Archive for January, 2011
It’s Getting Closer–UNLEASH!!! January 31, 2011
Unleash is less than 40 days away…are you coming?
Sign ups went CRAZY last week for our overflow venue! (We sold out the main sanctuary earlier than we ever have; however, we have opened up several hundred seats in the youth building…and they are going FAST! Everything in this auditorium will be experienced via a live video feed from the main auditorium – the experience is amazing – AND the participants in this venue will have FULL access to everything else at the conference, including the break out sessions and an amazing lunch!)
As I’ve said before…Unleash ISN’T about getting your church to do church a particular way…but rather a time when church leaders and volunteers can get together and dream about what could be and should be when it comes to the local church.
SO…I hope your coming! Tickets are on sale for $49 a piece! We have intentionally priced this conference low and made it a one day experience because we want pastors/church leaders to bring as many staff and volunteers as they can with them.
HERE IS WHERE YOU SIGN UP…can’t wait to see you in March!!!
(BTW…people have asked and so I wanted to let everyone know that we will not be streaming the conference live this year as we have in the past; however, we will make the videos from the conference available online at a later day…and we will also put the messages on the Perry Noble Leadership Podcast on itunes.)
What If? January 27, 2011
To every NewSpring Church owner/member/regular attender (AND anyone else who is obsessed with reaching the world for Christ.)
THIS question hit me this morning…and to be honest I am quite challenged AND convicted by it, here goes…
WHAT IF you were a non-Christian…and Christians treated you the way you treat non-Christians?
- Would you ever get invited to church?
- Would you feel looked down on?
- Would you feel condemned?
- Would you be ignored?
Reality is that most of us have forgotten what it was like to be lost (see I Corinthians 1:26-31 & Ephesians 2:1-5).
We’ve lost sight of the fact that the Bible says that Jesus LOVED THE WORLD…not just the people in the church. (See John 3:16)
We’ve lost sight that Jesus commanded us to reach the world (see Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:48, John 20:21, Acts 1:8, II Corinthians 5:16-21) AND…FYI, there is another group of people that are quite passionate about this (per THIS article on CNN today).
We’ve lost sight that we’re not just supposed to pray for people to come to Christ…we’re actually supposed to ENGAGE them in a conversation. (See Romans 10:14 and Romans 10:17, Acts 8:26-40, John 1:35-51)
FOUND PEOPLE FIND PEOPLE!
So…with all this in mind…who are you bringing to church with you THIS Sunday? (If someone just popped into your mind…I can promise you that was not the devil telling you to invite someone to church. Literally…if you just thought of someone then pray for them RIGHT NOW and then invite them RIGHT NOW!!! I honestly believe if we were convinced of the reality of heaven and hell that no one would have to talk us into this!)
This Sunday (just like EVERY Sunday at NewSpring Church) the Gospel IS going to be presented…and Jesus is going to change lives.
Stop and think for just a second…WHO told you about Jesus? Who invited you to church? It’s always been God’s plan for people to reach people…so, who are you reaching?
Jesus didn’t want us to gather as a group of people and proclaim theological and moral superiority in regards to the rest of our community and give them “the middle finger of fellowship”…we’re called to REACH people…people who we already have a relationship with.
If you are nervous then pray this prayer and then GO FOR IT!!!
Let’s be a church that treats those far from God like we would want to be treated if we were the ones who were far from God!
Do You Love Me More Than 18 Dollars? January 27, 2011
The other night I was putting Charisse (my three year old little girl to bed) and I told her that I love her. She looked me right in the eyes and told me, “I love you too daddy.”
I then told her, “Charisse…I love you more than you could ever imagine!”
She said, “what does imagine mean?”
So I told her, “basically I love you bigger than you could ever think about or dream.”
Her eyes got really wide and she looked at me with the most serious look I’ve ever seen on her face and then asked me, “do you love me more than 18 dollars?”
STOP–18 dollars, that is HUGE in her world. Seriously, 18 dollars is about as big as she could imagine…and when I told her that I loved her so much more than 18 dollars she had the biggest smile on her face…it absolutely amazed her that my love for her was greater than something that she thought was of so much value.
While I was walking down the stairs after leaving her room I was laughing at how “cute” that moment was until I felt the Lord move in my heart and show me that me trying to comprehend His love for me is like Charisse trying to comprehend my love for her…my mind literally could never even conceive it! (See Ephesians 3:17-19)
God loves His children…NOT based on their PERFORMANCE but rather as His POSTION as His child.
