Dave Bowman

New Money Tool

If you haven't clicked on over to nhcgoodsense.com lately, now would be a good time to check it out. We've put together some really awesome tools to help anyone get their financial house in order.

But now we have something new - a Good Sense online forum. It's like an online discussion board for financial issues. You can post a question, answer a question that someone else asks or share your story to encourage others in their financial journey. Check it out here.

And while you're there, sign up for the first-ever Finding Financial Freedom webinar. All you need is a computer, internet access and a telephone. The webinar will feature the same content as our regular FFF class, with a focus on getting out of debt, living on a budget and aligning your finances with God's stewardship advice. The webinar will be December 1, 6:30-8:30 pm. For more info, or to register click here.

Shhhhhh!

"Be still, and know that I am God..."

Sound familiar? Many of us have heard this verse, but have you heard it lately...in its context? It comes from Psalm 46 and it carries some pretty good advice for us in our current world.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea... Psalm 46:1,2

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall... Psalm 46:6

Boy, does that sound current or what? But right in the middle of it all God calls us to something - "Be still and know that I am God..." In the midst of the craziness. In the middle of a bad economy. In spite of what the newscasts say. God reminds us to be quiet, to still ourselves. And in the quiet, we'll know him.

So today, why not turn off the 24 hour news channel. Stay away from the news websites. Do a "news fast" and quiet your soul. Read Psalm 46 and know God.

Weekend Rewind

• Great weekend! This was a message I was really passionate about because I’ve been living it out over the last 3 years. My prayer is that it was helpful and gave hope and direction to some who are really hurting right now. And for those who aren’t hurting? File it away. Like Jesus said, trouble WILL come.

• Saturday night we tried a couple of things that just didn’t work. Not sure why, but they just didn’t work. So-o-o, we made some changes for the two Sunday services, which means everyone on our programming and tech teams had to be F-L-E-X-I-B-L-E!! AND THEY WERE!! Everyone worked through the changes with a positive attitude and everything worked out great. It’s great to work with such a great group of volunteers and staff!

• Launched our first ever Christmas Offering this weekend. If you didn’t get an info pack, be sure to pick one up next weekend to see what we’re attempting to do this Christmas. Then start praying about what God would have you do to give sacrificially this Christmas to help us depopulate hell both here and around the world.

• Speaking of Christmas, make sure to be with us for our new Christmas series in December, Have Yourself a MESSY Little Christmas. And make plans now to be in one of our two Christmas Eve services.

• And even though I’m excited about our Christmas plans, I’m not excited about Christmas music yet! This past week I heard Christmas music for the first time. Let me be clear on this – IT’S TOO EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!

• One final thought before I cash in for the evening: I want to say a big thank you to my fellow NHC’ers. Thank you for letting me share the story of my family and what we’re learning through our loss. Thank you for letting me be real. Thank you for letting me preach from my heart like I did this weekend. Thank you for praying for us and for loving us. Susan and I love you all very much.

Hope At NHC

This past weekend was awesome at NHC – we baptized 75 people! I think baptism weekends are some of the coolest weekends we have!

But I can’t wait for this weekend. I’ve spent most of the day today working on the final details for my message this weekend and I’m praying that God is going to do something awesome again!

So many folks are just flat-out hurting right now – financially, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. People are consumed with fear and hunkering down. But we have something to that you can’t find on Wall Street or even in the latest government bailout – HOPE!! I believe this Sunday could be one of the most hope-filled days we’ve seen, and I believe it has the potential to lead tons of people to the cross of Jesus Christ!

So, PRAY! Pray for people to come…pray that God will draw people to himself…pray for a move of God in this place. Then get on the phone and invite someone you that you know is hurting right now…get here and fill the front…let’s worship and sing our lungs out…let’s ask God to do something awesome again!

When Life Hurts

Why Am I Here?

God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display His supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.  The wasted life is the life without this passion.  God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of Him in every part of our lives.  [Our challenge] is to live and die boasting in the Cross of Christ and making the glory of God [our] singular passion.   - John Piper -

I'm here to bring glory to God!

