• Today we saw around 100 people surrender their lives to Christ…and, you guessed it…that NEVER gets old.
• PUMPED about the 98 people who showed up for a membership/ownership class in Charleston this morning…cannot WAIT to officially launch on January 9th!
• Clayton King preached one of THE BEST messages on preparing for (and staying in) a marriage that I have ever heard.
• Some of the Scriptures he used (that are definitely worth going back and looking through) were Proverbs 12:4, Proverbs 22:3, Proverbs 26:11, Proverbs 28:13, Proverbs 27:15-16, Proverbs 5:1-6, Proverbs 29:1, Proverbs 28:26!
• The homework he gave was for all of us this week to read through Proverbs 31:10-31 every day and ask the Lord what is the ONE THING I can do RIGHT NOW to either prepare me for marriage or make me a better spouse?  (AND…even though that passage is written to primarily women it also applies to men as well!)
• The outline for Clayton’s message is covered in this post of his that I reposted on my blog…as I said, it was amazing…if you missed it then don’t worry…it will be on itunes and on our website by Tuesday at 12pm EST.

Two more things…

#1 – THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for our trip this past week to London…it literally was one of the most amazing days I’ve ever had in ministry.  God is using our church all over the world…it literally blew my mind when I began to meet people who had been impacted by the ministry of our church living so far away.  For all of this I say…to God be the glory…ONLY HE could do something this amazing and awesome, and I so look forward to the continual opportunities He is going to place in front of us for ministry.

#2 – THANK YOU for the kindness that you guys showed me and my family for pastors appreciation month.  It is an honor to serve here as the pastor of this church…and I am anticipating 2011 to be most FRUITFUL year of ministry we’ve ever had.  I love this church…and I believe God has called us NOT to just do church…but to IMPACT and CHANGE the world that we live in by lifting up JESUS in a way that people can understand.

The best really is yet to come!

• Today we talked about Biblical manhood…to say that it was a little tense would be equal to saying that the Pope is a little Catholic.
• Homework assignment was for all people to read through Ephesians 5:22-33 and I Peter 3:1-7 and ask God to use His Word to show us how we can be a better spouse.
• AND…we should NOT use these passages to attack our spouse…but rather to attack the sin in us and repent.
• Singles…you can read through these passages and ask God to use His Word to prepare you to be a godly spouse!
• I said it today…I will say it again…most couples do not have a marriage problem, they have a JESUS problem.
• There is NOTHING that two people who are completely surrendered to Christ cannot work through or overcome.
• Hey men, if you want to be mentored by one of the godliest men that has ever lived then I HIGHLY recommend that you pick up your Bible and read I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus and Philemon.
• The Apostle Paul wrote these letters to men that he was mentoring…if you read two chapters a day you can read through the entire four books in one week!
• I am not going to go too much into the message…it will be on itunes and online on Tuesday…hope it encourages and challenges you.

One more thing…

I would ask that those of you who are regular attenders and members of NewSpring Church be in prayer for me this week as I will be traveling to the UK to meet with/invest in church leaders.  God has opened a unique opportunity for us to do some ministry over there and we are REALLY excited about it.  We will be back on Friday…AND will be continuing the Man Versus Wife on Sunday…I can’t wait!

• Today we saw around 50 people surrender their lives to Christ…that NEVER gets old.
• Brad Cooper, our student pastor, brought one of the best messages on “The Gospel” that I’ve ever heard!  (Main focus was I Corinthians 15:1-11)  It will be on our podcast on Tuesday and you should download it.
• (FYI…Brad is THE BEST student pastor on the planet…I wrote a little bit about my thoughts on youth ministry in this post!)
• Some quotes that I thought were powerful today were…
• “The reason we can pray for the impossible is because Jesus has done the impossible!”
• “Too many times when we hear the Gospel we automatically think, ‘I’ve heard that before.’  We’ve been desensitized to it.”
• “You show off who is #1 in your life NOT on Sunday morning but rather how you live on Monday morning (or Friday night!)”
• “Does your bank account and the way you spend your time say that Jesus is #1 in your life?”
• “Making much of us making much of Jesus is self righteousness!”
• “The reason we needed good news is because there was really bad news…a place called hell!”
• “If you can be a spectator then grace is not in you because grace works!”
• “The Gospel makes you a victor, not a victim!”
• I really could go on and on about Brad’s message…but, like I said earlier…you should just download it or watch it online when it is available (usually around 12:00pm EST on Tuesday.)
• To say that our church is excited about the beginning of our series entitled “Man Versus Wife” would be an understatement!
• We’ve hit over 700,000 households (well over 1,000,000 people) in the state of South Carolina with a direct mail piece inviting them to this series…and we’ve asked every member/regular attender to go ALL OUT this week to get as many people to church as possible THIS Sunday!
• Our Columbia campus is actually beginning a 6pm service this coming Sunday in order to provide more room for growth!!!
• This is going to be THE BEST series on marriage we’ve EVER done…and not only are we anticipating God saving marriages during this time period…but we are REALLY anticipating HUNDREDS of salvations as the GOSPEL is going to be preached!
• I just found out that there are already over 500 people signed up for Unleash!!!  We’ve NEVER had this many people sign up so early!!!  It’s going to sell out sooner that it ever has before!!  (Here is the sign up link) AND…
• This year I am going to be hosting a private lunch for the 10 pastors who bring the most people with them…can’t WAIT for that!!!
• In other news…EVERY sports team that I pulled for (with the exception of Florida State) lost this weekend!  :-(
• And, thanks for all of you who prayed for the Catalyst Conference…it was an amazing experience…I am STILL overwhelmed by what God taught me through that experience…and SO thankful that He allowed me to participate!

Have a GREAT week!!!

• It was an honor to have Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC with us today…as always, he did an amazing job.
• (BTW…here’s where you can pick up “Sun Stand Still” if you were not able to purchase it today)
• I absolutely loved the sentence that he used as his thesis, “If the size of the vision that you have for your life isn’t intimidating to you then there’s a chance that its insulting to God!”
• All too often Christians are afraid to dream God sized dreams and pray God sized prayers because, for some stupid reason, we worry about His reputation (actually, I’ve read the end of the book…I think His reputation is going to be quite fine!)  :-)
• “Miracles can be mundane if we are overexposed to them!”  May we never get used to the amazing things that God is doing in our church and in our lives!
• I thought the statement he made “what you fail to celebrate will eventually leave your life” was something that we should all stop for a minute and reflect on…because one thing the Body of Christ needs to do more in general is CELEBRATE rather than SULK…after all, THE TOMB IS EMPTY!
• His phrase that teenagers don’t need rules to live by but rather a vision to life for is something I wished someone would have told me 25 years ago!
• I really do believe that there is more that God wants to do in everyone’s life…if He was finished with us then we would not be here, the very fact that there is air in your lungs is evidence that He STILL has something to do IN you and THROUGH you!
• My thought about the day…God didn’t do the miracles in the Bible to tell us WHO HE WAS…but rather WHO HE IS!  If He did it then He can do it again…He has not changed (Hebrews 13:8) and because of that we need to pray God sized prayers and take God sized steps of faith!
• My prayer for all of us is that we will not waste our lives but rather embrace WHO God is and WHAT He has called us to do…because THAT is the abundant life that JESUS promised us in John 10:10!
• We wrap up this series next week…and then move on to THE BEST series on marriage we’ve EVER done!

On a personal note…if you are a member/regular attender at NewSpring Church I would ask for your prayers this week.  I’ve been invited to speak at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta this week and I’m both excited and a little nervous.  I am praying HARD that Jesus will use me to encourage church leaders, thus encouraging their entire church.  Please pray that I will hear God’s voice clearly and that I will say exactly what He wants me to say.  I desperately want to honor Him and His calling on my life…and your prayers this week will make a difference.

Lucretia and I are on vacation spending time with each other!!!  (AND…this is a time stamped blog…so I am NOT “on vacation” with my laptop on my lap…I am spending time with my wife!!!  :-)

Joe did an amazing job…and you REALLY need to come out to his Financial Learning Seminar!  You can sign up at www.newspring.cc

As we’ve said over and over…we don’t want anything FROM you…we want something FOR you…we want FOR you to live in the financial freedom that God provides for us AS WE FOLLOW HIS WORD!