And…if you belong to Jesus then God’s love for you is more powerful that the sin that seems to haunt you…
- God loves you even though you are wrestling through an addiction!
- God loves you despite the abortion.
- God loves you even though the divorce was finalized.
- God loves you even though you can’t get that particular season from your past out of your mind.
- God loves you even though you rejected His love and sought to be religious to gain His approval.
- God loves you even though you turned your back on Him and ran as hard as you could.
He loves you because YOU are HIS CHILD (Romans 8:38-39)…and that love He has for us is greater than anything we could imagine or fathom. When we try to describe His love we wind up saying really silly things like, “God, do you love me more than 18 dollars?” To which He replies to us that we have NO IDEA!
He gave His SON to pay for our sins…that’s UNBELIEVABLE love! Because, honestly, if someone told me it would take the life of my daughter to pay for your sins, well, sorry, you would be in hell! BUT God, IN HIS mercy sent Jesus to absorb His wrath in our place…NOT because we deserved it, but because of His unbelievable love. (See Romans 5:6-8)
His love causes me to be in awe of Him…how HE could love me not BECAUSE of who I am, but in spite of who I am…and love me more than my greatest sin!
I’m in awe of a God who loves like that!
Seven Gut Check Questions For Staff Members January 26, 2011
I shared these questions with our staff here at NewSpring Church in last weeks staff meeting and thought it might be helpful if I shared them here on my website.
#1 – Would I attend this church if I were not on staff? If the answer is “no” then you should resign…immediately. God hasn’t called people in the ministry to work with a half hearted effort…and if you don’t believe in the vision/mission of your church enough to say that you would be there if they were not paying you then I am afraid your hearts isn’t there anyway.
#2 – Would I volunteer in the area I am working in if I were not on staff? This question speaks to motive…if you would not volunteer to do the job you are being paid to do then, once again, you’ve got to ask if your heart is really there. (If you do not LOVE what you do then you are not going to be able to do what Scripture commands in Philippians 2:14 and Colossians 3:23-24).
#3 – Do I feel entitled? There is nothing worse than a staff member (including a senior pastor) who has an entitlement mentality. These people believe the church has latched on to them and would sink if they were to leave (which is never the case.) Reality is the church doesn’t owe anyone…she’s God’s Bride and we (volunteers and staff) are the ones who latched on to her in regards to our gifts being pulled out of us and developed for HIS Kingdom.
#4 – Am I a tither? If you are not tithing and giving generously to your church…your heart isn’t there. Don’t argue with me…JESUS said it! (Matthew 6:21) Also…how in the world can someone who claims to have integrity work on a church and spent the tithe money of other people when they are not actually giving any themselves?
#5 – How clean is my office/work area? The answer to this question determines how well a person is willing to steward the resources that God allows them to use…AND how they feel about the church as a whole. (And…a staff member CAN and should be held accountable for this.)
#6 – How much do I complain about my job? A staff member who is always complaining most likely is not operating in their area of gifting. I’ve told my staff, “I KNOW your job is hard…it’s ministry, we’re on the front lines. A marine on the front lines in a way is never surprised when someone shoots at him…he doesn’t begin to whine and tell people how hard his job is. Ministry is, hands down, the hardest job you will EVER have!
#7 – Am I concerned about my particular area/team…OR about the church as a whole? Staff members need to be willing to have uncomfortable conversations with people if they ever perceive something to be “off mission”…even if it is not in their direct area of responsibility. A staff is a team…and everything impacts everything else. Staff members who fail to realize this will eventually create silos that actually begin to compete with other departments on staff rather than partnering with other staff members to kick satan in his cookies and advance God’s Kingdom!
Throw It DOWN!!! January 25, 2011
Jud Wilhite, pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, is one of the best leaders on the planet! (And…is also a confirmed speaker at NLC 2011, HERE are the details, seriously, THIS is going to be AMAZING!!!)
Anyway, he recently wrote a book entitled “Throw it Down” that deals with the issue of overcoming addiction! I LOVE the fact that the Lord used Jud to address this subject…it’s something that has made church world uncomfortable for a long time and we cannot continue to stick our heads in the sand if we are going to rise up and be the difference maker in the world that Jesus called us to be. And Jud didn’t just write a book about it…his church has hit this issue head on and has seen some amazing success!!! (In the end…the church wins!!!)
