Here is an excerpt from an upcoming article on the new Grace Brethren church-plant in the Orlando, Florida, area. To read the entire article, click here.
Pastor Kirt Henman of NewSpring Church, calls it, “a church in a box” because they unload everything they need from a trailer for their Sunday service at Lake Howell High School in Winter Park. But a better description might be a church that thinks outside the box.
NewSpring is an independent, Bible-centered Christian church that has attracted attention and followers because of random acts of kindness. On Saturdays during the summer, when gas prices were sky high, the church’s members chipped in to give drivers a 50-cent discount on every gallon of gas bought at a 7-Eleven on Red Bug Road. They also cleaned windshields and pumped gas. The media dubbed it “Gas from God.”
“We simply want to show the love of Jesus Christ in a positive way,” the pastor told a reporter at the time. “There’s no bait and switch. There’s no catch whatsoever.”
He says that NewSpring, which belongs to the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, is different from other churches in that it is a welcoming community where you don’t have to be perfect to fit in, and you don’t have to dress fancy to impress anyone.
“We’re a church with a casual and easygoing environment,” says his wife Vickie. “If you wear a suit and tie, no one’s going to think anything of it. If you want to wear flip-flops and jeans, no one’s going to think anything of that either. But we’re not compromising on the gospel.”
Adds Kirt: “I teach the Bible, I believe it is the most exciting book ever written and the most relevant. All too often it’s not taught that way. We affirm the Holy Bible as the inspired word of God and the only basis for our beliefs.”