So, the seminar is free, we will feed you AND take care of you kids…we just need you to sign up AND show up!

Have a GREAT week!

• Today we saw 42 people surrender their lives to Christ…and 159 go public through baptism…THAT NEVER GETS OLD!
• The question isn’t “is God going to bless me” but rather, “how am I going to handle the blessings that God has already poured out all over me?”
• Yep, we got to chat about money again today…Jesus DID say it was the number one competitor for our hearts!  (See Matthew 6:21 and Matthew 6:24)
• In America…we are BLESSED, we have so much more than we need.
• America is one of the only places on the planet where people can somehow struggle with “poverty” and obesity at the same time!
• If we followed the advice that Scripture gives on how to handle our money…our financial foundation would be SOLID and would not crash – see Luke 6:46-49.
• The world is not afraid to ask for financial commitment…but for some reason the church us!  (Has your power company ever apologized for asking you to make a payment?)
• As we follow Jesus we do not become more greedy…we become more generous!
• Those who hold out on Jesus (in any area of their lives) do not understand WHO He is or WHAT He has done!
• I WAS DEAD (Ephesians 2:1-2) and HE MADE ME ALIVE…why would I ever hold out on Him?
• When we put everything in the hands of Jesus…He can do SO MUCH MORE with it!
• We cannot live with the assumption that everything is for our consumption!  When God blesses us with more…often times it is so we can be a blessing to other people!  (See II Corinthians 9:6-15)
• It’s not a sin to be blessed…it’s a sin to be greedy!
• Statistics show over and over again that the more money that people make…the less they give away.  That is why when people say “if I had more I would give more” is a flat out lie.  (See Luke 16:10-15)
• We do not drift into commitment…we DIVE into it!  If God is calling you to commit an area of your life to Him (or maybe to flat out commit your whole life to Him) – DO IT!!!  (Notice the IMMEDIATE change in Zack’s life – Luke 19:-1-10)
• Jesus came for the lost (Luke 19:10) and HIS CHURCH must be obsessed with them as well.  (Here is the written version of the Charisse story I told at the end of the service.)
• I am SO thankful that I serve at a generous church…where people have been willing to literally put their money where their mouth is so that THOUSANDS of people could be reached with the Gospel.
• The best is yet to come!!!

One more thing to everyone at NewSpring Church…

Someone always asks every time I speak on the subject of money, “is the church in financial trouble?”

The answer is “no!”  :-)

God, through His people, has been SO faithful to us…people have always been generous and even through one of the worse recessions that has ever hit our economy the percentage of giving has increased the past several years.

We do not teach on money at NewSpring because we want something FROM you but rather because we want something FOR you!  We want FOR you to live in financial freedom rather than financial bondage (AND next week we are going break down HOW you can break loose of the financial chains that have you bound!!!  DON’T MISS IT!)  AND…if you will remember last week I challenged you that if you thought NewSpring Church was after your money to tithe to another church!  :-)

The main reason I preach on money is the Bible talks about it way to much for me to ignore it.  There are around 500 verses in prayer in the Scriptures, less than 500 on faith…but over 2,000 on money and possessions.  Sixteen out of the thirty eight parables Jesus told had to do with money!  AND…as I said earlier, Jesus said that money is the number one indicator of where a persons heart belongs.

We’ve been preaching about money and finances since we began. (Please remember we began in a living room…we didn’t have ANYTHING, and THIS is what God has done in only ten years!)  We do not preach on money in order to maintain a budget…we do so in order that people may walk with Jesus in every area of their lives…and so that HIS church can reach the people God has commanded us to reach.  (We really do need to begin two more campuses IN ADDITION to Charleston campus…more on that later!)  :-)

The best really is yet to come…thanks once again to everyone for your generosity…God’s Kingdom is advancing because of it!

