The intended audience for this post is my family at New Passion Church; all others are more than welcome to read.
The death of Robin Williams has brought mental illness and substance abuse to the forefront of a worldwide discussion. I posted the other day that if the church really cares about broken and hurting people, they have to be willing to enter this discussion. To their credit, there are many churches that are already involved with these issues. As I thought over the last couple of days, the church, as a whole, needs to do more than enter the discussion and have even more conversations. The church is great about ‘talking’ but our track record for ‘acting’ on our many discussions and meetings is not always up to par. Over our first four years of ministry, we have talked a lot about these things, but other than preaching sermons and trying to love everyone who walks through our doors, we’ve done very little to put actions behind our messages within our local community.
So, for New Passion, it’s time that we not enter the conversation, but rather we engage these issues. We can’t help people we’re not sharing life with and we cannot expect to sit back and have the broken and the hurting come to us, we have to be willing to enter their world, go to them and offer hope and healing.
New Passion’s population is diverse. We have more people who have either overcome addictions, or are still 
struggling through them, than we do people who have had lifelong sobriety. We have more people who have suffered with and experienced some type of mental illness, than we do people who have a clean bill of mental health. Many of you have experienced broken marriages, abandonment, and major set backs in life. New Passion is truly made up of people who know they have hurts, habits and hang-ups. Sermons on Sunday provide the truth of the gospel, but lectures from a stage alone do not fix our problems. Community groups are great ways for us to grow in our faith, to develop deeper relationships with other people and with God, but they are not always designed to fix broken homes, address mental illness and substance abuse, or other specific issues that people all throughout our community face. For four years we have poured most of our energy into the Sunday morning service and Community Groups, but now, as we step over the five year mark, it’s time for us to go to the next level in how we care for our community.
We have an opportunity to lease or purchase a vacant clubhouse in a large Grovetown subdivision. The clubhouse is 2,200 sq. ft., has a pool and kitchen, and sits on 7 acres of property. We are not in a position where it would be wise to purchase this property and clubhouse, but we definitely could lease it, with the help of our people. The property owner is asking $1,200 per month for a lease.
This clubhouse would provide our church a place that we could use outside of Sunday to engage some of the specific needs of the people in our community. This would not suit us for Sunday mornings, but would provide a perfect environment for us to do things like….
Celebrate Recovery: This ministry is a Christian based recovery group that specifically engages people suffering with addictions, alcoholism, mental illness, food addictions, sexual addictions and a wide range of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Celebrate Recovery WILL be a primary ministry of New Passion, how soon we start it will depend on whether or not we are all willing to support it.
PassionStudents: Our weekly student gathering will be restarting the second week of September. As soon as we start, we’ll already be busting out of our house. This is a great problem, but we’ll be limited with how many more students we can reach. The clubhouse would provide a larger environment for our weekly gathering with plenty of room to grow!
Community & Neighborhood Events: The clubhouse and surrounding property would provide a perfect environment for events like Movie on the Lawn, NPC’s annual Halloween Event, Community-wide Mega Easter Egg Hunt, and Summer outreach programs for children and youth, plus so much more!
Food Ministry: The poor and needy are often overshadowed by the rooftops of the new homes being built in our area, but the economy is still tough for many, unemployment is still high and we have been called to care for the least of these. This clubhouse would provide a perfect monthly service station to provide affordable meal kits for families in need. There would also be a potential for a food pantry.
Church Family Days: Did I mention it has a pool? The clubhouse would provide the perfect opportunity for our church family to gather around the pool and a hot grill as we grow deeper in our relationship with each other and with the guests that we bring to enjoy the fun. No need to set-up a portable baptistry, we can just baptize at the pool. Flag Football games, Volleyball, Ultimate Frisbee, and so many other opportunities to connect and have fun together would be available to us. We would no longer have to rent a space for church Christmas parties and other gatherings, we would have a place we could use at our discretion.
It’s time, we step further inside our community to be where the people are and to offer ministries that will provide them hope and healing. This is who the church is called to be and what we are called to do. This will cost financially. We are not bringing in $1,200 extra per month to agree to this lease. If we agree to lease this building, I would like to raise a full year’s lease up front, plus the extra it will take to get the clubhouse ready (tables, chairs, etc.). Our goal would be to raise $25,000. At the very least, to move forward, we would ask for pledges above our normal monthly giving to show that our people are going to help fund this ministry endeavor. Here are a few ideas of how we can make it happen:
Simply Give: If you don’t give anything, start giving something. If you give only a little, give a little more. If you’re already faithfully tithing, but God has blessed you, can you give sacrificially above your normal giving?
Special Services to the Community: Ideas have already been tossed out for 1) “Date Nights” which would allow couples to drop their children off, pay a set fee for babysitting services, while they go on a date. The fee would cover babysitters, dinner for children, and funds for the building. 2) It can be rented out for wedding receptions, family reunions, birthdays, and other gatherings where people need a large meeting space and kitchen. Just to name a few…..
Special Fundraisers: Ideas have already been tossed out for 1) Community Softball Tournament. 2) Raffles, among other ideas that may be shared.
Single Gift: Of course, if you have the extra money, you believe in this call to care for all people in our community and you are dedicated to leading people to a passionate relationship with Jesus, we will gladly accept your single donation to make this dream a reality.
Our goal is to set-up a tour of the clubhouse and the property within the next week or two. If you are an owner at New Passion, please stay tuned. If we feel it will be doable and we want to move forward, we will hold a vote among all of our owners around the first week of September.
If you want to go ahead and fill out an online form to pledge a specific amount above your normal giving towards this project, you can do so now. You will not be obligated to fulfill this pledge, until the church owners vote, ‘yes’ to leasing it. Your pledge will allow us to have solid numbers to present to our people, if we move forward with a vote.
New Passion, it’s time to start leading people to a passionate relationship with Jesus, by engaging these issues.