Dear RCC,

I want to let you know what a blessing it is to know and be a part of each and every
one of your lives. You are family to us. You are the reason that we moved to Missoula.
I don’t think it’s an accident that each of you found and became a part of River City Church. And we just love to be a part of what God is doing in and through each of you!

As the summer season approaches we realize that many will be (and already are) traveling and out of town on Sundays. That’s completely understandable and I hope
that during this time you will be refreshed and your families will be drawn closer
together. Family time is important. I know that we have many vacations already
planned, and we can’t wait to get out ourselves!

I also know how important it is to stay connected with the rest of the church. Whether
we meet on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights, it’s easy to put other things ahead of meeting with the rest of your church family to worship and celebrate all that God has
done and is doing. As important as vacation and family time is, we need to have balance.
I mean, what good is it if we are doing it at the expense of our spiritual well being and
the spiritual well being of our families?

Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to stop gathering together with other believers. Why is
that? It’s so that we can encourage one another. It’s encouraging when each of you
shows up on Sunday evening and worships together with us, and serves beside us.
On the other hand, it can be discouraging when very few people show up. It’s easy
to think that it’s not that big of a deal when you’re not at church on Sunday, that you
won’t be missed…but I would disagree. We really do miss you when you’re not there,
and we feel that it actually changes the spiritual atmosphere of our worship gatherings when a large portion of our people are gone. River City Church is still small enough
that it feels like a family. Just like you notice when one of your family members doesn’t
show up to the dinner table, your church family notices when you aren’t there on
Sunday evening!

I certainly am not trying to make you feel guilty or anything like that. If you know me
at all, or have listened to the sermons the last few weeks, you’ll know that I’m not into rules. And there are times when you just need to get away and will miss a Sunday
evening. But as your pastor, I simply care about your spiritual growth and the growth
of River City Church. I know that when people get disconnected, spiritual growth stops. I’ve seen it happen so many times. It’s just like a plant that is disconnected from it’s
roots; eventually it will wither. We don’t want to see you or your church family wither!  We want to see you thrive!

So what can we do to make sure we don’t lose momentum this summer, both
individually and as a church? Let’s stay connected! One of the reasons we moved to Sunday evenings is that we knew that people would have the option of playing all
weekend and still make it to church on Sunday. But for that to work, we have to be intentional and purposeful about showing up on Sunday eves together.

Here are a few practical things you can do to make sure Sunday evening services
remain a priority:

1) Sit down with your family and discuss the importance of being a part of your
church family. Make a commitment together to continue attending our worship
gatherings throughout the summer, even if it means cutting some weekend
getaways a little short.

2) Identify the barriers to making it to those gatherings on Sunday eves. As a
family, brainstorm ways around those barriers.  I guarantee you can find a way
if you make it a priority!

3) Get connected with a LifeGroup that will be meeting throughout the summer.
Several of them are ongoing and will be doing BBQs and other activities on a weekly
basis.

Let’s make it our challenge for the rest of this year to buck the trend of declining
church attendance during the summer.  After all, “The Church” isn’t somewhere
you go…it’s who you are and you don’t cease to “be” who you “are” because the
season changed. Let’s be the church. Let’s make gathering together a top priority.
If we do that, I believe we’ll actually gain momentum and I guarantee we will see
God use River City Church to do great things in our lives and our city! In case you’re wondering what your part is, it’s to simply show up and God will do the rest! Let’s
do this!

Blessings,

Brian

• I had a last minute thought, “I should have Darin come up and team teach with me.”
• Sucks to be Darin.
• But actually it worked out great. He filled in all the gaps. He was a natural.
• As a pastor, you always have to have Biblical backing for all your decisions. My backup for asking Darin to preach with me at the last minute was 1 Peter 3:15.
• We talked about the vision of RCC. God has called us to be a unique voice in Missoula. He’s called us to be a force for transformation.
• But if we try to be a force for transformation under our own power, then we run the risk of bringing glory to ourselves.
• In order to make God famous in Missoula, we need to be His disciples. We need to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• We need to do God things, not just good things, in Missoula.
• So, how do we grow in our spiritual walk? How do we become modern-day Jesus followers?
• Here’s what Darin and I taught: discipleship happens in a relational environment. Discipleship happens when you have intentional leaders. And discipleship happens when you have a reproducible process.
• For River City Church, this can all be summed up in LifeGroups. We love Sunday gatherings, and we love to worship with everyone at RCC. But if you want to grow spiritually, you ALSO have to be plugged into a small group. It’s where life really happens.
• Oh btw, I thought that worship was great. Not just because I was on the team either. But I think that our team really gelled last night. We’re growing in what it means to worship, and to lead RCC in worship.

