4:38 AM

Perry Noble

It happened—I knew it would…I just wasn’t sure when.  I figured it would be in the middle of the day…or one evening during a walk—but for some reason (only known to God) it hit me like a lightening bolt at 4:38 this morning.

What was it?  Excitement—PURE excitement…an adrenaline rush like I have never had…I wanted to jump out of bed and run down the street yelling.  (Unfortunately I could not do this—remember it was 4:38 AM and I was in my boxers…now in many Southern towns this is perfectly acceptable behavior; however, in Anderson this will get you arrested!)

What was my excitement about?  (No, Lucretia is not pregnant!)

The building!  We are moving into our own worship facility on Sunday, February 12.  I can’t believe it—I am amazed at what God has done…and so excited about all He is going to do.

Until this morning (at 4:38) I was happy about the building.  I would discuss it with people and say, “Yeah, I’m pretty excited;” however, it was sort of a general excitement—but this morning I could not stop smiling about the whole thing.

As I mentioned in the message this past Sunday—I purposefully have stayed away from talking about the building a lot.  I might have mentioned it a time or two over the past six months—but I have ignored the advice of other pastors and church leaders to “cast vision” and “talk about the building as often as possible.”

Don’t get me wrong—many of these pastors have moved into buildings and are having tremendous success—but with us…well…I just didn’t feel the freedom to talk about the building every week.  I felt like we needed to focus on the spiritual development of the people who are coming in the doors every week…and I knew that I could not spend a lot of time on where we are heading if they didn’t even know where they were!!!

To be honest—I haven’t been that involved in the development of the building.  I was in on the initial meetings many months ago—and then I turned over the responsibility to our executive pastor, Jason Moorhead, who has taken the ball and ran with it.  People ask me about the stress in regards to the building—I have had none—now Jason…that’s probably a different story…but me, none!  (You might want to add Jason to your prayer list over the next several weeks!)

New Springers—remember—the building is a place—it is NOT our destination…and when we arrive there we have NOT arrived!!!  In reading through the OT lately I have discovered that when the children of Israel reached the Promised land that they had plenty of work to do—they could not just sit back and relax.

I am excited—AND thankful.  This morning I thought about the early days of NewSpring…when Lucretia, myself, and Joel Yates would go and set up the sound system (that we borrowed) and the chairs.  Then we moved to the Fine Arts Center at Anderson University…and God has blessed us so much.  My prayer is that we never will forget where we came from—EVER.

I know I say this all the time—BUT THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!  God has not brought us this far to watch us fail.  The building we are moving into will not be worshipped—but will be used as a ministry tool in which God uses to continue to turn this community upside down.  The potential for ministry greatly increases for us because we will have a center to operate from—a fort if you will!

There is so much in store for this year—things I will be sharing over the next three to four months on Sundays.

I’m excited—I can’t contain it!  I am not even sure if I will be good for anything today because it hit me!!!  Thank you Jesus for the work that YOU are doing—the lives YOU are changing…and the potential we have to reach more and more people and forcefully advance YOUR kingdom!