The team and I are headed to Elevation Church in Charlotte this afternoon to experience Wow-Bustion. It’s the new thing for their team leaders. The purpose: to empower them to create the “wow” every Sunday. Sounds good, doesn’t it? I’ll take notes.
Meanwhile, in other random thoughts…
- I didn’t know what to do with myself this weekend because nothing was on my calendar for Thursday night, Friday, or Saturday. It felt weird. I looked back and the last free weekend was January 12th. This is March 31st. Yikes! No wonder I’ve been so tired. That can not happen again. Time to guard my calendar a little more closely.
- Yesterday at church was ridiculous
· We saw an elderly man in a wheelchair on oxygen get baptized. He had to be carried in and carried out of the water. He was saved in the last 2 years after his wife wrote his name on the wall. Dang. That’s powerful.
· The parkers got to use our new air pump to fix a tire. They don’t even play. They’re on it.
· A kid decided to pee on the floor in one of the classrooms and the first cleaning crew person I saw/asked to respond was a new guy. First day on the job. He loves Jesus.
- Last night I had a dream that I met Bill Clinton. I can’t even explain that a little bit. Dreams are so strange.
One thing I’ve realized here at NewSpring is that Sunday happens every 7 days.
Much like any recurring responsibility, it’s easy to get in “oh crap this has to get done” mode.
We are so often ruled by the tyranny of the urgent.
Trouble is, we lose sight of the BIG picture.
We’re going through some monumental shifts in the volunteer area right now. Good ones. Expanding ones. We are about to have three campuses ones.
No more putting cotton balls in bullet holes!
Gotta MAKE time to step back and get the systems right.
It helps to have an amazing team to work with.
Just want to take a second and remind you that you should throw away your cotton balls too.
Before I continue from yesterday’s post, let me just make a disclaimer that I am not one of those live-and-breathe-Starbucks-is-the-only-way-and-I-will-drink-no-other-coffee kind of people. I mean, I enjoy their coffee and the atmosphere they’ve created, but I also enjoy my free cup of coffee every morning. Ok…
So I walked into the bucks and before I got my sunglasses off the barista (not the register person) asked, “Hi ma’am, what can I get started for ya?”
I wasn’t ready for that! I hadn’t even had time to think! This guy didn’t have the “I’ll wait for the register person to get back and tell me what to do” mentality. He took the initiative to get started. I don’t know if that was him or if that’s something they train their people to do, but I was impressed. He owned it.
So I got my coffee, found a corner, and commenced a good long read – probably close to 3 hours. Around hour 2 the same barista came up to me and said,
“Hey you’ve been reading for a while, would you like another drink?”
Shocked, I hesitate/contemplate.
“Yeah, you would. What can I get for you? Think quick.”
“Caramel macchiato would be great. Thanks.”
Less than 5 minutes later he comes back with a VENTI caramel macchiato. Not a tall, not a grande. He brought the big one. And no, I didn’t have to pay for it. He also grabbed my empty cup and threw it away and then asked about the book I was reading.
Now…what all this over the top service communicated was “you matter to us.” They took notice of me and paid attention. I left that place feeling like a celebrity.
I’m sure Starbucks doesn’t train their employees by teaching them the tactics of drink refilling. I doubt they have policies in place that dictate “how to build rapport with your customers.”
My guess is that they pick the right people and empower them to carry out the vision.
And it works.
Do you ever have days where you feel one step behind everything that’s happening?
Yesterday afternoon was like that for me.
My goal was to help out at IMPACT in Greenville last night and I was pretty pumped. Howard and Catherine have got it going on over there and I was ready to lend a hand.
Well, things didn’t exactly turn out the way I had planned. I’ll spare you the details and suffice to say that I had a series of ‘that did not just happen’ moments. It was actually quite comical in the grand scheme of things. But the events left me frazzled, slightly stressed, behind schedule, and at exit 60 on I-85 (yes, I missed the turn onto 385).
After finding out that I didn’t have a specific responsibility at IMPACT, I decided the best course of action was to #1. take a deep breath and #2 go get some coffee. Conveniently, Starbucks was just around the corner at exit 54. Not a bad ending, right? Right.
The real point of this post is to share my experience at the bucks.
I’ll pick up there tomorrow…
We didn’t have church this weekend.
We HAD CHURCH THIS WEEKEND.
Pepole invited people and God moved.
12,161 people came through our doors, and to our best guess at least 120 of them stood up and made the decision to accept Christ. That’s ridiculous.
