By popular demand, I will be interviewing Lee McDerment and Shane Duffey tomorrow afternoon (Monday, February 2) on a live webcast. Lee is the worship leader at our Anderson Campus and was one of the first folks Perry hired back in the early days. Shane is our Pastor of Creative Arts (I think that’s his title) and oversees the arts portions of our services at all our campuses.

You’ll have the opportunity to participate and ask questions during the webcast. It’ll be live. And, as always, it’ll be FREE.

Here are the details:

• Session will start at 2:00-ish EST
• Live video webcast will be on my Mogulus channel.
• Watch my Twitter updates for exact start time.

Feel free to start asking questions by leaving comments on this post. I’ll use your questions to launch the conversation.

Hope to see you in the chat room tomorrow. Tell all your friends. We’re expecting a crowd.

The news crew showed up at NewSpring’s Greenville Campus yesterday to find out what was up with the billboards that have gone up in recent days. We’ve launched a billboard campaign in Greenville, Florence and Anderson preceding an upcoming marriage series at NewSpring that will begin in February. The only thing on the billboards is this web address: IWantANewMarriage.com.

In case you missed the story on last night’s news, the video of the story is available on the Fox Carolina website.

I’ll blog later this week about numbers. Every time I mention numbers here, it causes a bit of a stir in blog world. I’ll explain why numbers matter. Don’t worry.

Until then, here are a few numbers on my mind today:

• 4 – We completed final testing on our Web Campus this evening. After a few tweaks this week, we’ll open NewSpring’s fourth campus next Sunday with services on the Web at 11:15 am and 6:00 pm (oops…forgot about the Super Bowl) Eastern time.
• 11,000 – Today we had over 11,000 people at our services for the first time on a day that wasn’t named “Easter” or “Christmas”. 11,000 people heard how Jesus makes the impossible possible.
• 650 – During the last month, over 650 people have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior at NewSpring. If you want to know what that’s all about, email me. I’d love to share my story, the story of Jesus and see where that fits in your story.
• 1 – While all this was happening today, we had 1 senior pastor taking a much needed break at Disney. Yes, we know God has uniquely gifted Perry to lead NewSpring. We don’t take his leadership for granted. At the same time, today was an indicator of great leadership empowerment. All that transpired today took place while Perry was hanging out with Mickey Mouse.

Those are some of the numbers on my mind this evening. I’m overwhelmed. I’m humbled. I’m amazed. I’m praying that this is only the beginning of waves of salvations and life change.

God is good.

Coming to all NewSpring campuses in February: iWantANewMarriage.com.

Check out the video for more details:

Things are going to get crazy around here!

Surreal.

I just paused at 2:54 to reflect on what I’ve been up to today. Almost every conversation has been about expanding NewSpring’s ministry impact…outside of Anderson, SC.

• Getting “live” video to Florence.
• Getting Greenville campus video out to the Web.
• Launching our Web campus with Nick.
• Helping Alden ramp up his team in Columbia.
• Talking with friends at LifeChurch.tv about how they launch campuses from existing churches.
• Responding to inquiries from those who’d like to be a part of NewSpring in other communities.
• Reacting to good news about Unleash and our plans to equip other church leaders in March.

First of all, you need to know that I absolutely LOVE my job! I can’t believe I get paid to do what I get to do.

Secondly, you need to know that this is not what I signed up for at NewSpring. When I was talking with Perry more than two years ago about joining the team at NewSpring, none of these initiatives was even on his radar. I knew I wanted to serve beside Perry at NewSpring, but I really had no idea what I was going to be doing. In other words, I fell in love with the people and the mission before I knew my role.

It was a risk. But I’m more and more convinced it was worth it.

I really do love my job.

In case you haven’t heard, Perry announced a few weeks ago that our fifth NewSpring campus will open in Columbia, South Carolina later this year. Here are a few updates:

• Alden Ellis has been named the campus pastor. (He’s also a Gamecocks fan. We won’t hold that against him.)
• Alden and others are in the process of narrowing down options for a location in Columbia. You can pray for wisdom and clear direction on that.
• Alden won’t be the only staff person in Columbia. If you’re interested in a leadership role, contact the Columbia team.
  
