Hey don’t forget we’re doing our once/month communion meal this Sunday after the service. Bring something to share. If you don’t have a penny, a haypenny will do, if you haven’t got a haypenny, God bless you! Come anyway!

• Woke up this morning to a total ice ball outside. I just about fell and broke my head, and that was just getting out of bed! You should have seen it outside, really.
• Today was our lowest count ever, including the preview services. I didn’t actually count, but it was probably around 45 people.
• We obviously had a lot of students on break and families out of town for the holidays. And it was an ice ball. Did I already mention that?
• Interestingly enough, we had 9 visitors. It was great to see some new faces. Welcome to RCC!
• It was great to have our full worship team back together again. Great song lineup today.
• We finished up our Mythbusters series today with the question, “Do Christ followers have to follow the law?”.
• Hint: Read the  book of Galatians for the answer.
• I’ve had a great time doing this series. January is going to be a “grab bag” of sermons. Can’t wait! We’ve got 2 guest speakers in January.
• Next week is Vision Sunday. You won’t want to miss it! In fact bring a friend.
• Starting next Sunday, all first time visitors will get an espresso drink of their choice, on the house!
• Actually I’m going to sweeten the pot. If you bring a first time guest, you’ll also get a free espresso.
• Don’t forget our Communion Meal on Sunday. It’s always the 1st Sunday of the month. Bring something to share.
• Happy New Year! See you at our place on New Year’s Eve.

We’re going to have a get together on Wed to celebrate the New Year at our house starting at 6pm. You’re all invited, so bring a snack, a drink, a game to play (Wiis and X Boxes are encouraged) and we’ll see you on Wed. We live at 7133 Buckhorn Lane (Don’t trust the Google Map on this one). Take Mullan Rd west out of town for a few miles until you go up the hill. Take a right onto Grassland Drive at the tan church on the right. Take the next right onto Buckhorn Lane. We’re at the end of the culdesac, dark green house with cream trim and cedar shingles. Come and meet some peoples!

We opened new pajamas on Christmas Eve and this was Brock’s reaction to his new Thomas the Train PJs. Hilarious!

River City Church won’t be holding Christmas Eve services this year. But if you’re looking for a service to attend, you might try one of the following:

5-6pm  Garden City Church, 1100 S. Higgins

6-7pm  Christian Life Center, 3801 Russell

7-8pm  Clark Fork City Church, 2811 Latimer

7-8pm  Faith Evangelical Free, 2200 S. 10th W.

Merry Christmas!

We are a relatively small church, a relatively young church, and we don’t have any extra money laying around. But that hasn’t stopped the people of River City Church from being generous. In fact, I am absolutely amazed at your generosity!

In the last 2 weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to bless 2 different families. Last week someone in the church knew of a family that had recently lost their job and couldn’t do Christmas this year. She made a list of everything their kids needed, and we put tags on the Christmas tree. Every single tag was taken last week and this week there were a bunch of presents under the tree for this family.

Last week I received a random phone call from a lady who had 3 kids at home, was seriously ill, and didn’t have any food to feed her family. I sent out a last minute email asking you to bring food today, and we literally filled the back of our Suburban. Not only that, but you guys gave $280 for this family. Unbelievable!

And to think that today I was trying to teach you how to share the “real” Jesus. I think you’ve got it figured out actually! Wow! I seriously get choked up just thinking about how much of a blessing you have been to these 2 families.

I truly believe that this is how we’re going to reach our city: one person, one family at a time. It’s easy to believe that we’d do a better job of reaching our city if only we had more money, more resources. But Jesus said, “He who is faithful with little will be given much”. Church, as long as we continue to be faithful with what we’ve been given, we WILL make God famous in Missoula! You just wait and see…

• Today was “River City Family Christmas”.
• We set the chairs up in a horseshoe shape, and set up 6 sofas for lounging.
• We did an acoustic worship set.
• I read the Christmas story, and a couple other classics I learned from Ron King.
• I broke out the stool out for the sermon. I only do this when I get seriously casual.
• It was just like family time!
• It’s Christmas break at UM, so we’re missing about 20 college students.
• We still had about 55 people.
• I think I saw Trent shed a tear during one of my stories
• I spoke about finding and sharing the real Jesus of Christmas.
• I shared this video that sums up the “real” Jesus of Christmas I’m referring to:

• It was -5 degrees when I woke up this morning with a windchill of -25. I wasn’t sure if anyone would show up.
• I was pleasantly surprised! It looks like we had about the same number of people as last week (59).
• Spoke on New Testament giving vs Old Testament tithing. God’s teaching us to be generous by grace, not by law.
• We’ve actually been making a little money on our espresso sales. We’re splitting the profits with YFC. I’m just hoping to keep the hospitality room self-sustaining.
• RCC officially added one new member this week. Sydnie Meredith was born to Bryce and Michelle Thompson on Friday afternoon. She was 7lbs, 15oz. Woo hoo!
• We don’t care how we grow the church, as long as it’s growing!
• Here’s the video I used to introduce our tithing vs giving sermon:

• Almost forgot to the do the recap this week. We’ve been so busy moving into our new house that I can’t seem to keep anything straight.
• I think we forgot to count (see bullet #1 above). So I’m going to guess we had 300 people:) But it was probably more like 60-70.
• We served our first espressos this week! I guess we’re a real church now.
• We had our communion meal this week. I also taught on the origin and meaning of communion. I love breaking bread with my fellow RCCers.
• We’re going to set up some of our audio/visual equipment permanently in the facility. This should cut down our setup time to about 20 minutes for the worship team.
• The video below has nothing to do with River City Church. But I think it is hilarious, especially since I’m a WSU Alum:

I can’t wait for our monthly communion meal this Sunday after the service. If you haven’t yet partaken, it’s a great time to hang out, break bread together, and get to know each other. This is how it works: everyone brings something to share, we stay after the service, and we eat together. How hard is that? I mean, you’re going to have to eat anyway cause it’s lunch time, right? Might as well be with friends! We had a blast last month and almost everyone stayed for the meal. See you on Sunday!