I was up in the balcony to witness the invitation for a couple of the services and I was moved. Every time someone stood up I found myself thinking, “That’s someone’s dad. Someone’s mom. Someone’s sister or brother. That was me five years ago.” And the tears came. I saw grown men and women stand up, middle school kids, and college aged women, friends who stood up together…it was powerful.
God was working.
In addition,
- I saw a volunteer’s 18 year old son accept Christ
- I saw a young guy with a tracking device on his ankle shake a deputy’s hand before entering the service
- I saw an adult woman who was so severely handicapped that she had to be carried into the service
- I saw a volunteer bring a Muslim friend and a Hindu friend
- I saw a girl and her boyfriend show up because someone invited them that day at lunch at the waffle house
- I saw a volunteer who was able to worship with her brother and parents for the first time since they were kids
- I saw the neighbor that I invited and her 5 year old daughter
- I saw the excitement and hopefulness in a lot of volunteers as they waited for people they invited
- I saw volunteers step up and serve for two, three, four, or five services
- I saw the body ministering to the body
- I saw church.
If you were here for Easter, what’d you see?
T.D. Jakes brought the heat this year at C3. You probably already know that or could have guessed it. (I’m not the fastest blogger.)
One of my favorite moments in the whole conference was when he talked through Luke 24:13-35. I can’t really do it justice in a short write up but here’s the nutshell.
The point: Jesus’ own people failed to perceive him when he showed up in a different form.
They didn’t perceive his presence when he walked along with them…for seven miles.
They didn’t perceive his sovereignty when he explained everything scripture said about him.
They didn’t perceive him until he did an ordinary thing.
They ate together.
Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Then, the light came on. They remembered that they’d seen that before…like with the fishes and loaves. And at the last supper.
It wasn’t until Jesus had an ordinary, yet intimate encounter with them that they remembered who he was.
Wow.
Then, the Bishop took the analogy even further by saying that God is in the habit of TAKING, BLESSING, BREAKING, and GIVING. He did it with Jacob. Joseph. Abraham. Isaac. Jesus. And he does it with you and me.
We are so quick to want the blessings and we whine and ache when we are broken. But…reality is this: the breaking stage is the blessing stage.
Let that sink in.
Once we’ve been broken then we are ready for God to GIVE us.
I’m glad I serve a God who loves me that much.
He doesn’t prevent everything, but he can redeem anything.
Lot‘s of buzz about UNLEASH – here and everywhere.
Another amazing day in the life of NewSpring Church.
I’ve done some compiling and want to share a few peoples’ thoughts. Of course, these comments are somewhat slanted in the direction of guest services and NewSpring’s amazing volunteers!
*This is not a bibliography and I did not include sources.
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“Arriving on site at 7am we were greeted with football game like screams and cheers. There even was one crazy lady with a megaphone impersonating the guy off extreme makeover home edition.”
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“NewSpring, thanks for taking your time, energy, and money to invest in other churches, and for truly understanding we are all on the same team!”
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“The band was tighter than my dad’s checking account. The food was delicious, the coffee was strong, the weather was perfect, the atmosphere was electric (boogie woogie woogie woo), the teaching was terrific, the preaching was phenomenal, and the event was second to none. Kudos to the team and volunteers and Newspring for exceeding anyones expectations and doing everything with excellence.”
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“Unleash was an amazing experience for our team. We loved it and we are so excited about what God is doing everywhere!”
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“I can’t wait to see what comes from UNLEASH – I know I was stretched in so many areas – I know our staff was stretched in so many areas – and it was cool to see some of our volunteers really catch a glimpse of what “could be!” It was an awesome day and I am so glad we were able to be part of it!!”
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“The volunteers at NewSpring did an amazing job serving church leaders. It shows the heart of the church, and it communicates value.”
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“I came away with several God-inspired ideas (several filled pages in the Moleskin) and connected with some great people. Hands down, it has been my favorite conference on multiple levels. And I attend a lot of conferences.”
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“Your volunteers were awesome. They set the bar HIGH for us. “
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“One of the highlights and soul stirring encounters for me was New Spring’s Greeter Ministry. THEY WERE SPECTACULAR! They had around 350 volunteers, on a Thursday, who caught the vision for this conference and gave their time to make us feel welcome. These people were remarkable in their attention to conference guests; offering their services; asking if they could assist in anyway; being mindful where you were; and always having authentic and genuine smiles and welcoming you with every word. It was a first and fantastic experience for me. This was the most hospitable church and welcoming people I have ever met.”
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“Was absolutely blown away again by the volunteers/greeters Thursday morning at NewSpring. They really know how to get it done! It was so cool to be welcomed with everyone cheering for the four of us from Nashville, TN!”
