This past weekend we unveiled the new video technology solution at the NewSpring Greenville campus. There have been a number of questions since that news from folks wanting more specifics. With that in mind, I sat down with the Jayson and Stephen from Eastgate Productions to talk about the solution we are using to deliver video content. Here’s the interview in two parts.

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One of my favorite parts of my role at NewSpring is being involved in the creativity meetings that help drive what happens each Sunday. Because of that, I’ve been in on the inside of some incredible conversations about these next few weekends. I can’t reveal all the details, but here’s a brief preview of what’s coming:

• May 6 — Perry is going to talk about the future of NewSpring Church. If you thought reaching 7,500 each weekend in Anderson, South Carolina was a big vision, you aren’t going to believe what’s coming next.
• May 13 — We are going to do something we’ve never done before. The story we’re going to share on the 13th will demonstrate the power of God’s ministry through NewSpring and the impact we can have, together, as a church. Someone’s life will be changed forever.
• May 20 — We are going to launch our new series, "Reel Life. Uncut. Uncensored." This first weekend will be both uproariously funny and rock-your-world-upside-down challenging. Throughout this series, we’re going to discover how spiritual issues raised at the movies impact our daily lives. This first week, we’re going to take a unique look at the person of Jesus. Here’s a hint…you’ll find out that some people "think of Jesus as a mischievous badger."

You’ll want to join us for each of these weekends. And, as always, these are great opportunities to invite your friends. Get ready for God to rock your world!

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Here are my handwritten notes from Perry’s First Wednesday message this past week. The message was called "Famous One." Hope my handwriting is legible.

By the way, here’s something simple that we do at NewSpring that you may want to consider. Like most churches, we pass out a program for everyone to take notes. In addition to that, the greeters also have buckets of pens available to pass out at the doors. As people are leaving at the end of the service, the greeters have the buckets to collect the pens. It encourages people to take notes during the message. And, I don’t know if you’re like me or not, but I retain more when I write it down. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy blogging so much. When I write, I learn.

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As you may recall, a couple of weeks ago I headed out of town with the other senior leadership team pastors from NewSpring to talk about the future of our ministry. It was an exciting dialogue. We talked about a number of issues, but one of them included realigning ministry responsibilities among the various senior management team members. Out of that conversation, my role has changed a little bit from what Perry and I originally discussed. And, to be quite honest, I’m really excited about where things landed.

For the immediate future, I’m going to be responsible for leading the communications and technology areas. I’m also going to have the responsibility for helping to launch NewSpring Ministries–that’s our new ministry to help equip church leaders through resources, consulting and events like the upcoming Unleash Conference (btw… I heard we had a bunch of New Yorkers register yesterday. They’re in for a treat.)

There are a couple more exciting new ventures that I’m going to be involved in moving forward, but I’m not allowed to tell you about them. That news will have to wait until early April when Perry shares what’s coming with the rest of the church. Let me just suggest that I think we’ve only begun to see what God might accomplish through NewSpring Church. I’m certainly excited to be a part of this adventure!

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The other night, Mark Beeson gave me a chance to say goodbye to the church during a midweek service. Here’s my brief message to my friends at Granger Community Church with a portion of Mark’s response.

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We wrapped up the U2 Christmas series at Granger. It was our biggest series ever. This past weekend, we set a record for attendance with over 11,000 people joining us for the seven services. Big stuff is coming in January. Stay tuned.

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It’s simple. But it’s one of my favorite medias the Granger team has pulled off. In case you missed it, here’s The Truth from the "Vertigo" weekend of the U2 Christmas series at Granger.

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I’ve talked about Granger’s ministry to our community in recent weeks through 20 Days of Giving. One of those twenty days included a food drop where we provided food and personal care items to 3,500 families in our region. What you may not know is that Granger is serving our community throughout the year–not just at Christmas time. As an example, we provide food to families twice each month through a food pantry located at our ministry center in downtown South Bend. Today, 26 of our volunteers distributed food to 338 families. That was a record for food distribution at that center.

In addition to giving you an update on what’s happening through Granger’s ministry to our community, I thought some of you would like to know that we count other stuff besides people who show up for  our weekend services. I know some of you get bent out of shape about the fact that we actually track whether or not our church is reaching more people. With this information about food distribution, maybe you’ll be able to rest easier tonight.

It’s not about the numbers. It’s about impacting people’s lives for Jesus.

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In case you’re wondering, this U2 Christmas series at Granger is exceeding all our expectations. It’s been amazing. As examples:

• We had almost 6,400 people at the services this weekend. That’s an increase of over 1,900 people from the same weekend last year. What do you do with that? Unbelievable!
• The church is fully engaging in the 20 Days of Giving. That’s been a blast. People are catching the vision that being a Christ-follower is more than just showing up to church on Sunday morning.
• The messages have been intentionally helping people understand how they can experience a revolution in their life that can ultimately help us, together, bring a revolution to our community.

I love the fact that Granger isn’t about helping people become churchy–it’s about helping people experience a transformed life in Christ that challenges folks to live out their faith daily in today’s culture. Frankly, that’s a lot harder than just being churchy. Churchiness is easy. You just follow prescribed rules.

Real faith is dynamic. It’s controversial. It’s dangerous. It’s constantly growing. It asks challenging questions. It involves mystery. You can’t put it in a box. You can’t keep it quiet. You can’t out-grow it. You can’t out-dream it. It’s more focused on others than it is on self. Real faith gives me peace but makes me discontent to let things stay the same.

It’s amazing what God can do through a church that embraces that kind of vision for life together. It’s revolutionary.

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Today’s South Bend Tribune included an article on Granger’s 20 Days of Giving. This particular article focuses on our efforts to help the Center for the Homeless in downtown South Bend. If you missed previous posts, we’re giving 20 gifts to the community – one every day for 20 days to celebrate 20 years of changed lives at Granger Community Church.

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