• We are already starting to build a team of volunteers to help us launch. Let us know if you’d like to be a part of the adventure.

Know someone who lives in and around Columbia who might benefit from connecting with NewSpring’s ministries? Let them know we’re heading that direction. You may use our website to give them a taste of what to expect. We’ll be there soon.

Here are some lines from Perry’s message today that caught my attention:

• “I want us to get comfortable with things being uncomfortable.”
• “We have such a desire to be comfortable that we ignore the world around us.”
• “There are family and friends that would go to hell if they died today…and that doesn’t bother you.”
• “God is love, but God is also wrath.”
• “Is it God’s fault that we experience his wrath or is it our fault?”
• “God’s love is powerful, but God’s wrath is also powerful.”
• “It’s not this church’s job to save the environment. It’s our job to reach people for Jesus.”
• “I’ve never met an atheist that I didn’t like, but I’ve met people that call themselves Christians that get on my last flippin’ nerve.”
• “God didn’t call us to yell at people.”
• “When you love Jesus and begin to pursue him with all your heart, you’re going to be persecuted.”
• “Church isn’t supposed to be our hobby. Jesus is supposed to be our passion.”
• “It’s time to piss mom off.”
• “The church wasn’t created to be a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.”
• “We’re too obsessed with icons and not living a sacrificial life with Jesus.”
• She was singing, “Hide it under a bush? Hell no!”

Watch the NewSpring website for the video of today’s message later this week.

Brad captured a video before Thursday’s all-staff meeting. This will give you a sense of the atmosphere:

All-Staff from NewSpring Students on Vimeo.

Here’s the scoop on how we do all-staff meeting at NewSpring:

• Meet once a month
• Anderson and Greenville teams usually meet at the same location
• Florence joins us live using Skype
• Spend the first part of the meeting just sharing stories
• Perry usually teaches something on leadership/vision
• We also give everyone updates on what’s happening next

It’s one of my favorite parts about being on staff at NewSpring. I serve with the best team around!

My friend Barron emailed me this picture of the NewSpring Anderson Campus. It looks like a very recent photo. For some perspective:

• Everything left of the bright green columns is our original building.
• Everything right of the bright green columns is the new children’s ministry building. The lower level will be for kids in grades K-5 and our nurseries. The second level is for office space. My team will actually be located in the second level space closest to the green columns.
• The building to the right is our new student ministry building.

Here are some additional details that may interest you:

• The new children’s building is 44,000 square feet. The student ministry building is 43,000 square feet. I think our original building is around 120,000 square. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong.)
• We’re hoping to open both new buildings in late-February or early-March.
• The student ministry building includes a new 1,000-seat auditorium that we also plan to use as a new venue for Sunday services.
• The children’s building includes three 170-seat theaters for elementary school-aged kids.
• Our current children’s ministry space will be renovated after the Unleash Conference for preschool-aged kids.
• The student ministry building has a gym (far-right portion of the facility) and a football field with lighting (just below the facility).

Because of the space constraints we’re experiencing in Anderson, I can’t tell you how excited we are to see these two new buildings open up. As a parent of four kids that will be hearing about Jesus in these buildings, I must also express that I’m grateful to my NewSpring family for making this investment for my kids and their friends.

We covered a lot of ground in today’s all-staff meeting. During our conversations, though, here are some questions that Perry challenged us to ask about ourselves and our ministry:

1. What questions do we need to be asking?
2. What does God want NewSpring to look like in 2015?
3. Not what now? But what next?
4. When?
5. Who?
6. Where?
7. Is there anything we need to deal with that we’re trying to deny?
8. Are we understanding the proper perspective?
9. What bothered God? Does it bother me?
10. Do I understand that ministry is received and not achieved?
11. Am I placing limits on myself that God hasn’t placed in me?
12. Do I realize that God loves this ministry way more than me?
13. Are we leading with pure motives?
14. Is there any area of my life where I’m intentionally living in disobedience to God?
15. Am I walking in purity? Or am I trying to hide something?
16. Are we focused on honoring his name?
17. Will I be consistent?

Just a few questions that will be rolling around in my brain for the next days.