I’m a huge advocate for keeping the faith by keeping it simple. I think we complicate things way too much by requiring way too many meetings, making way too many rules, and creating way too much red tape. So here’s my attempt to outline 3 things that I would like to see RCC people do well. If you do these 3 things, you’re walking out the vision of RCC. If you’re not doing these 3 things, I challenge you to get engaged:

1. Engaged Collectively. We want people to be an active part of Sunday morning worship. This means more than just showing up at 11am and warming a seat. This means engaging.  Find a way to serve. Find a way to be a part. Get involved. It could be as simple as setting up chairs.
2. Engaged Relationally. We want you to be engaged in other people’s lives. The easiest way to do this is through our small groups we call LifeGroups. Find one that works for you. Start one yourself. Let’s face it, you can’t be engaged relationally with others if you don’t spend time with them!
3. Engaged Missionally. We want you to be actively reaching out to our community and the world for Jesus. This is called being missional and it’s engaging in Jesus’ mission for his church. There are numerous ways to do this. Get involved in our Helicopter Egg Drop. Volunteer your time with a nonprofit. Spend time with people who haven’t yet made a decision to follow Jesus. Keep it simple. Don’t complicate this.

Whether you’re a business leader, civic leader, or church leader, this book is for you. This has got to be one of the best books that has come out in some time. If you’re a leader of any type, you need to download this book. It’s free.

What someone has done is taken the best blogs of 2008, from some of the best church leaders in North America, and compiled them into a book format, arranged by author.

You can read one entry a day and it will last you the entire year. Or you can do as I do, and just keep reading until your eyes turn bloodshot because the entries are all so good!

Happy reading!

• Baptized 6 people today! What an awesome thing to see people making their first public declaration of faith!
• RCC’s first 2 baptisms ever were my 2 boys, Riley and Jordan! I’m so proud of you guys! What an honor to be a part of that.
• I realized today how terrible of an administrator I really am. I can take 1 or 2 projects and manage them fairly well. But today, I felt like I was trying to do 4-5 things at the same time and my wires started to short. Worse yet, when I get home I am completely burned out.
• Goods news is I found a new administrator today!
• We had 76 people today. We had quite a few visitors, probably for the baptisms.
• It’s been great having a full worship team. Thanks Steven and Dylan for filling in!
• I’m reminded that my job, and the job of our core team, is to identify and raise up people to do the work of the ministry. Not doing that results in burnout, and robs people of the opportunity to use their God-given gifts. This is something we all need to work on.

• Today was a bit heart wrenching, but good.
• Eric and Jamie Beeson shared their struggles with us and that they have decided to step down from ministry for a time.
• The grace in that place was indescribable. I think everyone but a couple of visitors came up and surrounded them while we prayed over them and blessed them.
• I’m not sure if there was a dry eye in the place.
• I would never apologize for that kind of thing happening during our service. That my friends, was the ultimate example of authenticity and humility.
• Don’t worry. They won’t be leaving RCC, just taking a rest and getting their family back in order.
• We had 61 people today. 3 visitors. I doubt any of those visitors has ever experienced a church service like that before!
• I’m amazed at how God works things out. I spoke on being formed for God’s family. It was perfect timing as we were able to demonstrate the love of God to the Beeson’s, who are a part of God’s family.
• We also launched 12 LifeGroups today. Looked like a lot of people signed up.
• Baptisms next Sunday! I can’t wait!

The other day while I was thinking about our upcoming Easter egg helicopter drop, I knew there would be naysayers who would question why we would spend the time, energy, and money on getting people to a pagan event. It’s a good question really. So as I was praying for the event the phrase “Access Points” came to me. For a long time in our culture, if you built a church building an hung an “open” sign on it, people would come. It was just part of the culture. One of the results of that was that the church didn’t go to the culture. The church began to expect people to come to them. The church was never meant to wait for people to come, the church was to go to the people. Just look at Jesus’ life: he hung out at weddings, ate and drank with drunkards and tax collectors. He didn’t sit at the synagogue on Saturdays and hope these people would show up. No, Jesus created Access Points into the Kingdom of God. He created opportunities for people to experience the Kingdom of God by going to them.

