Dave Bowman

How The Mighty Fall

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I’m a huge Jim Collins fan. His two classic leadership books, Good To Great and Built To Last, should be required reading for any leader in any kind of organization. So when I heard that he had a new book out, I was on board to read it ASAP, which I was able to do during my summer break.

My opinion of Collins hasn’t changed a bit after reading How The Mighty Fall. This should be required reading for every leader. It’s a brilliant, compact view of the five stages of decline that an organization goes through as it fails:

Stage 1: Hubris born of success
Stage 2: Undisciplined pursuit of more
Stage 3: Denial of risk and peril
Stage 4: Grasping for salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to irrelevance or death

Whenever I read Jim Collins I’m always struck with his dedication to staying true to your core values and principles. Again, that’s probably my biggest take away from this new book. It’s the abandonment of core values because of pride, lack of discipline or some last ditch, desperate attempt at salvation that most often leads to failure.

At the end of the book Collins says, “Be willing to change tactics, but never give up your core purpose. Be willing to kill failed business ideas, even to shutter big operations you’ve been in for a long time, but never give up on the idea of building a great company. Be willing to evolve into an entirely different portfolio of activities, even to the point of zero overlap with what you do today, but never give up on the principles that define your culture. Be willing to embrace the inevitability of creative destruction, but never give up on the discipline to create your own future. Be willing to embrace loss, to endure pain, to temporarily lose freedoms, but never give up faith in the ability to prevail. Be willing to form alliances with former adversaries, to accept necessary compromise, but never—ever—give up your core values.”

It's On Like Donkey Kong

As of this week I'm back in the saddle and getting ready to kick off our new FAQ's series this coming weekend. This is going to be a great summer series because YOU helped create it! Over the last few weeks we've asked you what questions you would like for us to try to answer from the Bible during the month of July. Then we put those questions together with the most frequently asked questions we get around here and we've come up with 4 really big issues to deal with. (Just for the record, we don't know what happened to John and Sherry and we won't be answering that question!)

And it's July 4th weekend so we're jumping in with a "firecracker" question that has been asked in a lot of different ways - Can I Lose My Salvation? Frankly, this is one that I have personally had to figure out on my own over the years and I'm really excited about downloading this one.

So, if you know anyone who is far from God right now, or walked away from God and think they can't come back, or someone who doesn't know Jesus at all - GET THEM HERE THIS WEEKEND!  Check out the video trailer...

Another One Bites The Dust

To begin with, this is not a political statement of any kind. If you can’t read the rest of this blog post without letting your political leanings get in the way, you might as well hit the delete button right now.

So, having made the disclaimer, another one bites the dust. Another politician has admitted having an affair. There’s a part of me that almost feels like this is par for the course. It seems like nobody is immune to this whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents. It happens with all political stripes.

But it’s not just politicians. Spiritual leaders seem to do it too. We all know the high profile stories of megachurch pastors and TV evangelists who end up in the wrong bed. Recently a promising young pastor who was leading a dynamic church in Georgia went completely off the tracks, had an affair with his assistant and ended up losing his ministry and possibly his marriage and family.

Why?

Good question. And there are some answers:

• They think they won’t get caught

• They think they’re smarter than everyone else

• They feel entitled

• They’re thrill seekers who need an adrenaline rush

• Their own marriage has broken down

Those are all valid reasons, but last night I was listening to a psychiatrist on TV who was trying to explain why these things happen. He gave the biggest reason of all. He said, “This is part of the human condition.” And then he said something that caught my attention: “Every week I see all kinds of people in my office who have done the same thing. It’s not just the politicians. Anyone can do this.”

Including me…or you…no matter who you are – politician…pastor…doctor…truck driver…salesperson…husband…wife…

Bottom line, we all have a sinful nature and we’re all capable of anything given the right set of circumstances. 

“…sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Genesis 4:7

FAQ's

Questions, questions, questions. Everybody has them. So where do you go for answers? How about the Bible!

That's where we're turning in July with our new series, FAQ's. Starting the first weekend of July we'll be attempting to answer 4 of the most frequently asked questions we get here at New Horizon. The good news is the answers won't be someone's opinion, they'll come straight from the Bible.

So, plan to be with us in July. And in the meantime, do you have a question? Ask it here. And don't worry, it's completely anonymous!

I'm Back...

So where have I been? I've been on a self-imposed blog/Twitter sabbatical. Frankly, I've been feeling a little bored with the whole blogosphere/Twitter thing. It had all begun to sound like a lot of blah...blah...blah to me. (As I'm re-engaging, I'm finding a lot of it still sounds that way!)