• Great service last night! We had a lot of new people even though it was snowing out.
• It was Sam and Emily’s last night leading worship for a while. They’ve been so faithful and such a blessing to RCC. Be praying that they would clearly hear God’s voice regarding this next season for them.
• Looks like Eric and Jamie are going to step up and start leading again. Looking forward to a new season of worship!
• God was in the house last night! I sensed the presence of God in a way that I haven’t since we moved into the new building.
• I feel like there’s an expectation in the people, and that we’re on the verge of a move of God. Not even sure what that means, but I’m excited!
• Kicked off our new series, “Wild Goose Chase”. The Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit, “An geadh glas”, meaning the Wild Goose. They believed that living a Spirit-filled life was akin to chasing a wild goose. Wild geese are unpredictable, untameable. They can’t be caged.
• We started last night by tacking the most basic, but important questions: “Who is the Holy Spirit? And, what is His primary purpose.
• The Holy Spirit is not a force, energy, or power. He is a person. The 3rd person of the trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal, co-existant, and co-equal.
• I likened the roles of the 3 to a building project. The Father is the executive. He is the funder and calls the shots. The Son is the architect. He has the master plan. The Holy Spirit is the contractor. He gets the job done.
• The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is this: To point us to Jesus and the cross; to bring glory to Jesus Christ.
• One of my longest sermons in a while, but worth a listen!

• What a great service tonight! I enjoyed everything about it…my personal prayer and worship time before the service, meeting new people, the worship, preaching on the importance of community, commissioning LifeGroup leaders, praying for people.
• I felt like there was some breakthrough tonight. Maybe it was just in my life, but I don’t think so.
• I’m so stoked that almost everyone signed up for a LifeGroup!
• RCC seriously rocks. We have almost 100% participation of people in ministry of some sort. Now we have nearly 100% participation in LifeGroups. That may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. RCC is beating the statistics!
• I talked about Consumer Christianity tonight, but we have few people in RCC who just show up on Sundays. Most people are involved one way or another. I love it!
• Acts 2:47 basically says that when people saw how the church lived in love and community, that people wanted what the church had and God added to their numbers daily.
• I want to be that church. I want RCC to be revolutionary, counter culture in such a way that they desire the Jesus that we know.
• I think once we get that, God will grow His church.

• I don’t know about you, but I’m loving the RCC Challenge sermon series!
• But before that, Alex and crew stepped up tonight and did a great job with worship.
• I’ve talked with a bunch of people who have been stepping up to the RCC Challenge each week. Even had someone take the tithe challenge for the first time!
• This week I talked about spiritual drought. Sometimes we go through seasons when I believe that God wants to teach us something. Other times, we go unnecessarily through deserts because we don’t plant ourselves near the living water.
• We need to find the well of living water and plant ourselves there.
• The Bible is the living water that nourishes our soul.
• We may be in a desert season because we haven’t planted our roots deep in God (Jeremiah 17:5-8), or because we haven’t been spending enough time at the well (John 4:4-15).
• Perhaps we need to open up the wells that once nourished us (Genesis 26). Go back to the habits/disciplines that used to quench our thirsty souls.
• Sorry, but had some technical difficulties and didn’t get the sermon recorded this week. But visit the 3 passages above and you’ll get it!
• By the way, the Challenge this week is to read through the New Testament in the next 90 days.
• We’re doing it together as a church, and I’m believing that God is going to transform RCC during this time!
• Did I mention that LifeGroups are starting next week?!?!

