Notes from UNLEASH 08 @ NewSpring Church pt 1

So this past Thursday was an awesome experience as I believe over 130 fellow Elevators and my self were packed into three charter buses and rolled down to NewSpring Church in Anderson SC for the UNLEASH 08 Conference. Pastor Perry Noble is the senior Pastor of New Spring and it is an amazing Church. God is really doing great things in and through NewSpring.

Here are some of the notes from the first Session that really spoke to my heart.

The Scripture lesson was taken from Luke 15 the Story of the Prodigal Son. But the angle that Pastor Perry Noble is coming from is the one of the older brother.

1) What is it that God wants to do in my Church?

He wants to Glorify Himself and spread the good news of the Gospel.
He wants to use Elevation Church to raise up an army of Believers who are unashamed of the Gospel, and who are passionate about seeing people come to Christ.
"So that People Far From God will have LIFE in CHRIST," as our mission statement states.

A) But the Older son was more worried about the work in the fields, and not the heart of the Father. If he did know the heart of the father then he would have been joyful in the return of his brother. Or he would have helped in finding his lost brother. But he became angry instead. (vs 25-30)
i) Sometimes the church gets more worried about the "work," and not the heart of God. We get to busy doing stuff to re-focus on the Heart of Christ, and why we are doing the work. Then we become frustrated because our labor is in vain.

ii) We are doing the work for God, not for ourselves. The reason that we exist is to glorify Christ, and not ourselves. Or else we fail, and we fail hard.

B) So what will it take in order to passionately follow the heart of the Father?

a) TIME-passionate intimate interrupted time with the Father. That means that we have to read our Bibles for direction. Most Bible's these days have commentary that help us to process all of the information so that we can understand what the Bible says.

i) We need to ask God, and search for that "White Hot Vision" as Pastor Noble says. That also means that we need to spend intimate time praying to God and laying all our burdens at the foot of the cross.
ii) "Revelation not inspiration." When we get an idea from another church or from someone, pray about it before you decide to do it. If it is not from God, then it will not work. Only when God gives us revelation about an idea, and how to use it for His Glory, then will it work.

Remember that by spending TIME with God we will be able to "Do what God wants us to do, and be who God wants us to be."

I will write more hopefully tomrrow.
Please Check out Pastor Perry's Church and his blog along with Elevation Church and Pastor Steven Furtick's Blog.

Thank You