fuego

Brandon Cotten here. Another great Sunday @ HPC! Pastor Marcus opened up October with a brand new series called ineed2change. It’s really going to be powerful and I look forward to watching God work in all of our lives during these next few weeks. 

I thought I’d throw up a quick post with the back story to what happened a couple of weeks ago when we didn’t have electricity until minutes before service.

It all began just like any other Sunday morning @ HighPoint Church… Everyone getting there crazy early to transform Maggie Cordova School into a fully functional church. 

While setting up, someone noticed a terrible bunch of noise coming out of one of the storage closets… We opened the room to find one of the breaker boxes smoking! Fantastic.

Anyway, we ended up calling the Rio Rancho Fire Department… and let me tell you — they’re intense. They showed up in full force. A few trucks and a few SUV’s full of people! It really added some spice to the set-up. 

Thanks to all our wonderful friends at RRFD. We became well acquainted. 

Here are a few shots of that Sunday. Look forward to seeing you all next week.

Equip, the move, and more…

Equip, the move, and more…

 

What a week! We spent most of last week training leaders in Argentina. It was awesome. I had a blast and we met some incredible leaders in South America who are becoming dear friends. In all – we trained 500 leaders. Pray for those guys to continue to grow, develop, and keep their focus on the Great Commission.

 

I left Argentina at 9:00 p.m. and flew overnight to make it back for the Sunday service at HighPoint. I landed in Albuquerque at 9:50 a.m. and made it to the 10:00 a.m. service in time to speak. We are in a series on worship called Life’s Greatest Aim. I thought that this past Sunday was one of our most powerful weekends and I’m praying that God’s presence will continue to show up and lead us into a more intimate walk with Christ.

 

October 5^th we will be beginning a brand new series entitled “ineedtochange”. Ed Young Jr. and our friends at Fellowship Church in the Dallas metroplex did this series a year ago with great success. We have taken that thought and we’re developing our own messages that I believe are going to be life changing. It is going to be a five week series. Make plans to not miss a single week!

 

Below are some pictures from Argentina. There should be one or two of my father and I. It was great to be able to do this training with him.

 

Thanks for all your prayers!

 

Marcus

 

Are you ready for some football?

 

This weekend is the start of College football season. I’m from Louisiana so if you know football you know who has all the bragging rights! I’m going out on a limb and predicting an 11-1 season for the Tigers this year. They will finally get to play USC in the BCS national championship game. Tell me who your team is and what you think their record is going to be. — By the way — I’m kicking off a College fooltball small group in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be fun!

Marcus

Moving

I can remember it like it was yesterday. Dad sat us all down in the living room. “We’re moving — across town.” — I remember the tons of emotion. A little fear: “Will I make friends over there? Will someone break in our house and kill me over there!” A little excitement. “Are there any pretty girls over there!!”

There is nothing like making a move. I’ve moved six times in my 11 year marriage. I have Penske on speed dial and bubble wrap under my bed. Every time you make a move it gives you something we all need from time to time — a fresh start. You get to turn over a new leaf. Live a little different. Try something new.

 

At New Life, we are about to make a huge move. As most of you know by now, we’ve been working on getting a certificate of occupancy for our building. Apparently that is necessary. Over the next six months the Atrisco location is going to be going through some renovations and New Life is going portable. — It’s going to be an adventure! It couldn’t have come at a better time. New Life has been growing through the roof this summer. There is a buzz in the air. If you were at church this morning you saw how packed the auditorium was. We’re simply running out of space anyways.

Starting September 7th we will be meeting at Maggie Cordova School off of Unser and Cabezon. We’re moving across town. I have no idea if there are any pretty girls over there, but I do know there are a lot of people who need a life-giving church. God has turned this whole situation into an opportunity for us to reach people for His glory.

Over the next three weeks we will be making some significant changes in preparation for this move.

1. We will be changing our name. That is something we’ve talked about for months now – and now is the perfect time.

2. We will be purchasing a load of portable equipment.

3. We will be training new leaders to serve in a ministry capacity.

Stay Tuned

Marcus

Nothing Particularly Important Happened Today

I’m getting to where I love days like today. Days where nothing blindsides me. No phone calls that are urgent — no crisis going on. So far — a normal day. Knock on wood.