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“Perhaps the most incredible thing about Unleash at NewSpring last Thursday was the volunteers. They absolutely took care of us and showed us the royal treatment. I have never been told “Hi,” “welcome,” “glad you’re here,” etc. so many times by so many people in my life.
I felt honored.
Thank you NewSpring volunteers for making the day incredible!“
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“NewSpring Vols – Thank you for all your hard work for Unleash! Thank you for sacrificing your time! Your IMPACT reaches far beyond what you will ever know! Yesterday you had the opportunity to serve over 2000 people whose job is to serve others. By ministering to them, you have indirectly ministered to multiplied thousands. You have IMPACTED how ministry is done all over the United States (and the UK!). What an honor it is to have met you! I hope you were as encouraged as we were by Unleash and I hope you realize how important you are! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
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“Ryan and I were blown away by the Unleash Conference at Newspring Church yesterday. I was amazed at how they had enlisted a crew of about 400 enthusiastic volunteers — who gave us the warmest greeting I’ve ever experienced ANYWHERE in my whole life.
We walked up to the building and some smiling lady asked us where we were from. “Wisconsin”, I replied.
‘OH WOW!! WISCONSIN!!!! HEY EVERYBODY. . . THESE GUYS ARE ALL THE WAY FROM WISCONSIN!!!!’
They cheered us into the church, as if we were Green Bay Packers, or the Pope, or somebody special like that!!“
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“This place has an impact on you. The greeting you get here is AMAZING! It simply makes you smile. The volunteer effort is beyond what I expected. I love these people.”
Less than 13 hours until show time.
UNLEASH could possibly be my favorite event of the year…other than you know, like, people getting saved and stuff.
I can’t believe 2,000 people are coming here to learn from us. Little do they know that we are actually going to learn from them. Shhhhh, don’t tell.
I also can’t believe that over 400 volunteers are ditching work to be a part of this great movement. Wait….yes I can believe that.
I’ve seen some early registrants tonight and I want to go up to each of them and scream “HEY Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHERE YA FROM!???”
My hope is that there will be more sweet tea lovers when all is said and done tomorrow. All you northern people, Texans, and Floridians need to get in the game. Pronto.
God’s about to do a great work among us.
It’s time to UNLEASH!!!!
What an amazing weekend at NewSpring.
I can’t wait to see what God does through this new series: THREE. The point: we all have people in our direct sphere of influence who are far from God…and we need to initiate inviting them to church! Easter is the perfect opportunity. So we’re just asking everyone to invite THREE.
To illustrate the point we had fire in the service yesterday. You know it’s gonna be good any time there is [controlled] fire involved. So…at the end Brad lit THREE peoples’ candles who then lit THREE others and the trend continued until the whole auditorium was lit. It was amazing, infectious, exponential, and inspiring.
That’s what God is doing with His church. It can spread that fast. To that many people. As long as we are willing to bring others to a place where they can hear about Jesus. Wow.
The cool part is that NewSpring is already responding. Yesterday (Monday) I went to a local retailer to pick something up. When I told the lady it was for NewSpring she opened her drawer, pulled out an invite card and said, “Is this the same NewSpring? Someone was in here 5 minutes ago and invited me to come.”
Are you serious?
She had heard of NewSpring, but had never been.
Now she is coming on Easter with her daughter and three grandkids.
Wow.
It’s happening.
So, who are you inviting?
One last thought from my friend’s visit this past Sunday…
Throughout the day she heard people say things like “God spoke to my heart and said…”, or “I haven’t heard from God yet about…”. I guess it left her wondering because when the service was over this is what she asked:
“This might be a dumb question…but how do you know what God’s voice sounds like? Is it some audible thing? Because…I mean…people can make up just about anything they want to in their head and start believing it…so how do you know it’s God?”
Are you freaking kidding me?
Not pretending to know everything about God’s voice or act like I can always discern it — but scripture tells us that God’s people know his voice. And as believers, we know you hear it in your heart more than in your ears. But she didn’t. It’s so easy to forget the simple things that people don’t know.
We told her that His voice is like an internal compass that gives direction, usually inaudibly. It’s like the voice you hear when you are about to do something that you know you aren’t supposed to do. Or the one that tells you you forgot something. I explained that in the old testament people had to go through a High Priest to talk to God, but people who accept Jesus have a direct connection through Him. I told her that the Holy Spirit takes up residence in someone when they accept Christ and how he is the “counselor” and the one who provides direction – kind of like a GPS.
The funny thing we had spent the weekend navigating around with a GPS and she understood exactly what I meant. We then broke into hysterical laughter as we pictured God saying “Please turn right” in the GPS voice.
What a ridiculous God moment. He is working.
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