Tuesday, January 22, 2008

• cwows!

  Sunday was amazing! So many of you commented how clear and excited you are about our vision for a church without walls! We re-established a couple of things:
  
  

  1. The church is the people and not the buildings.
  2. In cwows, everyone plays! We're all priests.
  3. Pastors are not at the top of the food change, but the support team for the movement. You lead the way!
  4. NewSong is making a difference in other churches locally and globally. No question the fruit we're enjoying now was birthed out of pain (we took action this past year to deal with the financial shortage by cutting the budget, restructuring our team and laying off staff).
  
  But I can honestly said, this past season was a gift to us. We've turned the corner and you can feel the energy and excitement growing. Our services are getting crowded. We'll be launching one more service time in Irvine to respond to the growth and continue to develop our multi-sites in Santa ana and beyond. Btw, Houston, NYC and other cities are interested in our underground (house churches too).
  
  We're coming out with a revolutionary way for us to connect not only with one another. You'll be seeing a roll out of some pretty exciting ventures these next few months. (some of you were wondering about the recent national recognition given to NewSong this month- you can check it out at:
  http://www.tonymorganlive.com/tony_morgan_one_of_the_si/2008/01/americas-most-i.html)
  
  Also, some of you wanted the statistics I shared on Sunday, here they are:
  

  ·         If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, that is more than the one million people who will not survive this week.  - or the 27,000 children who will not survive TODAY because they will die of preventable disease.

  ·         If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

  ·         If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you have more freedom than three billion people in the world.

  ·         If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

  ·         If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

  ·         If you can read, you have more education than 2 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

  ·         If you turned on the tap this morning and drank the water without fear that is might make you sick, you are more fortunate that nearly one quarter of the world's population.

  And here's a picture of the beautiful saint I talked about on Sunday (thanks to Steve Hayner, Professor and World Vision Leader I deeply respect, for the picture, the story and the stats!):
  
  

   

  Love you all!
  Dave
  
  btw, pray for us as we go to Bangkok to commission our newest multi-site pastor, Peter Dewitt! NewSong Bangkok is rocking! Read more about it at http://live.newsong.net

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