I wonder what it was like for Jesus to have a normal day. The Gospels are a frenzy of 3 short years of ministry jam-packed into 80 chapters or so of recorded texts. I’m flipping through trying to find the day where nothing particularly important happened: We just kind of hung out. Grilled some lamb chops. Humiliated Peter in leg wrestling. Judas taught us all poker. It’s got to be in here somewhere.

Tell you what I think. I think its days like today that prepare us for days that get frenzied with problems. You get a glimpse of it in the rhythm of Jesus’ life. He waited 30 years to unleash 3 years of ministry. What’s up with that? — He was being prepared. You see it in his itinerary. Work hard — get in a boat — disconnect — and recharge. He needed those times where nothing particularly important was happening on the outside — but inside He was being renewed. — The disciples began to notice this rhythm as well. “Jesus is getting up early and going up on the mountain to pray. It’s his habit. — We need to ask him to teach us to pray sometime.” — my paraphrase of course.

Abraham Lincoln used to say: “If I had 8 hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend 6 hours sharpening my ax.”

That’s what days like today are all about. Sharpening the ax. So — here’s my suggestion to you: put some of these kinds of days into the rhythm of your life. Read a book. Take a walk. Watch a sunset. Listen to God’s voice. Talk to God from the depths of your heart. — Sharpen your ax. I guarantee you’ll need it soon.

Got to go — someone keeps calling my cell phone.

Marcus

 

Rainy Days & Mondays…

If you’re like me, when you see the clouds roll in, you can’t help but smile.

Hi, by the way. I’m Brandon Cotten. I’m the worship leader @ new life. I’ll be throwing in a couple of posts every now and then. I should probably tell you a little about myself. 

I grew up in Magnolia, AR. I’ve been serving in ministry since I was 12 years old. And here I am now, a couple of cities and a lot of years later, still loving life and ministry. I have a lovely wife, Jessica. You’ll see her scurrying around New Life on a Sunday morning, doing this and that… trying to fix my hair and straighten my shirt collar. 

Anyway, back to the rain… I love the rain. Having grown up in Arkansas, a good thunderstorm is a nice reminder of my childhood. And while Albuquerque can’t really boast as having stormy weather, it does have something pretty remarkable. 

Two weeks ago, I was driving down Ellison & I spotted something that rocked my world! A double rainbow! I’d never seen anything like it — one rainbow on top of another. I stopped in the middle of the road, pulled out my phone and snapped a shot of it. (Sorry if you were driving behind me) I’ve uploaded the photo for you all to take a look at. 

Yesterday during worship, we spoke of an awe-inspiring God. A God, through His creation, has shown us just a glimpse of His power, might, and creativity. Though it’s not the best photo (forgive the bird droppings on my windshield), it does capture a bit of the creative and awesome nature of our God.

 

Also, if you’ve ever taken a photo of this 2 rainbow phenomenon, send ‘em over to me! I’d love to see them!

Dream Team

What a night tonight! I love hanging out with leaders and future leaders. They are like gasoline to my soul. Tonight we had 44 people crammed into my little home to talk about the future on New Life Church — both immediate and distant. I’m as excited as I’ve ever been watching new people each week either come to Christ or jump into the game of serving Christ. The next six weeks are crucial for New Life == we are in the middle of a gigantic transition that will eventually put us into a new location — that will lead into doing worship services in multiple locations. God continues to equip us with new visionary leaders to carry out His plans. I can’t wait to see what September holds!

On a family note — Ashlyn got earrings and she is in heaven. I almost passed out just watching. I told her it was a pagan ritual that people were stoned for in ancient times — but she takes after her mother! Just kidding. Austin went from crawling to running. Man I miss him crawling! It took him two seconds to get into my bathroom and destroy our last roll of toilet paper. Brook is doing great as well. It’s our 11th anniversary == so I’m thinking about taking her to Cracker Barrel tomorrow night. I’m one ticket away from winning the RV from the scratch off game. I’m totally donating it to charity == so if any of you guys out there happen to come upon “cookin” — we can arrange a deal. I know people.