• What’s a pastor to do when he can’t find his bible and sermon notes right before the service? Thank you Bryce for finding it in the nick of time! Thought I was gonna have to wing it!
• We continued talking about getting our game on by getting involved in small groups.
• Small groups are to the church as special teams are to football. Some of the biggest plays of the game are made in small groups. In fact, the game is often won or lost depending on whether special teams get in the game or not.
• Small groups are where we get to run up the score on our opponent.
• We had a meeting with potential small group leaders after the service. We’re going to start a “Turbo Group” with those interested as a way to train them up in a short period of time. Then we’re going to release them to lead their own groups starting the week of January 24th.
• I can’t wait for RCC to get our game on!

• Sorry for the late update. I left on a hunting trip right after church on Sunday and didn’t get back until Wed eve. If you’re an animal lover, don’t worry. The elk are safe and sound with me in the woods.
• I believe that RCC is at a pivotal moment right now. Over the last year, we have worked hard at building RCC, based on relationships. Relationship with God, relationship with others.
• Although some spiritual growth has come out of the relationships that have been built, I am realizing that if we are not intentional about spiritual growth, then it won’t happen for everyone.
• The primary purpose of the church, and of RCC is to make disciples who are making disciples. In other words, we exist to help people grow spiritually to the point where they can help people grow spiritually.
• So, we are purposing to become more intentional about spiritual growth through small groups.
• We’ve even changed our Mission Statement. The new part is underlined and italicized: Doing whatever it takes to reach people who are far from God, and helping them become genuine followers of Jesus Christ.
• Contrary to what has been ingrained in most of us, a genuine follower of Jesus Christ is not someone who faithfully attends Sunday services. Although that is a part of spiritual growth, and it is important, it is only the tip of the iceberg so to speak.
• A genuine follower of Jesus Christ, according to Jesus in Matthew 4:19, is someone who lays down their life to follow Him, is continuously being transformed by His resurrection power, and who is doing their best to help others along in the same journey. If you’re wondering how I got all that out of this one verse, then listen to the sermon below. It will all make sense.
• Really, we’re not changing direction or redefining who we are at all. We are just taking spiritual growth to the next level for RCC.
• If RCC fails to make true followers of Jesus Christ, then we will have failed in our mission altogether.
• Let’s do this…together.

• The River City Boy Band rocked it today! Seriously though, I love their hearts and passion for worshiping God. Stephen and the team modeled passionate worship today for us.
• I’ve really appreciated the Lewiston crew coming over once a month and showing us what passionate worship looks like. I think we’re growing in this area.
• Hugh Layborn from Lewiston brought a great message on the importance of prayer. We then had a panel discussion where Andrea, Jamie, Mike, and myself were asked several questions about prayer. What a unique way to teach!
• We ended the service by breaking up into small groups to pray for one another. Probably a bit uncomfortable for some, but hey, Jesus never promised comfort!
• In fact, it was a powerful time of praying for one another. We should do that more often.
• Met with a bunch of people down at Taco Del Mar after the service. It seems like a bunch of us always eat together after the service anyway, so we’re going to start announcing where we’re going each Sunday. Great way to get to know each other.
• Next week is our monthly Communion Meal so we won’t be going out. You won’t want to miss it!

(This particular post was not triggered by any one conversation I’ve had with a person, but rather was a culmination of multiple conversations over many years. In fact, I’ve had a draft of this saved for sometime and was just waiting for the right time to post it. All names have been reduced to encrypted initials so that there is NO way you would know who I am referring to. Well, other than Jesus. I guess you could say I outed him.)

My wife and a friend (we’ll call her JB) were having a conversation today about what it means to be a non-traditional church. I think that most people define non-traditional as casual dress, lattes before the service, upbeat music, and witty sermons that use a lot of video clips. We espouse to be a non-traditional church according to the above definition. But in fact we start our Sunday services with “coffee”, then a “welcome”, followed by “worship”, followed by a “sermon”, followed by an “offering” followed by a “you’re dismissed”. Umm, sounds pretty traditional to me.