• Today we saw over 100 people receive Christ AND over 100 people get baptized…LOVE IT!
• Began the series “The Blessed Life” today with a BANG!
• Got to speak on money today…which is always tense because Jesus said it is the number one competitor for our heart!  (Matthew 6:24)
• BUT…reality is that Jesus doesn’t want to be a part of our life…but rather He wants to BE OUR LIFE!  (See Colossians 3:4)
• He doesn’t want to be ranked in our top ten–HE wants to be FIRST…and He will relentlessly pursue our hearts until He has that place!
• He didn’t die on a cross to be Lord of some but rather Lord of all…and “all” includes our money.
• Jesus said in Acts 20:35 that being blessed isn’t about receiving but giving.
• The primary reasons people do not give are fear and frustration…neither is an excuse for disobedience.
• It’s not that God needs our money…it’s actually that we need His blessing.
• It’s always amazed me that we can sing “Jesus Paid It All” and then whine and complain about the 10% that we’re commanded to give that HE blessed us with in the first place.
• As I once heard Bill Hybels say, “How can we stand in the shadow of a blood stained cross and refuse to do the bare minimum God asks of us when it comes to giving?”
• I’ve had people tell me that they are not tithers because that is “Old Testament,” but rather they are New Testament givers…which is AWESOME because there isn’t ONE example in the New Testament of a gift given to the church that was LESS than the tithe…it was always more!
• Putting God first in our finances isn’t something we “try for a while”–it’s a lifestyle we commit to!
• AND…when it comes to teaching on money I don’t want a thing FROM anyone…I want something FOR them…I want FOR them to learn to live in the financial freedom God promises us we can live in if we will just put Him first!
• Had fun talking about the errors in prosperity theology and poverty theology.
• Also had a blast talking about the fact that I CANNOT OUT-GIVE GOD!!!  (Hannah gave ONE child to the house of the Lord – see I Samuel 1:24-28 – and God gave her back FIVE children – see I Samuel 2:18-21, also HIS promise in Malachi 3:10-12 and II Corinthians 9:6-15!)
• For those who are wrestling with this…I totally understand.  I refused to put God first in the area of my finances for nine years after committing my life to Christ…but I can tell you from personal experience that Proverbs 3:9-10 is TRUE…it can’t be explained, only experienced!
• Yes, it takes faith to put God first in this area of your life – see Hebrews 11:6
• You can give without loving…but you CANNOT love without giving!  (John 3:16)
• AND…here is my favorite part…in a message about TITHING over 100 people surrendered their lives to CHRIST!  That’s a GOD THING!  I LOVE IT!!!  Only GOD can take credit for that!!!
• Only two more weeks in this series, this week laid the foundation for something I believe God is going to BLOW OUR MINDS with next week, already excited out of my mind about it.

• Today was a GREAT follow up to last week as we shared seven ways to grow spiritually.
• Over 200 sign ups for baptism today…AWESOME to see, we will be baptizing every Sunday this month!  Love seeing people go public!
• Once again, the seven things we talked about today have NOTHING to do with God’s love for us…but have everything to do with us becoming more and more like Christ.
• The fourth core value we covered today is, “Growing People Change.”
• One of the most confusing things for me when I first became a Christian was how people could claim they went to church all of their lives…but they never changed.
• THEN I discovered that (especially here in the South) it is entirely possible to attend church but not actually follow Christ.
• According to the Scriptures…we can’t follow Jesus and remain the same.  If we are not changing then we are not growing.  (Like I said in the message…you can’t follow Christ and remain a butthole.)
• Yes, the story about Clayton and the woman’s arm was true!  (Sorry for all of the people that threw up a little bit in your mouth while I was telling that story!)
• I won’t do a complete sermon rundown here…but it will be online later this week.
• I cannot WAIT until next week when we kick off our brand new three week series entitled, “The Blessed Life!”  SO many times we fall short of the amazing plans God has for us…and we will spend the next three weeks digging into WHY most people fall short and WHAT can be done about it.
• AND…it was AWESOME to see college football back on television.  As much as I hate to say it…the Gamecocks looked good!  :-(

That’s about it…I am going to bed and am planning on doing absolutely NOTHING tomorrow as my family and I celebrate Labor Day!  I hope you have an amazing Monday off (unless you have to work…in that case, sorry)!!!