I had a chance to ask Jud a few questions and here were his responses.
1. What caused you to focus on overcoming addiction for your new book Throw it Down?
I spent 4 years as a drug addict so I know what it is to be broken, but also to have Jesus put you back together. I’m celebrating 22 years of sobriety this year! Addiction is so prevalent in society and in the church, not just drugs and alcohol but addiction in a lot of forms–approval, perfectionism, food disorders, anger issues. I wanted to inspire people to move forward into the life of freedom Jesus’ offers us.
2. Tell me more about the recovery program that you use at Central Christian and why it’s been so effective?
It’s just a bunch of broken people helping other people! As you know, it is so powerful when people get honest and straightforward about junk in their life and start dealing with it. That kind of community is just contagious. And it can happen in any church, in any small group. You just have to have people willing to go first and share their life.
3. You use the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt as a metaphor for your process of helping people find their way out of addiction. How so?
Exodus is so powerful. It means “the road out” and shows how God set his people free from slavery. In many ways we find ourselves enslaved in our own addictions and issues, so I draw out principles from the Exodus that can help us on our own journey to freedom. For example, it usually gets harder before it gets easier. As soon as the Israelites left Egypt they faced all kinds of challenges, so much so that they wanted to go back. It can feel this way when we are facing our issues as well. But it is worth it and it is part of the process of God setting us free from sin. There are all kinds of principles in Exodus like this and it is very revealing to lay them over our own lives.
My advice…if you have ever struggled with any type of addiction (or you know of anyone who has)…PLEASE get this book! (You can do so by going here!)
A Letter From Pastor P To NewSpring Church–AND A Personal Prayer Request!!! January 25, 2011
Howdy NewSpring Church…FIVE things I wanted to share with you guys today…
#1 – Our church baptized 199 people this past Sunday!!! THAT FIRES ME UP! We literally saw 199 people across our campuses say out loud, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior!” YES! AND…let me just say that I LOVE the way our church cheers whenever we see people get baptized!!! (BTW…we’re having baptism this Sunday as well!) AND…see Luke 15:7 and Luke 15:10…when we celebrate what God has done in a persons life we are literally partaking in a heavenly activity as the angels celebrate as well!!!
#2 – Remember, in Christ YOU ARE GIFTED (Ephesians 2:10)…and He wants to do more in and through your life than you could possibly imagine. (Remember I challenged everyone to memorize Ephesians 3:20 this week!) Remember…Jesus made a HUGE investment in all of us…and we are expected to use that investment IN HIS BODY for HIS glory! (See Matthew 25:14-30 and Ephesians 4:11-16).
#3 – Three things I challenged everyone to pray this past weekend…
- Lord, I’ll do WHATEVER you want!!!
- Lord, break my heart for what breaks Your heart!!
- Lord, may I NEVER believe the lie that I can follow You AND keep everyone happy at the same time! (See Galatians 1:10)
#4 – For the next two Sunday’s we will be dealing with the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” In my walk with Christ the past 20 years I have seen people experience some serious pain/hardships in life and they cannot seem to get past them because they are so angry at God and/or just confused in regards to if God is so good and loving then how could He allow “that” to happen. We are going to continue to dive into I Samuel 17 and answer that question THIS Sunday AND on the weekend of February 5-6. (AND…I am going to go ahead and say that the services on Super Bowl weekend will be one of the top five services we’ve EVER had in this history of NewSpring Church!!!)
#5 – Reminder..Anderson and Columbia campuses…REMEMBER that on Super Bowl weekend (the first weekend in February…the 5th and 6th) we are moving our Sunday night services THAT WEEKEND ONLY to Saturday night!
And now a pretty important prayer request…
Lucretia became very sick the week of Christmas…sore throat, coughing and feeling like crap. She thought it was a cold and it would get better…but it didn’t. So, she finally went to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep throat and put on antibiotics.
She didn’t get better; in fact, she started getting worse…not only was the sore throat still around, but she also found herself REALLY lacking energy and just walking up a flight of stairs would cause her to be out of breath.
So…two weeks ago she was placed on a stronger antibiotic and also had some blood work done…which showed that not only did she have strep throat but she also had mono!
