For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:10-12

The launch service for New Day Charleston was amazing!!! It’s so exciting to be a part of something so life changing!! I can’t even begin to tell you how stirred up and excited I am about what God’s doing with New Day! And I just wanted to share what I saw during worship. …

Sunday morning I felt this incredible stirring inside of just how impacting one person can be to another, and how impacting we can be together in the kingdom! It’s easy to fall into that place of “this is what I do on a Sunday morning(fill in your normal job/tasks here), or just the simple routine of life stuff”, and not  realize how much of a difference we can make. I sat in service looking around and saw 3 different families that I thought were new families, or at least that I hadn’t seen before. I thought to myself, “What were the chances of them coming that first day, and not coming back? Where would they go next? How many churches would they visit until they found the right fit and connected with people enough to stay and make that place their new home? What if this was the day that they decided would be their last try to find a church, and they left feeling like they were just done?” 

OR… What if I took 2 minutes to say hi and strike up a conversation, or go up front during ministry time to pray for someone, or even just take 10 seconds to tell that person that I don’t know to have a great week, and that we hope to see them back again next week? What if that one thing that I did was something that could help a person decide to come back to church? Not even just to New Day (even though it really is the best place they could go!), but any church?!

Because the world is hungry to be loved, and we have a church full of people ready to love. What would happen if we really engaged with how much purpose we actually have in those moments, how much could we change a life, or the world?

I left church feeling so stirred up about our “purpose”…not just the bigger purpose of life, but my purpose of each day. My purpose each day is to really engage with each moment as much as I can, and realize how much God can really use me to make a difference.          

Fast forward to the downtown service……

During worship I saw this picture of Charleston.  I also saw New Day placed right in the middle of it. Then I saw the ground splitting open all around the church, and the cracks of the ground spreading all throughout the city. I saw a large map, with Waynesville highlighted, and saw the same thing happening. The ground was breaking all around, and those cracks were spreading out over the city. I saw New Day Knightsville and Kalamazoo and Vandalia, and then all the way to London with the same thing — the ground breaking and those cracks spreading out over the land. Those cracks continued to spread and began to touch each other from one New Day location to another.

Other specific places were highlighted as well and I saw ground break there too – other church plants coming soon!!!  Couple that with what I was feeling in the morning about our impact in the kingdom!   Wow!!

With everything we are doing in the church, with everything God is doing through our churches, the ground is breaking! And up through those little cracks in the ground are coming little sprouts to bring the big harvest! I felt like the Lord was saying over and over again that ground is breaking, ground IS breaking!

I wanted to share this with you because as much as I need a new and fresh picture of what He is doing, I think it’s good for all of us to not get stagnant, tired, worn out, stressed, lose focus, or whatever it is…but to be refreshed in what He is doing.

WE ARE BREAKING GROUND…..AND WE ARE CHANGING THIS WORLD!!!!

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Kathi Richardson and her husband Mike are very active at New Day Community Church.  They have served in various ministry positions and have recently taken on leading our Fusion Group which manages the hospitality area of church.  They have 2 beautiful girls, Abbi and Grace and one rambunctious, amazing boy, Joshua.