BillSimmonsLive

The Daniel Fast

As we prepare for our church-wide 21-day fast, I wanted to share the basic guidelines for a Daniel Fast. This is based the experience of Daniel in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

SpringWell is fasting from February 1-21, 2010. Each person is asked to fast something of his or her choice. Some will be fasting food altogether, others will be fasting technology such as TV, texting, internet, or Facebook, while some will do different types of food fasts.

If you choose to do a Daniel Fast, the following will be helpful:

Foods You May Eat

• Whole Grains
  Brown Rice, Oats, Barley
• Beans
  Dried Beans, Pinto Beans, Split Peas, Lentils, Black Eyed Peas
• Fruits
  Apples, Apricots, Bananas, Blackberries, Blueberries, Boysenberries, Cantaloupe, Cherries, Cranberries, Oats, Figs, Grapefruit, Grapes, Guava, Honeydew Melon, Kiwi, Lemons, Limes, Mangoes, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pears, Pineapples, Plums, Prunes, Raisins, Raspberries, Strawberries, Tangelos, Tangerines, Watermelon
• Vegatables
  Artichokes, Asparagus, Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chili Peppers, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Garlic, Gingerroot, Kale, Leeks, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Mustard Greens, Okra, Onions, Parsley, Potatoes, Radishes, Rutabagas, Scallions, Spinach, Sprouts, Squashes, Sweet Potatoes, Tomatoes, Turnips, Watercress, Yams, Zucchini. Veggie burgers are also an option if you're not allergic to soy.
• Liquids
  Spring Water, Distilled Water, 100% All-Natural Fruit Juices, 100% All Natural Vegetable Juices. You may also drink protein drinks.
• Others
  Seeds, Nuts, Sprouts

Foods To Avoid

• Meat
• White Rice
• Fried Foods
• Caffeine
• Carbonated Beverages
• Foods Containing Preservatives or Additives
• Refined Sugar
• Sugar Substitutes
• White Flour and All Products Using It
• Margarine, Shortening, High Fat Products

 

Dominican Republic Mission Trip Announcement

 I am so excited to announce SpringWell will be going to the Dominican Republic October 16-23, 2010 for our foreign mission trip.

We will be partnering with Missionaries Danny and Denise Stone who lovely lead Restoration Ranch. The Ranch is a residential home for abandoned or orphaned children.

We will serve this awesome ministry through a number of servant-evangelism projects. These include:

· Construction Projects

· Prayer Walking

· Children’s Ministry

· And much more

The trip will be open to all those 18 years old and up.

If you are interested in being a part of our team…. Download Dominican Republic Mission Trip Packet 2010

New Orleans Mission Trip Announcement

 
I am so excited to announce SpringWell will be going to New Orleans July 18-24, 2010 for our stateside summer mission trip.

We will be partnering with several ministries to impact the lives of those still devastated by the aftermath of Katrina.

We will serve this great city through a number of servant-evangelism projects. These include:

· Children’s Ministry

· Work a Day Camp

· Music Ministry

· Construction Projects

· And much more

We will be coming alongside Vintage Church (a church plant in the heart of New Orleans) and MissionLab as our primary partners.

The trip will be open to all those 12 years old and up.

If you are interested in being a part of our team….

Download New Orleans Mission Trip Packet 2010

SpringWell Retreat

You do not want to miss SpringWell's CORE Leadership Retreat planned for January 22-23, 2010!

You can register here and save $15.00 per person. The current cost is only $60.00. The retreat is for ALL Volunteers and Leaders at SpringWell. However, ANYONE who seeks spiritual growth and is interested in developing a personalized plan is welcome to join us. Friday night will be a time of outstanding worship and a message from Scott. Saturday will include a live simulcast with John Ortberg and Dallas Willard along with a catered lunch. You also get your very own SpringWell T-shirt and registration to a new Web-based Spiritual Growth Tool. Don't forget…we are providing childcare at no cost when you request it during registration. Sign up today and spread the word!

Membership at SpringWell

It has been a great year at SpringWell. So many things have excited me. One of those things is how well our membership workshops have been. We have offered SpringWell 101 three times this year and have received 87 new members as a result. Wow!

If you haven't made the commitment to partner with SpringWell through membership, the next date will be Sunday, November 2^nd from 4:00-7:00 PM.

Staff Announcement

I am so excited to announce that SpringWell has hired Todd Carpenter as our Pastor of Connection & Discipleship. As the Pastor of Connection & Discipleship, Todd will be responsible for leading our assimilation process and discipleship strategy. Todd will lead the charge to connect people through our Home Groups, Serving Groups, and Care Groups. He will be working side by side with Tracey Daniel (Home Group Coordinator) and Dan Elmore (Care Pastor) as this team creates the best opportunities for everyone to connect at SpringWell. Our goal will be to connect every guest we can into at least one of these groups.

Todd will also take the lead in developing our discipleship ministry. This includes facilitating our SpringWell 101 through 401 membership workshops and Synergy Classes. Todd's responsibilities also include leading our Guest Service Teams each Sunday, as we do our best to create the best first impressions possible.