Needless to say it’s been quite an interesting month or so in the Noble house. Please pray for…
#1 – Lucretia!!! I HATE seeing her sick. She never complains, never whines…but I can tell that the combination of strep and mono has really kicked her rear end!
#2 – Charisse and myself – so far we’ve been blessed enough not to catch mono, pray that we will continue to be protected.
#3 – Me! :-) I’ve been “Mr. Mom” this past month…going wide open at church and then coming home and trying my best to go wide open here has been a challenge. BUT…I can honestly say that Jesus has taught me SO much (and is continuing to do so) during all of this. The good is that I’ve been able to spend some really great time with my daughter and at the same time been able to serve my wife. The tough part…well, honestly…I’m tired! :-)
So…there you go…the Noble family would GREATLY appreciate your prayers…seriously!
Forgive Us Lord! January 20, 2011
Dear Lord, please forgive us, YOUR church…
#1 – For praying small prayers. We read in the Scriptures where YOU sent FIRE from heaven, you healed sick people, you brought the dead back to life, you put interstate highways through the Red Sea, you slayed giants, you enabled people to walk through fire, you spoke and the world EXPLODED in creation and you said we would do greater things in John 14:12…yet we refuse to pray and ask for BIG things because we believe that somehow Your reputation is on the line. May we pray BIG PRAYERS!
#2 – For allowing Disney to out dream us! They have a mouse, we have Your Holy Spirit and yet we have seemed to drift towards the normal, boring and predictable. You said in Ephesians 3:20 that you are able to do WAY more than we could ask or imagine…and maybe you are, maybe the best we can imagine is a few people in a room talking about things that the rest of the world does not care about. However, I refuse to believe that a company without YOUR Spirit should be able to trump YOUR church who does have YOUR Spirit when it comes to big dreams. We should have THE BEST artists in the world…may we recapture that!
#3 – For allowing Apple to out innovate us! You are the Author of creation…YOU! And since Your Word is clear that we are created in YOUR image then it is so clear that YOUR church should be leading the way when it comes to innovation and creativity. You are FAR from dull and boring…your church should be as well! May we STOP doing poor work and then blaming it on Your Holy Spirit.
#4 – For allowing a rising stock market to celebrate more than we do. For some reason in church world it is ok to celebrate when our 401k’s increase in value, but it is NOT ok to talk about/celebrate when people repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Savior, despite what YOU said about the angels celebrating in Luke 15. For some reason we don’t like to celebrate when a church sees people turn their lives over to you. We don’t like to celebrate it when another church grows. The truth is we want great things to happen in OUR church…but not in someone else’s.
#5 – For allowing credit card companies to out market us! We all know the phrase “what’s in your wallet” because they market their product so darn well; however, all too often we seem to be content sitting back and “trusting You” when in actuality You have entrusted and empowered us to go and reach the world with the Gospel…that takes “marketing!” We have the greatest message on the planet…may You continue to reveal the best methods in regards to how to get it out there more and more.
#6 – For allowing MTV to reach a generation that we’ve seemed to forget! Forgive us for the fact that in many of our churches there is more money in the cemetery fund than there is the youth and children’s budget. Forgive us when we neglect to see that the age group that is under 18 is the ripest mission field in America…and so instead of investing heavily in them we force them to sell doughnuts, have car washes and make hot dogs to do the things the church should be making a priority in the first place.
#7 – For allowing missionaries to use culture on foreign fields to reach the community in which they are in…but when that same approach is done in America we call it compromise! We tell missionaries to not criticize the culture in which they live but rather to learn it, understand it, and then leverage it to introduce the Gospel. We think that is the best way to do it “over there,” yet when that approach is used here we become angry and accuse churches of “watering things down” (AS IF YOUR Gospel could EVER be watered down) and/or compromised. May we not stick our heads in the sand but rather admit where we are and use the world that people live in as a tool and resource to introduce them to Jesus.
Forgive us Lord…may we RISE UP and be YOUR Church, the ONE YOU have called, equipped and enabled us to become! When we are focused on You, talking about You, pointing others to You and doing exactly what You say to do…then…
- Your power is undeniable!
- Your people are unstoppable!
- Your presence is unexplainable! And…
- Our potential is unimaginable!
May we be YOUR Church!