There are so many ways that we can create Access Points. I was just down at Zootown Brew in downtown Missoula. This guy felt God tell him to start a coffee shop downtown so that he could create an Access Point for people down there. We’re doing the egg drop so that we might create an Access Point for people who otherwise would never think about coming to River City Church. You can create an Access Point by going out with your friends to the bar tomorrow night instead of staying home and playing nerdy.

An Access Point is access to the Kingdom of God through our lives. This is how people experience the Kingdom of God, through other people. We need to get out of our pews, get out of our churches, and start taking the Kingdom of God to people rather than waiting for them to come to it. Get creative about it. The Bible says we are to take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ. Let’s take our creative, outside the box, revolutionary thoughts captive and use them to create Access Points for those outside the Kingdom of God.

I really LOVE our core team, which is why I declared WAR on them yesterday! We had a team meeting planned, and rather than just talk business like we usually do, I decided to rent the paintball facility in the basement of our building. Everyone except for me were first time paintballers, and a couple were quite skeptical. But it turned out to be a blast! We had a seriously good time just letting down and having some fun. It’s something we don’t do enough of. Planting a church is hard work, but we need to learn to have some fun together while we’re doing it!

I let the proverbial “bunny out of the huey” today at church. We want to do an Easter event for Missoula that was over the top. So we decided we’d drop 20,000 Easter eggs out of a helicopter for the kids to find! I know, I know, you’re probably asking “why only 20,000 eggs?”. Well we felt like 25,000 was just too over the top.

So here’s the scoop as I know it today. We’re doing it at the fairgrounds in a huge open area. There’s plenty of parking, which is good because we’re expecting 2000-3000 people. We’re going to divide the field up into 3 areas according to age groups. We’re ordering all of the eggs prefilled. And we’re going to drop them out of a helicopter and let the kids go get ‘em. Then we’re going to do helicopter rides. I’m still looking for someone willing to put on a bunny suit and parachute from the helicopter. Serious. Any takers? The only catch is we’re looking for someone who has experience. I’ve totally struck out at Monster.com.

• The worship team rocked today! First time we’ve had a complete, homegrown band. Nice to hear the electric guitar and bass. Nice job guys!
• 80 people today. We’re at 80% seating capacity. Church growth experts say that once you’ve hit 80%, you won’t grow unless you add more seating. Apparently Americans like their space and won’t invite their friends if it’s too full. It’s a good problem to have.
• We’re going to have to rent some more chairs or something. We’re going to stay in that room as long as possible. The gym is our next move. That means a lot more work setting up and breaking down.
• Kidway has gone to 2 classes. It really makes it more manageable and the teaching can be better tailored to the appropriate age groups. This also means we need twice the number of volunteers.
• Had a great team meeting today after the service. You’re going to have to check back to see that post. Believe me, it will be worth it.
• Played this video today. I’m so embarrassed for Jesus Sonseed. I’m sure Jesus is embarrassed for them too:

River City Church is doing its first baptisms ever during the service on Feb 22nd! If you want to get baptized, or want more info on baptism, be sure and contact me. You won’t want to miss this exciting event!

• You know how you feel when you get home from a date and you’re just all giddy? That’s how I feel every Sunday after church. I love River City Church.
• RCC really feels like a family. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
• We kicked of The Unwasted Life series today. I’m really looking forward to the next 5 weeks. I think it will be a defining time for our church.
• If you’ve never read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, please go pick up a copy at the Garden of Read’n and start reading it NOW!
• 70 people today.
• We left most of our sound equipment up today. That should save us about 20 minutes of setup time for next week.
• We’re doing our first baptisms on Feb 22nd after the service. We have a number of people who will be baptized for the first time. If you want to be baptized please let me know.
• We launched our new LifeGroups for this semester. We all need to be connected. It’s actually part of the God’s purpose for our lives.  Click here for a list of groups.
• Tuesday morning prayer kicks off this week at 7am at the City Life Center. The city-wide prayer meetings are from 8:30-9:30 at Garden City Church, 1100 S. Higgins this month.
• The Superbowl party rocked today! We had a bunch of people over and ate way too much great food.