• Today we saw 516 people surrender their lives to Christ at NewSpring.  THAT NEVER GETS OLD!!!!!!!
• We shattered a non-holiday attendance record with over 14,100 people in church today!  (EVERY campus set an attendance record!)
• Anderson campus literally ran out of parking spaces at 11:15.
• (The 6:00 service in Anderson was the most electric/anointed environment I’ve EVER been in–EVER!)
• Columbia campus ran out of chairs at 11:15 and had people standing along the walls.
• Florence campus went over 1,000!
• Greenville campus had over 2,800 people show up!
• I believe we presented the most simple Gospel presentation we’ve ever presented.
• We invited the people who received Christ to walk forward and nail their names to the cross after the service…I will NEVER forget that sound!
• The scripture we used today was Romans 3:23-24, Colossians 2:13-15, Isaiah 64:6 and Matthew 7:21-23
• I’ve NEVER seen our church as excited about a service as we were about today…since we preached on “Found People Find People” back on August 8th and did the evangelism seminar that week we’ve had an incredible desperation for Jesus to do something awesome…and HE DID!
• BTW…I had one of our parking volunteers stop me on my way out of the 11:15 service today and thank me for the evangelism seminar…he said that he was able to lead a friend to Christ at work because of it!  YES!!!
• What we saw today was the power of an AWESOME God partnered with people who were crazy enough to take Him at His Word and believe that if we brought people to a place where they could hear the message that HE would do amazing things among us!
• AND…not only that…but we are equipped to GO OUT and share HIS GOSPEL as well!
• I literally prayed Acts 8:8 over Anderson, Florence, Greenville, Columbia and Charleston today…I want to see great joy through an AWAKENING that HE is doing.
• NewSpring…let’s LIVE OUT Isaiah 62:6-7 and not leave God alone until He transforms our entire community!
• Can’t WAIT to conclude this series NEXT WEEK with a message entitled, “Don’t Stop Believing!”  God STILL has awesome things in store!
• CELEBRATING with my great friend Steven Furtick at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC as they set an attendance record today as well and saw 581 salvations!!!!!  THAT NEVER GETS OLD!!!
• HE IS MIGHTY TO SAVE…and NewSpring Church…THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!  (Zephaniah 3:17)
• I am STILL trying to get my mind wrapped around what happened today.  I know I usually recap the message in these reflections entries, but, like I said, I’ve never seen anything quite like this and am trying to process everything and am asking God what He wants to do next.
• NewSpring Church…I LOVE YOU…what we’re seeing God do right now IS NOT NORMAL..He IS building HIS church…and…the BEST IS YET TO COME!

Whew!  I’ve got to TRY to go to sleep now!  :-)

• What God is doing right now in our church in incredible…I love my church!
• Saw a new attendance record set today…blows my mind.
• Taught on our third core value today – “I Can’t Do Life Alone.”
• One of the mistakes people often make is to think they can follow Christ without the church AND the people in the church.
• I once heard it said that a persons first step away from God is usually a step away from the people of God.
• If Peter walked away from Christ and his friends (Matthew 26:56), THEN tried to follow Jesus at a distance AND also placed himself in a very unhealthy environment (Matthew 26:58) which led to him eventually denying Christ (Matthew 26:69-75) then the SAME THING will happen to us if we follow in those steps.
• We’re called to be SERIOUS in our walk with Christ (Hebrews 10:22) which means we refuse to swerve (Hebrews 10:23) by allowing ourselves to be in REAL community where tough conversations (Hebrews 10:24) and encouragement (Hebrews 10:25) can take place.
• The church should be a place where it is ok to not be ok.
• Just think how much pain could have been avoided in the church if people would have felt free to follow the command given in James 5:16!  (BTW…healing comes only through confession!!!)
• The reason we don’t confess and ask for help is because we are afraid of what people might think about us…not understanding that the consequences of concealment are SO much greater than the consequences of confession!
• Unfortunately…the church in America usually shoots their wounded rather than helping them get back on their feet.
• People that are Christians really do struggle with sin…the battle IS intense…and we really do need one another to overcome those temptations!
• Had a great time exposing the four myths that we believe when it comes to “staying solid” in our faith–you can check out the podcast or website on Tuesday if you want to walk through them.
• Saw LOTS of people sign up to get involved in a group today…thought that was AWESOME!
• Cannot WAIT until NEXT WEEK!  Seriously…let’s do ALL WE CAN as a church to get as many people here next week to hear the Gospel!

I’m tired…going to bed!