But here’s what JB went on to say (my paraphrase): “We’re non-traditional because we’re about accountability through relationships. It’s not just about Sunday mornings, it’s about relationships throughout the week.” WOW!!! WOW on so many levels. First level is this: I’m always saying this, but to have one of our church members say it means it must be getting through, and we are really living it out! That’s the greatest thing I’ve heard in a long time. That one will make me smile for a whole week, at least. Thanks JB. Btw, I already knew that you got it.

Second level is this, does this mean that most churches aren’t about relationships? Ouch! Say it ain’t so. But let’s face it, most people “go” to “church” on Sunday because they’re looking to get something out of it. They go because they like the music, they go because they like the sermons, they go because they like the children’s ministry. When was the last time someone told you they went to church so that they could contribute something? I rarely hear anyone say that. Most church hoppers will go on and on about how they just can’t find a church where they are getting fed. Well, that’s the problem. You aren’t supposed to go to church to be fed. You’re supposed to go to church to help feed others. In the natural, only babies need to be fed. When you grow up, you start feeding yourself. It works the same in your faith journey. The problem with the “I want to be fed” mindset is that people leave as soon as the sermons aren’t tickling their ears, or the children’s ministry changes leaders and they switch things up, or the music is too fast or too slow. People, what happens on Sunday mornings doesn’t define “church”. Oh sure, Sunday mornings are an important part of what we do as a church, but maybe only 0.6-3.6% important (0.6% for those who spend 1 hr on Sunday with the Church, and 3.6% for pastors and staff who spend 6 hrs on Sunday with the Church). The “Church” is not necessarily a specific time and place within 4 walls, but rather is defined as God’s people gathered together.  I saw the Church at an Osprey game last night. I saw the Church on Tuesday setting up elk camp. I saw the Church at the Ironhorse last week. In fact, the Church was and is gathered all around Missoula, at all times, in houses, pubs, parks, clubs, etc. Jesus said “where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name, there am I”. We are the body of Christ (the Church) wherever there is more than 1 of us.

There are many passages in the New Testament that give us a glimpse as to what the church is and how it is to function. Read the Book of Acts, and all of Paul’s epistles for more info. What is clear is that the church is an organism rather than an organization or even a meeting. And an organism needs all of it’s body parts working together to function properly (i.e. relationships). Oh sure, a lion could probably survive without one of its feet, but it would probably be a weak and mangy lion. An eagle could probably live with only one eye, but it would be such an an ineffective organism, not living up to its God-given potential.

I know this is a little out there for some of you reading this, because you’ve been trained all your life to believe that church is what happens on Sunday mornings. But I’m here to tell you that Church is much, much more than that. Church is, first and foremost, about relationships. Relationship with God, and relationship with other believers, wherever we might be. The church is also about the other 167 hrs a week (the other 99.4% of your time) that we’re not meeting in the City Life Center. If that makes us non-traditional, then so be it! Because it makes us Biblical.

• Small, but great group of people today.
• We didn’t have a worship leader for this week, so I wasn’t sure what to do. My first instinct was “I’ll do it!”.
• But, I realized that I’m not called to do it, so I declined. I just decided we weren’t going to do music. WHAT?! I know, it’s insane.
• Instead we prayed together as a group. We used the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 as a model, and prayed through it for about 30 minutes. I thought it was a great opportunity to pray together.
• Bottom line: church doesn’t have to look exactly the same every week. In fact, the Bible doesn’t really give us the full picture into how to conduct our services. Most of what we do is tradition. Nothing wrong with that, but let’s not pretend that it is sacred.
• The greatest thing happened: within 1 day, I had 2 people wanting to step up and lead worship, and another who wants to play on the team.
• Sometimes you just have to create a vacuum in order for people to step up and plug up the hole! I’m totally stoked.
• We wrapped up our Sacred Pathways series looking at the Activist and the Enthusiast. Elijah in 1 Kings 17-18 was the activist we studied, and Peter was our enthusiast. Fun study.
• We start One Prayer this Sunday and I can’t wait!
• Also don’t miss our Communion Meal this Sunday. I’m going to be doing a “State of the Church” meeting during our meal. It’s important to be there.
• See you on Sunday!