• What an amazing night tonight!
• 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.

• OK, so I’m a little behind. Where do I start?
• 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.
• First really big word is: Redemption
• Second really big word is: Justification
• These are both life changing sermons. I suggest you take a listen.
• Why do the most important tenets of the Christian faith have to be such big words?
• Next week is Salvation.

I’ve been reflecting on many of the highlights of what God has done through RCC in the last couple of years. Thought I’d just share a few with you:

·         We’ve seen numerous people make decisions to follow Jesus

·         We’ve seen 2/3 of our church getting involved in small groups

·         We’ve seen people grow enormously in their faith

·         We’ve seen marriages healed

·         We’ve baptized 15 people

·         We’ve dedicated 10 babies

·         We’ve donated over $5000 to the Missoula Food Bank, and donated an additional 2200 lbs of food to them

·         We were given a mobile home which we were able to donate to a family in need of a home

·         We dropped 20,000 plastic Easter eggs from a helicopter and watched as 5000 people participated in the 1^st Annual Missoula Egg Drop

·         We gave back the offering at Easter and watched as people all around our community were blessed by the creative generosity of RCC

·         We gave $1000 to the One Prayer initiative, which has in turn started over 1000 churches around the world in the last 2 years

·         We partnered with RCC Lewiston to raise $2400 to help provide tents to the victims of the Haiti earthquake

It’s good to take time and remember all that God has done in and through River City Church, as well as through each of the people who have been a part. I’m praying we’ll do even greater things in the next 2 years!

• Tonight was a defining moment for River City Church. One of those once in a lifetime experiences in my opinion.
• Why tonight? I don’t really know. Why was the worship so absolutely incredible? It’s hard to say.
• All I know is that Jesus showed up in a big way and we were changed forever. I think it’s just a sign that we’re on the verge of something big. Something we’ve been praying for, for quite a while.
• It feels like we’ve been climbing this mountain for a while, and it’s been non-stop vertical for quite a while. I feel like we just crested something…not the summit per se, but definitely a milestone.
• Not only was worship incredible, but the testimonies tonight were off the hook. Seriously couldn’t plan a more Spirit-filled night.
• God is at work in people’s lives. We had so many people want to share a testimony, that we had to cut it off before it got too late. I hated to do that, but we needed to get to Famous Dave’s for dinner.
• Seriously though, God is working in people, and working through RCC.
• I couldn’t be more encouraged. As usual, we recorded the mini-sermon and testimonies, but for some reason the recording sounds horrible. Not gonna post it.
• If you’re a member of RCC and haven’t been in a while, you need to get your butt down here on Sunday eves. I just don’t want you to miss out on a move of God that could change your life.
• If this is your first time reading this blog and you’re in Missoula, you need to get your butt down here so that you don’t miss out on a move of God that could change your life.
• If you’re reading this from afar, just know this: God is still on the move and working in your life. He is writing a powerful story…your story. He’s not finished with you yet. There are greater things to come.

We decided not to do our traditional evening service on the 4th. Instead we invited everyone over for a BBQ and Baptisms at our place. We had nearly 60 people show up, and 4 people were baptized! Congrats Abby, JD, Cody, and Ruth for taking the plunge for Jesus!

• 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:

• Looks like I forgot to update you on last week’s service. And this week we had trouble recording the sermon. Oh well.
• We continued through the book of Galatians. Chapter 5 this week.
• Talked about how verse 1 promises freedom through grace. But for some reason, many of us aren’t walking in true freedom.
• I believe that many have received grace, but haven’t extended it to others. That will keep us in bondage.
• Touched on unforgiveness and how that prevents from loving God and others.
• Next week we’re going to really focus on how to walk through unforgiveness. Should be life changing!

• Sorry for the short post last week. I was busy, and in a bit of a funk to be honest.
• This week is different. God is moving so big in people’s lives that it’s hard not to be excited!
• I’m reminded that if 1 person enters the Kingdom of God, that all of the angels rejoice. It’s all worth it.
• We got a new drummer this week. I put out a call on Facebook for a drummer, and one of our own, Kelly Indreland, texted me within minutes saying he used to play all the time.
• So we went to the church yesterday for a couple hours and practiced. He can drum!
• Worship went awesome tonight, except that I broke a string on the first song. Of course I’m the only one that noticed. How can that be? I didn’t even finish the first song!
• I feel like we’re in this season right now where it doesn’t even matter what our talent level is. It’s more about the heart. Even so, I think worship has moved up a notch in the last month.
• Preached on grace again. Big surprise. I think we’ve preached on that the last 4 weeks. Doesn’t get old.
• In fact, it’s causing some serious life change for people. I’ll preach it for the next 80 yrs if people’s lives are being changed. Billy Graham did it. If you listen, his message didn’t change for all the years that he preached.
• He preached Christ and Him crucified. That’s all. The greatest preacher of all time.
• Oh, btw, if you want to know the real driving force behind all the life change, that would be prayer. God is moving RCC to pray more, and it’s working.
• Here are some lyrics from David Crowder’s song, How He Loves Us:
• “When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory”
• “If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking”
• “And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss”
• The original says, “And heaven meets earth like sloppy wet kiss”. I like that better.
• “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about, the way, He loves us…”