Not Sure What To Say

Just make sure you watch the whole thing...

Weekend Rewind

It's Monday morning and I'm wiped...but...

• WE BAPTIZED 75 THIS WEEKEND! If I'm right (and there's always good chance I'm not), I think that means since we began our initiative to double the size of our church in 2 years we've now baptized 259! Unbelievable!!

• Lots of cool stories from this weekend. Here's one - I talked to a woman who was a guest at NHC for the first time, and got baptized! She told me it just felt like a new life was beginning for her. Plus, I know of several folks who committed their lives to Christ this weekend and then got baptized on the spot. Yeah God!

• I hope this never gets old for us, NHC!

• Jon stepped out from behind the drums to lead worship for us this weekend and did a GREAT job. And Felicia knocked I'm Alive out of the park! I love it when our NHC'ers step up to the plate.

• Spent some time in all the services talking about and praying for our next series, When Life Hurts. This is a last minute sermon planning change, but I'm REALLY looking forward to it. I have a sixth sense that this one is going to be really powerful and encouraging. INVTE YOUR FRIENDS!!

• Susan, Arianna and I went to our new Community Group last night, and it was great. As most of you know, we're spent a lot of time over the last 3 years in and out of grief support groups, so that has been our only small group experience. It was very helpful and the right thing for us to do, but it's time for something different for us. As we sat around the room last night and told our various stories, it became obvious that God had brought our group together in a very powerful way. I'm looking forward to seeing how God uses our group.

• All that being said, if you're not in a Community Group - YOU HAVEN'T FOUND YOUR CHURCH UNTIL YOU'VE FOUND YOUR GROUP!

• That's all for now. My brain is fried...my body aches...I'm really thankful for what God is doing...and I'm out

Ready For A Party?

That's what Baptism weekends are at NHC! This weekend we'll be focusing on one of the most important Next Steps that we take in following Jesus, and I can't wait! I love preaching about baptism and I love seeing the faces of those who get dunked for Jesus. Talk about fun...

So, let me ask you a question: Have you been Biblically baptized since committing your life to Jesus? If not, NOW'S THE TIME!  To register, call Rob and 471-6443 or email him at rob@newhorizonchurch.tv. And if you've already been baptized, be sure to join us for all the fun. You don't want to miss it!

Baptism Pt. 3

How should we be baptized?

As we've been saying in these posts (here & here), this is a topic that gets a lot of Christians ticked off. Churches have argued about baptism for years and this third question is the one that usually ticks them off the most. How should it be done?

If you were to ask folks from different church backgrounds, you'd get all kinds of answers. Some say you should be dunked...others say sprinkling will suffice...some churches teach that you should be dunked 3 times - one for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - still others say you should be baptized in Jesus' name only.

Just so you know, here's what we believe and practice at NHC: we believe the Biblical method is immersion. We're going to dunk you! Why? Not because that's what our mommas taught us...not because of some denominational mandate...not because of some church tradition. We do it that way because that's what we find in the Bible.

• The word baptize comes from the Greek word "baptizo" which means - to dip, to dunk, to immerse, to dip under. It was a common word in Biblical times and the people of New Testament days would never have thought of "baptizo-ing" someone by sprinkling them. In fact, the practice of sprinkling didn't occur until about 1300 years after the beginning of the church!

• Another reason we believe in immersion is because that's what Jesus did. Matthew 3:16 says that after Jesus was baptized he "came up out of the water." To come up out of something you have to go down into it. Jesus' example was immersion.

• The New Testament church practiced baptism by immersion. Here's an example: Acts 8:38,39.  And here's the real kicker - there's not a single example of anyone in the New Testament being sprinkled, spritzed or squirted or anything other than being dunked.

When it comes to baptism we believe the how question is settled.

So let's wrap this little discussion up with one final question - what are you going to do? This coming weekend you can take care of the baptism thing once and for all. If you need to follow Jesus in baptism you can email Rob at rob@newhorizonchurch.tv. He'll get  you hooked up and ready to go!