So here's my new blog philosophy: I'm not going to post anything unless I have something to say. I've always seen my blog as a way to communicate first and foremost with those who love and attend NHC. So, I'll continue to post about what's happening in and around our church. I'll continue the Weekend Rewinds but they probably won't show up until Monday.  I'll also continue to give you updates on what's coming up. I'll also occasionally post some things about my family and personal life, along with some updates on books, movies and music that I find interesting. But here's the deal - I refuse to read anymore boring blog posts and I'm going to do my best not to bore you with meaningless junk either.

Weekend Rewind

• It's Monday and I'm sitting on my deck relaxing after hitting some balls at the driving range and thinking back to yesterday at NHC. If you missed it, you missed another exciting baptism celebration. 77 people went deep yesterday for Jesus!

• Whole families got baptized together yesterday. Married couples got baptized together. Kids got baptized as well as students. It was so cool to hear the kids and students and small groups cheering on their own as they got dunked. Reminds me of what the church is - one big community of believers!

• Preached about as simply as I know how yesterday about baptism. Baptism is one of those subjects that the church has done a very good job of making into a confused mess. I'm convinced that the message of Jesus is a pretty simple message and that most people just want to know what to do and if we'll talk about it with simplicity many will step up and do what Jesus asked  us to do.

• Heard lots of life change stories yesterday too. That's always an awesome thing. Sometimes as a pastor I'm the last one to hear the stories. It's good to know that what we're doing is having an impact on lives.

• I love that NHC is a church where people's lives are being changed! I love that we're a church where "perfect people aren't allowed." I love the fact that everybody's welcome and that we're a community of people just trying to follow Jesus. This weekend 77 more people took another step in following him. Today I'm celebrating it

Baptism Celebration

This weekend is one of the most exciting weekends we'll have this year - Baptism!! If you haven't been baptized since entering into a relationship with Jesus, this is your opportunity. Take the step of obedience and go deep! To pre-register email Rob here and we'll get you signed up!

Go Deep!

This coming weekend is Baptism weekend at NHC! Here are some reasons to Go Deep and get baptized this weekend:

• Jesus was baptized

• Jesus commanded his followers to be baptized

• On the day the New Testament Church started they had a REALLY BIG BAPTISM (3000+)!!

• Baptism is the Bible way of saying, "I'm on Jesus' team!"

• Baptism unifies the Church by reminding us that we all enter the Church through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ

• Baptism helps give us assurance of our born again experience

• Baptism is a celebration of new life in Christ for the church family

• Baptism reminds us that in Christ all of our sins have been washed away

• Baptism is a way for us to see that life change is happening

• Baptism reminds us that anyone can be saved

• Baptism is all about Jesus...we're all about Jesus at New Horizon!!

If you want to be baptized, you can still sign up. Call the church office at 471-6443 or drop us an email here.

Weekend Rewind

• This weekend we wrapped up the So You're Dead....Now What? series. This was a simple series, but it turned out to be very powerful and effective. Lots of people got their eternal destiny re-routed during this series!

• Met a 20-someting guy who came to NHC for the first time Sunday and got saved. He was invited by his friend who came for the first time 2 weeks ago and got saved. Now that's a pattern that needs to be repeated lots around here!

• The music set was incredible. Revelation Song is one of those very special worship songs and Yvette did an awesome job on it today. And Jon brought it with Mercy at the end of the message.

• We quickly sold out of the Heaven booklets in The Source. Sorry! We'll order more! I would also recommend the full version of the same name, Heaven.  Randy Alcorn does a superb job of unpacking literally everything the Bible has to say about heaven. 

• Heard we had some new volunteers starting this weekend in NHC Kids, including some new GUYS! It's great to see guys getting involved in kid's ministry. Way too often in churches there's an attitude that kid's ministry is "women's work." NOT AT NEW HORIZON!! We believe our guys should be involved in kid's ministry too. Why? Because our kids need to see men who are involved in their church. Some of our kids have no solid male influence in their lives, especially in spiritual matters, and for some of them the only male spiritual influence they will ever get is at church. So, for all you guys who are stepping up in NHC KIDS - WAY TO GO!!

• That goes for Student Ministry too!!

• And while I'm at it - PROPS TO ALL OF OUR NHC VOLUNTEERS!! I was thinking the other day about what it used to be like to pull off a Sunday service. There was a day when I led the music, programmed the video, helped set up in the school, led the service, preached the service, helped tear down and pack up and then next week did it all over again. Today we have so many awesome volunteers that do things so much better than I ever could have. It's awesome to do this thing TOGETHER every weekend. I love you guys!

• BAPTISM NEXT WEEKEND AT NEW HORIZON!! This is one of the most exciting days we have during the year. I'll blog a little more about it later this week, but if  you haven't been baptized since making a commitment to follow Jesus Christ - NOW IS THE TIME! You can still register by calling the office at 471-6443. DO IT NOW!!