Dave Bowman

Fill The Front

Last week I posted about a new initiative I'm starting - FILL THE FRONT! Well, some of you tried it last Sunday and when you got down front you found a little something extra on the front 2 rows! It was just my little way of saying, "Thanks!" for helping us take our worship atmosphere to another level at NHC.

And you made a real difference! The worship atmosphere last Sunday felt like a celebration and you helped us do it! All week long I've heard reports of guests saying things like, "I've never experienced anything like that...I didn't know a church like this existed...I've got to come back and see more of this..."

So, will you do it again this Sunday? FILL THE FRONT and bring your Bible, clap your hands, sing, worship Jesus and let's help Gary and the band lead the rest of NHC to a whole 'nutha level!

(And you just might find something in your chair again this weekend!)

Get Specific

What are you praying for? If I saw you in the lobby at NHC this weekend could you tell me what's on your prayer list? One of the things God has been doing in my personal prayer lately is challenging me to get more specific. So I have a pretty specific prayer list right now. It's filled with numbers, dreams and some things that are so big only God can do them. But they all have a common denominator - they're specific.

And here's the really cool thing about getting specific: when you ask specifically God answers specifically. This week I've gone back a few pages in my Molekskin and written "answered" next to my prayer lists. One of those things was really big...a really important answer to prayer and I knew it was an answer to prayer because I had prayed specifically and God answered so specifically.

So what are you praying for? Have you gotten specific with God?

100% of the prayers you never pray will get answered.

Stop/Start

Last week at our staff off-site we did a little exercise where we identified some things we each needed to stop doing and start doing. It's really pretty simple. We all have a tendency to pile up a bunch of things that we think are necessary for us to do and it keeps us from doing the things we really need to be doing. So every once in a while we all need to put together a stop/start list - what are the things I need to stop doing and what are the things I need to start doing.

As a leader I've had to realize that you come to choke points where if you don't make some decisions to strategically let go of something you become the bottleneck that slows the organization down. Over the last several months God has been telling me to let go of some things and trust my staff more and let them do what I know in my heart they can do - LEAD!  So we've been making some shifts behind the scenes that would enable them to do more of the things they do best so I can do more of what I need to be doing.

Today I sat in staff  meeting and listened to some of the decisions our team is making and I was so proud of them! They're making decisions that will enable us to reach more people. They're making decisions that will enable us to create better environments for people to encounter God and engage in community. They're making decisions that will raise the bar on excellence in our ministries to a whole different level. And they made many of those decisions without me!

But you know what? It felt good! It felt REAL good to sit there and not have to worry about those decisions. It felt real good to know that I could walk out of that staff meeting today and concentrate on hearing God for our next sermon series (which, by the way, is going to be an incredible series that is going to help lots of people in a big way...more on that later). It felt real good to stop doing those things so I could start doing what God wants ME to do.

So, what do  you need to stop/start? Take a minute and make yourself a "not-to-do-list" and then just see how God frees you up to be who he really wants you to be!

Sunday Follow-up on Monday

I'm still feeling the results of yesterday at NHC (I mean literally feeling it...I feel like I've been in a fight!). I was too whipped last night to say much about dunk'd, so I wanted to follow-up with a few thoughts.

There are so many cool things that happen whenever we do a baptism celebration like yesterday. Whole families get baptized together...husbands and wives get baptized together...we had an engaged couple get baptized together yesterday...in the first service there was a father and son who were spontaneously baptized together...one woman had her sister, daughter and husband all get dunk'd yesterday (read about it here)...and I'm sure there are lots of other stories we don't know about yet.

So, you want to know what the vision of NHC looks like? It looks like yesterday! I can't think of a better way to show off what we pray for...what we believe God for...what we're asking for...what we're working for. It just doesn't get any better than that!

I'll second what Jamie says in his post today - WhooooHoooo! (Sounds like a Ric Flair moment!)

61

61

61 people took their next step in following Jesus today and got baptized at NHC! Some of them crossed the line of faith, got saved and got baptized right on the spot! Quite a story, huh?

But here's the story behind the story. Many of them were invited by a regular NHC'er. Many of them were wall people. (One NHC'er told me two of her wall people came today for the first time and got baptized!) Someone prayed for them...invited them...sometimes more than once...in order to make sure they could have an opportunity to encounter God.

