• 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.

• Did you know that approximately 85,000 in the Missoula Valley do not attend church regularly?
• Did you know that the mission of River City Church is “Doing whatever it takes to reach people who are far from God and making them genuine followers of Jesus Christ”?
• Seems like a perfect match!
• Seriously though, since we moved times and locations back in January, we haven’t made a concerted effort to let people know about it.
• We think that God is shaping River City Church into a unique community of people, and that there are a bunch of people in the Missoula area that would love to be a part of what God is doing with us.
• So, we decided that it is time to get the word out.
• We will be doing some outreaches in the community, including a neighborhood block party and pig roasts at the Griz football games.
• In addition, we will be doing some advertising, including direct mailers, invite cards, posters, etc.
• We are trying to raise a bunch of money to get this done. So far we have 4 of 5 pigs donated, and we’ve raised $1000. We’ve got a good start, but we’ve still got a ways to go.
• If you’d like to contribute to the campaign, you can send a Paypal donation to giving@rccmissoula.org, or follow this link.
• Check out the pig roaster below. It’s gonna be awesome!

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!

GuideOn is a non-profit that supports the children and families of our fallen soldiers. Here’s an excerpt from James Clark, founder of GuideOn and a leader here at River City Church:

The older I get, the more compassion I have for others. As the father of three boys, I realize the importance of a role model in a child’s life. I often think about what would happen to them if I was no longer around. This is why I have started GuideOn.

In May of 2006 I was notified that my friend Matt had been shot down and killed by enemy fire in Iraq. He was a member of the Night Stalkers, an Army Special Operations unit and was flying the MH-6 during the attack. He is survived by his wife and two little boys. After finding out about the loss of Matt and other fellow aviators, I decided that I could not just sit back and hope that these kids would be okay. I wanted to make sure that after the loss of their father that I could somehow have a positive affect. I started having visions of kids who had lost their world, their idols, their everything. I had visions of taking care of these kids to see the beauty of a smile on a child’s face again. I want you to think of how a little heart has been broken, weeping and fallen.

Tonight as I kissed my four-year -old son good night he asked me, “daddy can I have a hug and 100 kisses?” I obliged his request of course, and as I was leaving his room I wondered who was going to fill the requests of Matts’ boys. We cannot take the place of these fallen heroes, but we can certainly have a deep compassion for the little heroes that they left behind.

Please partner with us and be a light to heal some little hero’s hearts.

James D. Clark
Founder

GuideOn is looking for 400 people who would commit $10/mo to support their mission. In other words, give up 3 Starbuck’s drinks a month or 3 beers a month to help out a child who doesn’t have a father anymore. Doesn’t seem like much of a sacrifice compared to what they’ve sacrificed, does it?

I’ve pledged $20/mo and I want to challenge you to pledge at least $10/mo to help them out. All you have to do is click this Paypal Link and you can pay with a credit/debit card or your Paypal account. Let’s spread the word and bless these kids!

• 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.

As you probably know I own a tent business (westernwalltents.com) and we have been sending tents to Haiti and we have some potential deals in the works for Chile as well. For $120 you can house a family in Haiti for the next year or more. We are sending a container of 500 tents next week, and another container within the month. The organization purchasing these containers is Global Aid Network, a subsidiary of Campus Crusade for Christ. If you would like to sponsor a family, you can send a check to River City Church with “tents” in the memo line. The funds we raise will go to purchase more tents than would have otherwise been purchased by these aid organizations.

• We kicked off Love Missoula month by talking about being missionaries to our city.
• All of us are missionaries.
• I believe that in Acts 1:8 Jesus called us to go and be witnesses to our city first, our region next, and then the ends of the earth.
• If we are making an impact in the cities God has placed us in, we have no business going anywhere else.
• The primary way we will take our cities for the Kingdom of God is through prayer.
• Anybody can serve, but only God’s people can serve through the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled up each and every day.
• Jesus’ disciples were very ordinary people until the day the Holy Spirit came down upon them. They were never the same again.
• From that day on they were filled with dunamis power that resulted in the lame walking, the blind seeing, the dead living, and THOUSANDS of people coming to place their faith in Jesus Christ.
• If we want to see revival in Missoula, we have to pray it in.
• We also talked about the need for the church to be the most generous people on this planet. I doubt we’d be accused of that right now. We have some work to do.
• Generosity opens doors to hearts and cities. We need to be the most generous people our city has ever seen, both with our time and finances.
• When the church of Missoula comes together in prayer and generosity, we’ll see this city turned upside down for Jesus.
• Now that’s what I’m talking about!

