In regards to Newspring's conference on church leadership today I would first of all like to say, "Wow!".
$45 for a day of learing about how an effective church works, incredible worship, Perry Noble, and God speaking to me in a huge way. I think they got ripped off. Not really though cause the way they do things is cool.
Newspring's volunteers are what make that place run. They average about 8000 people every sunday with 3600 people who are official members. 1800 of those people volunteer in some way to completely enhance and make their church something to look forward to, something that brings people to Jesus in a loving way.
We showed up at 9:30 AM and got parked by people with smiles on their faces. As soon as we got out of the car another friendly man greeted us and gave us a brief rundown of registration. At registration we got a warm loud "whoo" for Lexington, South Carolina. Volunteers were everywhere serving in every way, and always with a smile on their faces. I was amazed.
Newsprings volunteers get the vision that God has given to Perry Noble. They are in love with Jesus, and want to serve in any way to reflect his love. I went to a "breakout session" on Staffing for Success and learned that the average church in America staffs one person for every 50 members/attendees in church. Newspring however only staffs 1 person per 100 attendees, and it's because they have volunteers who step it up every week and do ministry.
The focus is so outward that you can't help but be blown away. God moves those people, and they aren't afraid to take roles. I mean they had a service where Perry challenged them to write the names of those people who they would like to see come to Jesus on their walls. The names are still up there. The other challenge was to get those people to Newspring, and the next week 250 people gave their lives to Jesus.
Incredible.
It's the kind of passion that I want to be a part of so badly in church. A church that is driven by a radical vision that makes me uncomfortable, and feels like it's something I could never do. A church that is made specifically for the people who don't come to church. A church that as Wade Joye put it "you wouldn't have to apologize to your friend who visits".
I'm not sure how many parts this blog will be made into but I feel like I've rambled on a good bit for now. The next one will be on Vision and what Perry had to say about it. I'm so pumped right now, it's awesome.
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4 comments:
thank you for this.
miss you and i hope you had a wondeful break.
=]
You are a good man Andrew Stewart. We need to go shopping together to get a new PS2.
you have kept me waiting for approximately 4 days for additional stories from Unleash! And now that I have your prom commitment I can complain all I want to about your slowness! :)
The names on the wall was a very cool thing to watch.
The only thing I wish they would do is for the people who did come to Christ that they go and cross out their names.
If you ever go up to newspring give me a call, ill meet you there.
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