Before I forget…
The Monday Morning Men’s Gathering for tomorrow has been moved to next Monday. Hope you can make it!
Well, it’s been a bizarre week in many ways—freak snow storm predictions that turned into nothing that turned back into something that ended up being ICE!!!
Ugh! I hate ice! But, like most weeks I still have a lot to dump…
- Never struggled so much with whether or not to cancel church. It’s because I hate canceling church—for anything!
- Held out for as long as we could but I wish we’d held out a little longer or at least had one combined service at 11:00.
- What is that they say about hindsight? Yet it’s bigger than that. But, if I said everything that bothers me about canceling church today, some of it would offend (you can always come to our Midweek series if you struggle with ‘getting offended.’ That’s what we’re currently talking about) because it’s not all that kind.
However, as luck would have it, someone beat me to it—a pastor of another church caught in this ice storm who decided to buck the trend and go ahead with all services as planned. You can click here to read what Perry Noble had to say about ‘skipping church.’ It’s good stuff, bit not for the easily offended! - Never-mind clicking. Most of you won’t bother so here it is below. Happy reading…
Yes, We WILL Be Having Church! January 30, 2010
Hey NewSpring Church…all campuses…church is ON tomorrow…and I can’t wait! The momentum from last weekend combined with our new series (Identity Theft) this weekend is going to be amazing.
Now…the reason for this post is quite simple, SOME people are going to be tempted to “play hooky” tomorrow because of the “major winter storm” that has passed through our area! 🙂 So here are a few things to keep in mind…
* Tomorrow we have a chance to experience in four locations what we experienced in one last week…and I am CONVINCED that the worship will be passionate and that God will draw people to Him…can’t wait to see what He does!
* Tomorrow if you are signed up to volunteer then you have a chance to make a tremendous impact as we are anticipating lots of visitors to attend every campus!
* We are launching a new initiative tomorrow that has me really excited…can’t wait!
* There is a rumor that I will be playing the guitar tomorrow and singing a Travis Tritt song! I cannot confirm or deny that rumor…you’ll just have to be there and see.
* I believe God is going to radically rock our worlds tomorrow as we begin to explore how to move from living an average life to an amazing one!
* SO many people have no idea what their purpose is in life, what they are supposed to be doing, why they are even on this planet…tomorrow begins the process of getting that figured out.
* AND…tomorrow would be a GREAT DAY to invite someone to come to NewSpring Church with you!
* ONE MORE THING…a blizzard hitting an NFL town would not keep people away from a championship football game; it would actually create more excitement! We have a better message than the NFL…and LOTS more reasons to be excited…so lets get to church and celebrate!SO…saying all of that…church is ON!!! People all over the world will attend a church service tomorrow in WAY worse conditions, many even risking their lives! SO…lets show up and pray for God to show out tomorrow…I can’t wait!
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So, did we make the wrong call? Who knows? I only know how I felt (and still feel) in my gut and it tends to land smack dab center to what Perry said above. So the next, “winter storm” that has most churches canceling will have Southbrook ‘open for worship,’ if I have any say about it. It may just be Greg singing and me preaching to my family and his (as well as the rest of our awesome staff—They were ready to parachute in if I asked them too! They’re off the hook!).
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So, while I’m glad no one got hurt today snow mobiling to church—I feel a lot of people missed out on a great service and message from Geoffrey Janes! Maybe we’ll keep it as a surprise for later!
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While I’m on this rant, the Monday Morning Men’s Gathering fell victim to the same ‘cancellation disease’ as the services today. Oh well—lesson learned. We’ll be on next Monday instead, and guys? You don’t want to miss that one. I have another challenge for those of you who are serious about manning up!
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One cancellation in the sea of cancellations that was good (and necessary I might add) was our S.A.L.T. gathering that was supposed to take place Saturday night. We moved it to Wednesday—It will directly follow a shortened version of our Midweek service. This will not only give some of our leaders who have not yet checked out Midweek the chance to do so but also the opportunity for some newer folks who have been coming to Midweek to hear about getting involved in leadership @ Southbrook. 2 birds with one stone! And the world’s longest run on sentence.
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Well, that’s it for now Brookies. See you on Wednesday!