• Had a bit of a rough week. Just felt dry spiritually. Had trouble preparing the sermon. Just wouldn’t come together. Don’t know why.
• However, I have a great wife who prayed for me last night. Woke up this morning feeling refreshed and filled up. Full of faith.
• Sometimes I hate my feelings. Feelings are a total ripoff. We need someone to speak truth into our lives when we’re feeling down for no particular reason.
• Now, onto our service! We finished the Born Identity series by talking about our Rights and Responsibilities as a Christian. What are we to do with all of the blessings that God has given each of us?
• Spiritual embezzlement is when we misuse/misappropriate the blessings that God has entrusted to us. They’re not all for us! Share the love!
• God blesses us so that we can bless others.
• American consumerism has infiltrated the church to the point that God has become a consumable commodity.
• Example: “Like, I just don’t get anything out of the sermons” (in a Valley Girl kind of voice).  Well, has anyone told you that church isn’t about what you get out of the sermon? Whatever happened to the church being the Body of Christ, and everyone doing their part to make disciples of all the nations?
• We’ve gotten so wrapped up in “what can I get out of this” consumerism that we fail to see that God has made us stewards, not owners of His blessings.
• We’ve been educated way beyond our obedience.
• We as the church need a heart change if we want to change the world. We’ve got to get out of ourselves, and put on Jesus so that we can see the world through His eyes.
• What has God told you to do with the gifts, talents, and blessings that he has given you stewardship over?

Just wanted to encourage you all to keep praying for the people on your Invite Initiative cards. We played a short video last week on the power of an invitation. You can click here to view it. It’s powerful stuff. Don’t underestimate the power of prayer. God will provide opportunities to share your faith and invite your friends to church if you are diligent in praying. Even if you don’t really know how to pray, just turn your Invite Initiative card over and pray the prayer on the back.

Here are a few ideas on inviting your friends and family to RCC:

1. Pray!
2. Personally invite them to join you on a Sunday. Tell them you’ll pick them up and even take them out to lunch afterwards.
3. Give them an invite card. It is good for a free latte or mocha (we’ll be handing these out this Sunday)
4. Personally invite them to come to our Birthday Bash on Sep 13th. We’ll have bouncy houses and fun activities for the kids, and we’ll be talking about all that God has done and what the future holds for RCC. We’ll finish with a BBQ afterwards. This will be a fun Sunday.
5. Send them an evite from the RCC Homepage. This is a very simple way to invite someone. Don’t rely only on this method though. It is too impersonal. Use this tool as a way to remind someone whom you’ve already invited. Or use it to prime someone before you personally invite them.
6. Personally invite them again.
7. Personally invite them again (this is not a typo).
8. Give them another invite card.
9. Repeat steps 1-8.

The bottom line is that you can’t invite someone too many times. It often takes a few times before someone comes, not because they don’t want to, but just because their lives may not be scheduled around coming to church on Sunday mornings.
Again, watch this video to see how important the invite is. You may be thinking “I don’t want to bug anyone”. But this could be the most important decision they ever make. God wants us to be a part of that. Never be ashamed of bugging someone into the Kingdom of God.

• We had 19 first and second time visitors today! The Empty Chair Prayer is working. Thanks mom!
• The greatest part is that we’ve connected with most of these people and it looks like they’re going to make RCC their home.
• We also kicked off the INVITE Initiative today.  We’re going to pray together that God would give us opportunities in the next 30 days to share our faith and invite friends and family to RCC.
• I really believe this is going to be effective, and that God is going to provide opportunities for each person who is willing to step out in faith just a little.
• Worship was great today. Alex led 2 songs today and rocked it. Emily finished it off and it was great as usual. The team really flowed today. I’m loving it. It’s great watching the team grow together. It’s hard to believe that just 6 months ago we couldn’t even find musicians to play on Sunday.
• Spoke on Joshua 4 today. The podcast is available here. We talked about remembering all of the great things God has done in our lives. Each person has a testimony of God’s greatness. We need to share it with others.
• The Joshua Generation’s memorial stones were to be a testimony to Israel, their children, and the entire world.
• When we forget about the greatness of God, we will begin to worship idols. We may not make a golden calf like the Moses Generation, but perhaps we begin to focus on ourselves and our own strength. That my friends, is idol worship.
• When we focus on ourselves, not God, we will live our lives in fear, not faith. We will focus too much on our circumstances, not God’s strength to overcome.
• We closed the service by taking communion together, with the traditional bread and wine. Then we shared a communion meal together! Doesn’t get any better than that. Talk about building community. There is no better way to build community than to share a meal, imho.
• Can’t wait for next Sunday!