That's who we are. That's what we do.

Thank you, NHC'ers, for another great day of seeing people encounter the amazing, immeasurable, unconditional love of God!

I'll post some more tomorrow, but that's all for tonight. I'm spiritually energized but physically whipped!!

Fill The Front

OK, faithful blog readers. I've told you from the beginning of this blog that I would let you in on things before everyone else, so here's something I'm asking you to do before I ask anyone else. FILL THE FRONT!

Here's the deal - Gary and the NHC worship team does a great job of leading us in worship every Sunday. But we are at a size now where we need more than just Gary and the band to lead NHC in worship. So I'm asking all our members and committed attenders and serving team members to sit in the front of the auditorium every Sunday and be worship leaders too. When we fill the front it creates excitement and a spirit of worship that is infectious and will help lead the rest of the church in worship.

So I'm inviting all Community Group attenders, all Serving Team members and all my loyal blog readers to make an effort to FILL THE FRONT every Sunday at NHC. Bring your Bible...clap your hands...sing...and help us take our Sunday worship to a new level!

And there's no better time to start than this Sunday for our baptism celebration! See 'ya down front!!

Things I'm Praying For

God has really been rocking my world about prayer lately, challenging me to more prayer in my life. This has been going on for a few weeks now, but it has intensified over the last couple of days. This morning in my quiet time I was reading my scheduled Bible passage in Luke. It never ceases to amaze me how a scheduled Bible reading that I had not planned can be so on target with what's going on in my life. Luke 6:12,13 is about how Jesus prayed all night before making the crucial selection of the 12 apostles.

I don't have any idea how many times I've read this passage. It's nothing new to me but it did pop up in my reading radar at a time when I'm facing some critical decisions. It's like God was just giving me a little kick in the pants again about prayer. It's like he's saying, "Boy, you'd better make sure you talk to me before you make those decisions!"

So if you'd like to join me in prayer, here are some things I'm praying for:

• WISDOM!! Boy do I ever need that! James 1:5 says if I'll ask God he'll give it to me generously. Bring it, Lord!

• Our staff. We're facing some critical transitions that are going to require some of our key staff members to really step up their games in the coming months. I believe they're up to it, but I also believe they're going to need every bit of empowerment they can get from the Holy Spirit too.

• Resources for the vision. Hold onto your hats - to do what we really feel like God is telling us to do we're going to need about $200,000 ABOVE what we have budgeted for the year. Only God can do something like that.

• This next one is a crazy prayer - 400 people accepting Jesus. How did I arrive at that number? I figured what we could do on our own and then doubled it. I know it's crazy, but when we pray those crazy big prayers that require God to show up crazy things happen!

• Our serving team members. We have some radical servants around here who give their time, talents and resources to help NHC go after our mission.

Will you pray with me?

DON'T FORGET!!!

Lots of people are getting dunk'd this Sunday at NHC! If you haven't registered yet you still can. Email Melissa at melissa@encounternhc.com. She'll get you signed up and we'll get you dunk'd!!

Unsung Heroes

Today is the day to give props to the unsung heroes...the unseen staff members of NHC, our Admin. Assistants Melissa and Paula. Melissa is our main phone person as well as assisting Jamie and Adam and pretty much anyone else who needs anything. She has been with us for a while now and has proven herself to be an invaluable member of the NHC staff team. Props Melissa!

Our newest addition is Paula Price. Paula has only been with us a few months and her job mainly revolves around Leah and I. She has taken a ton of the financial work off of Leah, does my enews and the NHC enews and lots of other stuff I don't even know about. She also serves me as my assistant which means she runs interference for me and does her best to keep me on track with what I'm supposed to do next. Tough job but somebody's got to do it! Props Paula!

Melissa and Paula are truly the unsung heroes! Thanks guys!!

Baptism Redeux Pt. 3

Here's part 3 of my Greatest Hits Baptism posts. If you're not up to speed, you can get caught up here and here.

Pt. 3 - How should we be baptized?

As we've been saying in these posts, 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 Sunday you can take care of the baptism thing once and for all. If you need to follow Jesus in baptism you can email Jamie at jamie@encounternhc.com. He'll get  you hooked up and ready to go!