The Pastor of Connection & Discipleship position is a new role on our staff. Todd is "technically" replacing Dan Dather, who resigned in May. After Dan departed, we spent a lot of time redefining this position to meet the current needs of SpringWell.

Todd has been a part of SpringWell for quite some time and has stepped in a lot for Dan Dather during Synergy. We has planted a church and worked as an interim pastor in the past. He has recently served as the Director of Habitat for Humanity in Greenville. He has a military background and loves to hit the road on his bike. Todd is very organized and gets what we want this position to accomplish.

When you see Todd on Sunday, welcome him to our team.

IT'S A GREAT DAY TO BE AT SPRINGWELL!!

Volunteer Perspective

 

Since being at SpringWell, I have heard week after week, how we do not have enough volunteers to serve each Sunday in our Preschool ministry. Jennifer Eleazer does a great job recruiting but never seems to be able to fulfill all her needs. She has told me many times how she is short 50 or more volunteers in a month. Jennifer and I met two weeks ago to discuss this situation. I asked her to share what the need was and how she scheduled each month. After reviewing the schedule I determined that we don't have a volunteer problem….we have a system problem.

When Jennifer took the job, she inherited a scheduling system that requires 145 volunteers to serve each month. This encompasses all classes from infants to 5K and serves an average of 80 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers each week. We currently ask each volunteer to serve only one service a month and have 82 on our roster. Did you read that? We have 82 volunteers serving each month in our Preschool ministry of 80 children. This is off the charts! If I told all my ministry friends that we have 82 volunteers serving in our Preschool ministry, they would think we are Rock Stars. Most churches would love to have that many volunteers. Yet we think we have a volunteer problem because our schedule does not have a name in every slot. We don't have a volunteer problem….we have a system problem.

We can't take time to celebrate the great achievement of 82 volunteers because our system is working against us. So how do we fix it? Instead of asking volunteers to serve one service and month…we are asking them to serve one Sunday a month. This immediately affects how Jenifer will be able to create a monthly schedule where all the needs are met.

On Sunday, I met with about 25 volunteers from this ministry and shared the above details. It was amazing how everyone recognized that we are in a much better place than we thought. We went from being overwhelmed by how many volunteers we needed to celebrating how many we have.

The next time you see Jennifer let her know how much you appreciate what she is doing. She leads more volunteers than any area of our church and has created a safe and loving environment for our children on Sunday's.

CORE Leaders

Last night we had our first CORE Leadership Summit. We had 80 volunteers participate in this very important gathering. This was great considering it was our first one and in the middle of summer.

Why CORE? We exist as an organization because of what our volunteers accomplish. We desperately need to be intentional about how to communicate, develop, and empower our leaders. The CORE Leadership Summit will help provide the following:

Community – Bring leaders together

Organization – Keep leaders informed

Relevant – Unite leaders around our values

Empower – Release leaders with purpose

If you missed last night, I created a webcast and went over the same items from our agenda. Check out this video to catch what you missed.

Mission Trip Wrap Up

Last night I had the privilege to speak for Elliis at CCM. It was the last night for this team from Georgia. They have served all over Greenville making a difference in the lives of hurting people.

It really caused me to miss DC and all the trips we hosted when I directed The Mission. I love seeing lives changed through these type of trips.

Staff Field Trip

Today I took our staff on a field trip in place of our weekly staff meeting. Many of them had not been to the home we are remodeling for the GAIHN Project. We met up with Ellis Beddingfield and Danny Greene who are heading up the project. We had a chance to celebrate what God is doing, tour the house, and have a prayer walk on the property. We stayed about 1 hour and then went to lunch at 5 Guys. It was great to share, pray, and eat together as a staff. We really felt like a team today. Here are some pictures of the house we will remodel:

What's Your Story?

Check our this post from Skintighttransformation.

How does the story of your church impact the work you do?

How does your work impact the story of your church?

Radical Redirection

As I was praying last week, I found myself asking God to provide radical redirection in the lives of people who need Him. He answered that prayer with over 50 people having their lives radically redirected through salvation during the three Easter services at SpringWell. Our message centered on hope. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have: Hope for a New Beginning; Hope for Difficult Circumstances; and Hope for Eternity. With over 1,850 people in attendance we knew that this message would make a difference in their lives.

The weekend was incredible! I want to thank everyone who made it possible. I was blown away with the crowd on Saturday night. The Guest Services team did a great job with everything from the Security/Parking Lot Team to Greeters. Our Creative Team came through once again with outstanding music, inspirational drama, and use of technology (The preaching was pretty good too).

Next week we will continue to celebrate with two Water Baptism services. We are expecting to baptize over 50 people. You won’t want to miss it!

This past weekend has encouraged my faith. I still asking God to provide an encounter that produces a radical redirection in the lives of people who need Him. There are several people who I am calling out by name. As I look back over my life, I realize that Jesus Christ change the course of my future because I met Him in a real and experiential way. I was radically redirected.

How about you? Have you been radically redirected? Who are you praying for whose heading the wrong way in life? Do you have faith?