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!
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…”
Last night was a sparse spouse night. At least 6 of our regular families showed up with one of the spouses missing. Just a quirky observation!
It was great to have the Lewiston worship team over. Thanks to Sam, Becky, Brittney, and Justin for making the 4.5 hr trek each way in one day! Thanks also to Logan for filling in on the drums!
Don’t know if you noticed, but Logan was playing with a trick set of Guitar Hero drumsticks. Turns out no one had any drumsticks when he showed up yesterday. Also turns out that all the music stores are closed on Sunday. Game Stop was open though!
Continued our Wild Goose Chase series with “Being filled with the Holy Spirit”.
Some people believe we are filled when we first believe. Some people believe we are filled later. Some people believe we are constantly filled. I say “Yes!” and “Amen!” to all three!
We had a good response time. God to pray for some people. I’m seeing healing happening, and the Holy Spirit moving. Gotta love that!
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!
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?!?!
The first service in our new building was great! I had a lot of people tell me that it felt like home.
The new building has a lot more usable space, and has a much warmer feel than our old space.
AND, it costs less!
I love the vision for Convergence Ministries, the group who owns the building. They want to share resources with churches to reach Missoula for the Kingdom of God.
We’re the fourth church to use the building. What a great way to partner with other local churches to reach Missoula!
We started the night with an open house with hors d’oeuvres and refreshments.
Worship went great, especially considering the sound system was all new to us. The presence of God was definitely felt last night.
I sort of forgot that it was night time rather than morning. Once inside the building, it all felt the same.
We kicked off a new Kidway curriculum and the kids loved it. We’ve got lots of classroom space!
We started a new sermon series called RCC Challenge 2010. I’m going to challenge RCC in the area of finances, relationship with God, and community over the next few weeks.
We talked about finances last night. I challenged our people to do the following: 1) Decide to follow the Word of God when it comes to finances, 2) Decide to be in unity with our spouses concerning finances, 3) Work hard and smart, 4) Get out of debt, and 5) Save.
Merry Christmas! It was so fun doing a Christmas service today.
Worship was great. I say that because as I looked out I noticed more people passionately worshiping today than I have ever seen.
We’ve been praying as a worship team for breakthrough in this area. It is so cool to see it come to pass.
The kids recited a story today. It was so cute! I’m going to podcast it later. Stay tuned.
I absolutely loved the message today. I can say that because I didn’t speak much. I started with a video, ended with a video, and told a couple of stories in between.
Emmanuel, God is with us. That simple truth will change your life if you can comprehend it.
Even without the video, the message below is a powerful reminder of the significance of Jesus’ birth.
Oh yeah, and I made a big announcement at the end just in case you’re interested.
Good day today at RCC. Had some first time guests who said they’d be coming back next week. That’s always good!
We’re having to set up and break down all of the sound equipment again so it’s taking a little extra time each Sunday.
However, I feel like the worship team just continues to gel more and more each week. Maybe rolling up our sleeves and working together helps?
Part 3 in our Unsung Heroes series. We looked at the Sons of Issachar in 1 Chronicles 12:32.
David surrounded himself with over 336,000 mighty warriors. But he also surrounded himself with the “Sons of Issachar who had an understanding of the times and knew what Israel ought to do.”
Sons of Issachar are a rare breed, and they were back then also. Only 200 men of understanding. That’s 0.06% of David’s army.
The Church needs more Sons of Issachar. Our nation needs more Sons of Issachar.
We can become Sons of Issachar by 1) Knowing God, 2) Asking God, and 3) Pursuing Wisdom and Understanding.
Next week: Special guest speakers Eric and Jamie Beeson. You won’t want to miss this one! They’ll be sharing their amazing story about what God has done in their lives, family, and marriage over the last year.