For starters, Sam Maynes, Largent Rape, and Ryan Stephens came over from RCC Lewiston and rocked it. Our very own Kelly Indreland played drums with them and I’ve never heard him play so well. It was hot!
The presence of God was thick tonight. For us, these have been somewhat rare times, but becoming more common. I’ll never take these moments for granted.
They introduced 4 new songs tonight. 3 of them were written by the guys from Lewiston. Serious anointing on those guys for music.
I preached on the topic of Salvation tonight. Big topic, but I narrowed it down to these few things: Most of us have settled for something less than what God has intended. If we would collectively believe the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we would see our city transformed.
I loved to see the Spirit flow the way He did tonight. We had some ministry time after the sermon and James laid hands on people and imparted the gift of faith. I’m believing for greater faith for all of us who were prayed for.
I just love River City Church. I love the people. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want anything to change. But there’s another part of me that knows we are called to reach Missoula with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh the tension. But not really. We must grow because we must reach those who are far from God. We must do whatever it takes.
We’ve been traveling like crazy this summer. It’s been fun spending so much time with the family, but I’m getting burned out on being gone so much. Leaving for Seattle this week for 3 days, then hunting begins on Sep 4th. Gonna be gone a little more it looks like!
First of all, the sermon on Aug 8th was on breakthrough. Each of us needs a breakthrough in our lives. It’s worth a listen. Click here.
We started a series called “Really Big Words”. The concept is this: the Christian faith is made up of a bunch of big words that describe essential doctrine that we subscribe to. I’m going to break it down into really simple, LIFE CHANGING sermons. Seriously, you don’t want to miss them.
We took a little vacation over in the Puget Sound area for a week or so and actually took a Sunday off! We only do that once a year, but it’s probably good for us. Eric preached and did a great job. Direction, not intention, determines your destination. Have a listen!
What a crazy Sunday! Our drummer had a death in the family so he couldn’t make it. We asked another guy to fill in at the last minute but he hadn’t drummed in quite a few years. He made it to rehearsal and was doing pretty well. But then he had to go and pick up his family and come back.
It was 10 min after the service was supposed to start and he still wasn’t back so I gave him a call. Turns out he was running late, and having 2nd thoughts.
So, we completely changed it up. I switched from electric guitar to acoustic guitar and vocals. Eric changed from acoustic guitar to drums. Jamie thought I was going to lead as well, but I made her lead. I’m not too confident on vocals. Every time I could hear my voice in the monitors I backed off the mike. Then Alex, the sound guy, would turn up my mike. Then I would back off even more.
It was actually hilarious. Eric did awesome on the drums, Jamie rocked leading, and I just tried to keep it all together the best I could!
Here’s the ironic part: the sermon was on Unstoppable Worship. The premise was that worship is not just about music. In fact, it has much less to do with music than we think.
Music is just one small part of our worship. Worship is a lifestyle, not a music style. But it’s amazing how nit picky we can all get when it comes to the music in church.
I think it’s worth a listen. Funny thing is, the microphone made me sound like I was talking with a lisp or something. Gotta just love technology!
We launched the One Prayer campaign this week! I love what Craig Groeschel has done with this.
Basic premise is this: Jesus prayed in John 17:20-24 that his church would be one. What if churches around the world united together, shared resources, and gave generously? That is what One Prayer is about!
The theme this year is “Unstoppable”. This week we heard from Steven Furtick from Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.
His sermon was “Unstoppable Power”. We are to be the power of God through Christ. We are conduits for His power.
Each of us has been given gifts to serve others and glorify God.
Many of us have often said, “If only I had a million dollars, I would give so much away to charity!”. The fact is, if we aren’t generous now, we won’t be generous if we become rich.
We need to think “inside the box”. In other words, what do we have right now that we can use for the Kingdom of God? Stop wishing for things we don’t have, and start using what God has already given you!
God has already given us everything we need to do great things! Stop focusing on what you don’t have.
Steven’s analogy of the bunt in baseball was one of the best I’ve ever heard.
If you want to listen to his message, I would encourage you to go to http://2010.oneprayer.com and register, and listen to his message.
Next week is Craig Groeschel’s message, “Unstoppable Courage”.
River City Sunday on the Lochsa was a huge success! In case you didn’t know, we canceled church as usual and instead we went up camping on the Lochsa River in Idaho.
We had 61 people either camp with us or come up for the service. That’s more people than we had each of the last several weeks!
Maybe we need to think about how we do church for the rest of this summer. Rumor has it we may be doing church outside at least once a month! Rumor also has it that we might be resurrecting communion meals on those days as well!
We had a great time camping with everyone even though it rained every night. At least Sat and Sun were nice.
We pulled off the 1st pig roast in the new smoker trailer. It turned out perfect! Couldn’t have asked for a better maiden voyage. Can’t wait to fire it up for 4th of July and tailgates this fall.
We did the service in an amphitheater at the campground. Couldn’t have been a better place to worship our Creator.
We did an acoustic worship set with guitars and drums.
Kevin Beeson came up from RCC Lewiston and brought a great message on the balance between sitting and waiting, and getting up and going.
We’ve got to know when to sit and wait on the Lord, and we’ve got to know when it’s time to get ‘er done!
The analogy he used was that the 2 greatest commandments are to love God (sitting and waiting on God), and to love your neighbor (getting up and going to serve people).
We actually had some visitors at the service and also camping with us. We even had 2 strangers show up for the service! Good stuff!
The last 6 weeks have been AMAZING!!! River City Church hasn’t grown this much (spiritually speaking) since we launched.
God has been using worship, prayer, preaching, and LifeGroups to bring about this change. I really feel that we’re on the right track.
God has been changing lives like we’ve never seen before. Individuals, relationships, and marriages restored.
I am going to miss the Fallen sermon series. The Book of Galatians has been life changing. Did I already mention that?
I preached for over an hour last night on sowing grace into our relationships. The bottom line is that the way we sow grace into others is through forgiveness.
The best way to work through forgiveness is first to take the plank out of our own eye so that we can see clearly.
Then and only then can we humbly approach others regarding forgiveness.
Too much to explain here. You better just have a listen below: