newlifeatnewcovenant

What’s In a Name?

Rick Deason — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:17:13 +0000

What’s in a name? Everything! Think about what is communicated through names and branding in our world. Think of how much is communicated about God through the various names we find in Scripture. Names are really important

These are exciting times at New Covenant! We’ve completed Phase II of our revitalization efforts and have emerged with a clearer picture of who God wants us to be as a church. Now it’s time to let our community know all about us. One of the major ways we can communicate who we are is through our name, so…we’re looking for a new name!

We’re in the process of taking suggestions and then the leadership team will narrow the field down to just a few names. We’ll ask members of the public to give us feedback on the ideas and soon we’ll have to change the name of this blog because we’ll have a new name. Then we can start gearing up for our big roll-out.

Exciting times, indeed! Pastor Rick

Little Moves

Rick Deason — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:14:35 +0000

I often get caught up in praying for God to move in a mighty way in and around New Covenant. Don’t get me wrong…there’s nothing wrong with faith-filled, bold, audacious prayers. It’s just that sometimes it causes me to ignore the little moves. Today God reminded me of something.

In 1 Kings we read the story of Elijah getting caught up in the middle of God defeating the prophets of Baal in a mighty way. After that, it seems like Elijah was disappointed and depressed because he didn’t continue to see God work like that. God helped Elijah see that a lot of times, he chooses to work in some of the smaller and less flashy ways.

As I look back on the year that we’ve spent with our revitalization coaches I see a mighty move of God here at New Covenant…a mighty move that was made up of a lot of little moves. God’s leading as we sought to determine our values, vision and purpose. A new freedom to worship. A unity that was unknown before. A growing passion to move outside of our walls to show God’s love to our community. A person crossing the line of faith…something not seen here in several years. There is no doubt that God has been moving.

As I look around and survey the situation right now, I am excited to see what God is going to do. I can see some little moves occurring around us. Now it’s just a matter of praying that God will help us see and discern those moves and follow where God leads.

Pastor Rick

One Year Out

Rick Deason — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:35:20 +0000

As of this weekend, we’re a year out from our Revitalization Weekend with R&R Ministries. It’s been quite a year!

I thank God regularly for the way he has brought us through and for the amazing things he’s doing. He’s building a unity that was never here before. He’s opened our eyes to the open doors of ministry in Parkville. We’re regularly led into his presence in worship…

I’m so excited about what God is going to do this Christmas season through our partnership with LifeQuest Church. As we jointly minister to the underserved of the Parkville area, I believe God will bless. My prayer is that, as we show God’s love, this will be a first step toward some of these folks coming to know God’s love.

Pastor Rick

Vision vs. Revelation

Rick Deason — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:18:09 +0000

The leadership team has been in the process of coming up with a vision statement. We’ve been praying about this a lot and discussing it just as much…sometimes walking away from our meetings frustrated by it all. Maybe we’ve been trying too hard to come up with our vision.

It’s interesting that this week, after we made the most substantial progress yet, I was reminded through our small group’s study of Spiritual Leadership that vision is often a human product while revelation comes from God alone. Maybe what we really need is a revelation statement…what God has revealed and promised about the future. “The role of spiritual leaders is not to dream up dreams for God but to be the vanguard for their people in understanding God’s revelation.” (Henry & Richard Blackaby).

Here’s the exciting part…a good vision is usually something that’s attainable as well as desirable. God-given revelations are also desirable but impossible to accomplish without God. A God-sized revelation draws people to participate in it…no major recruitment efforts needed.

God is shaping the people of New Covenant in an incredible way…drawing us to himself and growing his heart within us. The day is coming very soon when God’s revelation of our future will become much more clear. Until then…

Pastor Rick

Ditches

Rick Deason — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:03:09 +0000

Heard a challenging talk from Steven Furtick at the Leadership Summit this past week. It really hit home because it was all about what we’ve been doing…digging ditches (2 Kings 3:9-25). In that story, God told the united armies of Israel, Judah and Edom to dig ditches so that he could provide water for them and their horses. God ended up using the water in those ditches to also defeat the Moabites.

We’ve been spending a lot of time over the past few months digging ditches and getting ready for what God is going to do next. The results are coming, but they’re slower than we would sometimes like. I’m convinced that there is more, and harder, digging yet to come. But, on the other side of that, God will not only give us a time of refreshing but he’ll use our preparations to bring about his victory here in Parkville.

As the water starts to trickle in, we’ll keep digging…

Pastor Rick

Patience

Rick Deason — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:41:58 +0000

Okay…so we’ve been learning a little bit about patience. About the active kind of patience that we need as we wait on God. Active in that we’re working and making preparations so that we’re ready when God does move.

