wanted the service on Saturday to be a CELEBRATION…and I challenged our people to tailgate, to go all out…I HAD NO IDEA!
• Lucretia and I pulled into the parking lot and there were people everywhere–seriously, there were RV’s, golf carts, grills–people had food everywhere…it was a celebration like I’ve never seen.
• I told Lucretia, “This is no longer just a church–it is a revolution–I’ve never seen anything like this!”
• If you want to see pictures Tony has some shots here...and Will has an view here from the sky!
• Our local paper did a story on the event–you can read it here.  By the way…our vision is to make the name of JESUS famous–uh–check out the headline!!!
• My back was sore last night from baptizing–SERIOUSLY…I had to take motrin before going to bed!
• Today we launched Gametime at NewSpring and I shared the vision of where we are getting ready to go as a church…and I thought at a couple points the roof was going to come off of the place.
• The short version is we are getting ready to launch a satellite campus in Greenville, build a youth facility AND a children’s facility…AND make a HUGE investment in local and foreign missions.  More details will come during the campaign and on this site…but if you want some more specifics you can check out this post by Tony.
• Yes–we ARE making a major investment in children’s and youth ministry in this campaign…they are NOT “the church of tomorrow,” they are the church of TODAY…they matter RIGHT NOW…and we are going to do all that we can to reach as many as we can!
• Someone asked me, “Which part of this are we going to do first?”  Great question–here is the answer–ALL OF IT!  We are playing to win…getting aggressive…not holding back!
• I am asking each person at NewSpring (and whoever else is led) to seriously PRAY and ask God WHAT He wants them to do in regards to contributing.  I want this to be a matter where each one of us hears from God and then does exactly what He says.
• I am absolutely positive that He wants us all participating in this…ANYONE can clap and amen, it takes serious commitment and sacrifice to step up and give.
• By the way…this takes money…and I am pumped because when I began talking about money and sacrifice today I saw a lot of people nodding their heads and smiling…this church is about to prove that God can trust us to step up big!
• I got completely overwhelmed in the third service today…in each service I asked who is going to stand with me to accomplish this vision–who would say the I Samuel 14:7 statement…and people started standing all over the sanctuary…by the time it was over everyone was on their feet and I literally could not find the words–I had to sit down.
• NewSpring…this is GOING to happen!!!  AND…as I said today in every service…I am here, no critic, skeptic or blogger is ever going to prevent me from doing what God has called me to do!!!   We are going to continually lift up Jesus…and the Lord is going to do some awesome things.
• I know we covered a ton of information today…more will come during the next few weeks…however, if you have a question about this campaign then please shoot me an e-mail and I will make sure that someone answers your question.

A couple of other things…

• Gary…what is up with the ‘Dawgs?  I pull for them once a year–when they play South Carolina…and they dropped the ball!
• Of course–that was a HARD game for me to watch…like I said–watching those two play is like watching the Taliban play the Communists…you just don’t really want either to do well.