Have a Great Weekend,

Marcus

Growing

Let me give you a little update on how things are going:

This summer has been great. The Sunday services have been loads of fun and our volunteerism (Dream Team) has been off the chart. Last week we saw 14 new people come to Christ. What a fun Sunday!

New Life continues to grow and I know that the fall is going to be a blast. The building is filling up and we are settling on a Westside location for the fall. I can’t wait! Pray that God will continue to send us laborers to reach this city and provide for us all the equipment we’ll need to move forward.

We’re starting a new series this coming weekend: Legends. We’re going to be doing character studies of several great men and women of God. It’s going to be powerful. Make plans to attend all four weekends if you can.

Have a great week,

Marcus

Points of Passion Part II

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8 (NIV)

Jesus made it crystal clear that our influence and reach as a church must continually expand to touch people locally, nationally, and globally. At New Life we call these three areas our Points of Passion. In last week’s blog I discussed what NLC is doing globally. By the way — we will be training hundreds of pastors and business leaders in Resistincia, Argentina September 12-13. Today — I want to talk about what we are doing nationally to reach America.

1. Church Planting:

As many of you know we are in partnership with ARC (The Association of Related Churches). I believe the greatest way to reach America is through planting life-giving churches. Right now there are over 100 million unchurched people in America — and America has now become the 3rd most unreached place in the world. The ARC is a church planting organization that is starting some of the greatest churches in America today. This year alone we have partnered with ARC to plant these churches:

·     Shane & Rachael Frazier- Lebanon IN 1-13-08

·     Terry & Tracy Jimmerson- Las Vegas NV 1-20-08

·     Dominic & Nicole Suazo- Pueblo CO 1-20-08

·     Jerry & Carrie Shaffer- Geneva IL 2-24-08

·     Dan & Stephanie Stauffer- Newark NJ 3-16-08

·     Chad & Tosha Blansit- Republic MO 3-23-08

·     Josh & Jennifer Gagnon- Dover NH 3-23-08

·     Steve & Missy Crowder- Broomfield CO 3-23-08

·     Martin & April Andrews- Columbus MS 3-30-08

·     Bryan & Joy Sederwall- Arvada CO 5-4-08

I believe that these churches are going to greatly impact their communities and see people come to Christ on a weekly basis!

 

2. Church Revitalization:  

We are forming a partnership with the IPHC to help revitalize churches that are dying off each year. Most churches are either plateaued or dying in America. Thousands of churches are closing their doors every month! I’m going to be in Hartford, CT. next week to discuss our strategy to revitalize 25 dying churches within the IPHC. Pray for wisdom — we are endeavoring to both give birth and raise the dead in a number churches this year. I don’t know which will be easier. Both will take a miracle. Doesn’t it sound like fun?!

 

Have a Great Week,

Marcus

 

Points of Passion

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8 (NIV)

Jesus made it crystal clear that our influence and reach as a church must continually expand to touch people locally, nationally, and globally. 

At New Life we call these three areas our Points of Passion. In today’s blog I want to discuss what we are doing to address the global need for Christ throughout the world.

1. We are in the midst of forming a partnership with Equip: an arm of John Maxwell’s ministry to equip pastors and lay-leaders worldwide to become influential servant leaders in their community. Some of our Dream Team at New Life will become Associate Trainers of Equip and we will make a three year commitment to training leaders in Argentina twice per year. 

2. We are also forming a partnership with two other missions organizations. a. Watoto Inernational does a fabulous job of rescuing AIDS orphans in Africa. We will focus primarily on linking with their efforts in Uganda. b. YWAM is also a missions organizations that is making a huge impact in some of the hardest places in the world to evangelize. Strategic Frontiers is a branch of YWAM that we will be supporting to help rescue women and children that have been sold into the sex slave trade in SE Asia. 

We both know that the needs of humanity can become overwhelming. That’s why I believe in the power of partnership. Together we can make so much more of a difference than we could ever do alone.

I’ll keep you updated on testimonies that come from what we are partnering to do globally for God’s glory. If you are interested in taking a missions trip with New Life Church — send me over an email at — newlifemarcus@gmail.com