The past few days, I’ve been really thankful for God’s patience with us. As a pretty task-oriented person, I’m good with all of the work we’ve been doing on values and purpose. But I’ve been reminded that all of our efforts, ingenuity, creativity, etc. will come up short every time. We’ve got to seek God’s face first and foremost.

I was so thrilled that, at our last leadership meeting, we had the freedom to slow down just a little and spend some serious time in prayer. That was what we needed…and what we continue to need. I’m glad that the team sees this need and is ready to step up and lead the Body here at New Covenant in this priority. Our efforts are nothing if God’s not in it…Unless the Lord builds the house, its builder labor in vain. Psalm 127:1.

Pastor Rick

A New Perspective and A New Purpose

Rick Deason — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:31:19 +0000

The leadership team met Monday night to finalize our values statement and ended up also coming pretty close to finalizing our new purpose statement…just a little minor tweaking on the wording is needed.

All of the values that we agreed upon came down to two basic ideas…loving God and loving people. This is why we do what we do. Makes sense because Jesus said that’s the greatest commandment. Who can argue with that?

But how do we do it? How do we make this a reality? That’s where purpose comes in. As we have been discussing this over the past couple of months, we’ve come down to three basic things that we believe God is calling us to do: know God’s love, grow in God’s love and show God’s love.

Typically, churches would think of knowing God’s love first, because we have a tendency to think of ourselves first. I want to commend our leadership team, because they are really getting it…this whole idea of thinking of others first…of being an outward-focused church. The members of the team are pretty strong in their feeling that showing God’s love needs to come first in our purpose statement. That means we’ve got to get out in our community and be the living, breathing, incarnational Body of Christ so that people can know and experience the love of God.

So, with the probability of some minor revisions yet to come, here is the new purpose statement of New Covenant Baptist Church: New Covenant Baptist Church is devoted to showing God’s love to people so they can join us in knowing God’s love and growing in God’s love. The T-shirt version is Showing, Knowing and Growing in God’s Love.

What a blessing it is to be surrounded with such a group of wise, loving and godly leaders. I believe that God is preparing to use New Covenant to make a major impact in the Parkville area. It’s time to get ready.

Pastor Rick

Amazing Journey

Rick Deason — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:55:45 +0000

What an amazing journey we are on…and what a great group of traveling companions!

Over the past two weeks the leadership team has done some hard, but great, work to clarify the values that will guide us as we move forward. We’ll be presenting them formally before the church in July, but here’s a preview: knowing God’s love, growing in God’s love and showing God’s love. Everything we do will be focused on exposing the people of Parkville and beyond to the marvelous reality of God’s love for them. We’re pretty close to having a new purpose statement, too…but you’re going to have to wait a little while for that. I am so blessed to be surrounded by this group of people who are truly seeking God’s heart and direction.

I’ve also been very moved the past few weeks as I’ve seen the “A-ha” moments during our Who Are You? series. Seeing God begin to move the truths that we are masterpieces and overcomers from people’s heads to their hearts has been such a privilege. God is absolutely moving here and I’m so glad that he’s bringing new people to be a part of this movement. He is shaping a new and beautiful masterpiece out of New Covenant as he blends everyone together in ways that we could never have imagined.

Pastor Rick

Starting Fresh

Rick Deason — Sun, 22 May 2011 00:30:29 +0000

What an amazing day God gave us! Had the opportunity to spend 7 hours with some incredible people–the NCBC leadership team plus our R & R Ministries coaches. Thanks to a local couple with a huge heart for opening up their house so that we could get away and spend some time seeking God.

God is beginning to bring clarity to our core values…the first step in understanding how he wants to use us to transform Parkville. Within the next 30 days, we should be able to publish these values.

I’m so glad that God’s not done with us! In fact, he’s giving us an opportunity to have a fresh start. The choices that we are making over the next few weeks, especially the choice to move in obedience to God, will position us to be a part of the wonderful future he has for the people of Parkville.

Pastor Rick

Looking Back, Leaping Forward

Rick Deason — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:35:00 +0000

Thanks to Dr. Gary McIntosh for the title…. And that’s what our leadership team is embarking on. This weekend we’ve got a daylong retreat focused on determining core values and vision. We’ll ge to spend some time discerning the values of the past and present iterations of New Covenant and then begin looking toward God’s preferable future for us. I’m excited about finally coming to this step in our journey! Keep us in your prayers this week.

Pastor Rick