Ever wonder what Jesus is really about? Check out this video link:

Jesus Video

WARNING: This will take about 40 minutes, but it’s worth it!

The church has a reputation for being reactionary. We react to cultural and moral issues such as homosexuality by issuing press releases stating that we oppose homosexuality. It makes us feel good, it makes us feel holy. Here’s the problem: we’ve done this so much over the last 2000 years that most people don’t know what we stand FOR, only what we are against. And I don’t think a statement of beliefs on a website is going to clear things up for people. We need to be more proactive in communicating what we are FOR. Take the following for example:

1. I’m not so much against a woman’s right to choose; I’m FOR the innocent.
2. I’m not so much against homosexuality; I’m FOR relationships that are fruitful and are FOR the family.
3. I’m not so much against drinking; I’m FOR everything in moderation.

You see, the world thinks we’re against sinners. But actually, Jesus was FOR sinners. He came FOR us, all of us. Can’t we do better at communicating what we are FOR?

If God is FOR us, who can be against us? Isn’t that a better stance to take? What are you FOR? Can you clearly tell people what you are FOR? Do you ever do it?

• Thanks Jordan, Britney, Amber, and Justin for coming over to help out!
• Jordan and Amber left Lewiston at 3:30am to get over to Missoula in time to lead worship. They also hit a deer on the way. Talk about sacrifice!
• Worship was great this morning. It’s always good to have Jordan leading us with his passion and energy.
• We started a new series this morning called Sacred Pathways. We’re going to be preaching on discovering your soul’s primary way with connecting with God. I think it will be good for us.
• So many of us have been fed the following formula:   spiritual growth = quiet place+ quiet time + bible study+ prayer
• Really? It certainly works for some of us, but for others this is just a recipe for failure. I can’t wait to see each person discover their soul’s pathway, or connection with God.
• 66 people today.
• Found out that the Rebos are moving to Helena in a few weeks. We’re going to miss you guys a lot!
• Heading to Charlotte, NC for the THR3E conference on Tuesday with Jimmie Rude from the Bridge Church in Hamilton. Can’t wait!

• Thanks to John and his crew for filling in on the worship team this week! It’s nice for our team to be able to take a break every now and then. No, it’s more than nice. It’s actually a necessity!
• The song set really spoke to my heart this morning. The song “Give Us Clean Hands” has a line in it that says “Oh Lord we cast down our idols”. I had to personally face the fact that sometimes I make River City Church my idol. I’m sorry Jesus.
• The song “The Heart of Worship” was a great reminder of how easy it is to just sing a few songs each week, and totally miss the heart of worship. God wants more than just a song…He wants our entire lives.
• After church on the way home, my oldest son Riley said, “Dad, I really liked worship today.” Now that is huge. I’m not sure if he’s ever said that to me!
• My family and I took a break this last week and went to the Courageous Leadership conference at RCC in Lewiston, Idaho. They had 2 amazing speakers, Paul Reid and Robin Mark, both from Belfast, Ireland.
• Talk about powerhouse speakers! Wow. I’ve got some stuff I’m going to share with the rest of you someday.
• The main reason I tell you about this conference, is that I came back refreshed. I don’t get to sit and listen much anymore. And I don’t get to sit around all day and just do nothing. I even got to drive my friend’s BMW convertible around all week. Thanks Mike!
• I wrote my sermon last night on the way home, but it wasn’t too bad! I was hoping we’d have enough stories from the RCC Gives Back website that I wouldn’t have to preach today, but not so!
• Great stories from RCC Gives Back. If you haven’t yet posted your story, do it now! I am so stoked about all the creative ideas that God has given us. We spent about 15 minutes this morning just reading stories and letting people share what they’ve done.
• I shared about being the greatest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus said in Matthew 18 that we need to become like toddlers to even ENTER the Kingdom of God. We talked about 4 attributes of little children: innocence, simplicity, humility, and faith. We’ll never be great unless we can work these out like little kids do.
• 51 people today. Must be Post Easter Stress Syndrome. Or perhaps a sign of summer?
• We’re praying for a new worship leader. Kristin and Jeff are leaving us next month and we’re going to need someone to step in. Please be praying with us for this person. We know that God has someone in mind and He just needs to show us who it is!
• It’s funny that I haven’t mentioned finances for a long time in my blog. Just in case you were wondering, it’s because everything has been going well! We’re still getting about $1600 a month from outside sources, but giving from within has been steadily increasing. I don’t think we’re totally ready to fly on our own, but we’re really close!

RCC Gives Back is a grassroots effort of River City Church to bless the people of Missoula in a unique way. On Easter Sunday 2009, River City Church did the unthinkable and gave the offering back to the people with the charge to go and bless someone with the money.

I have already heard of some great ideas on how people are going to use the money to bless someone this week. But perhaps the best thing about all of this is that it is causing us to be intentional about blessing other people. Everyone I’ve talked to this week is so excited about thinking of ways to bless others. What if we did this every week? We’d constantly be looking for ways to bless others. It would completely change our mindset. We’d stop living for ourselves so much. I guarantee that if you live your life this way every day, you will be blessed!

• Yesterday was the greatest Easter I have ever personally experienced.
• We had no idea how many chairs to set up, so we set up everything we had! We had 100 people (OK, 99 but I’m believing in faith that Doug flunked math and he just counted wrong!)
• We had someone from RCC Lewiston visit this week with their family that lives here in Missoula. Thanks for visiting RCC Missoula!
• God really showed up! Music was great. Thanks to Tom from Axis Church for filling in on the drums. Great to have you at RCC!
• I preached the clearest, most complete presentation of the gospel that I have ever preached. I decided to go without notes and just preach from the heart. I prepared by preaching this sermon 9 times last week.
• I titled it the “Great Bailout”. I started by talking about the current financial crisis and bailout, then talked about God’s ultimate bailout for us. I think I forgot to actually make the connection at the end, but I think people figured it out!
• We had at least 1 person make a decision of faith today. That’s what we’re about.
• We capped off the service with RCC Gives Back! We did the unthinkable and gave the offering back to our people today and asked them to go and bless someone with it! We wanted to do this so that people could actively participate in God’s grace, mercy, compassion, and kindness. I don’t think anyone will ever forget this Easter!
• I can’t wait to hear the stories. Next Sunday we’re going to read a bunch of stories from RCC Gives Back! about how RCC helped people this week.
• I am SO looking forward to the Courageous Leadership conference at RCC Lewiston this week!

I’m telling you right now, you DO NOT want to miss the service this Sunday. We are planning something that is going to blow you away! What we are planning may be the coolest thing RCC has ever done. Bring a friend. Bring 2 friends. Heck, bring all your friends. I guarantee they have never experienced what they are going to experience this Sunday!

Our goal for this event was twofold: 1) Provide a free, exciting Easter event for the people of Missoula, and 2) Raise as much food for the Missoula Food Bank as possible. Given those 2 goals in mind, it was an outstanding success. Almost 5000 people were able to participate in the event.  We raised 2193 lbs of food for the Food Bank. That will provide 1500-2200 meals for those who are hungry right here in Missoula.

A huge shout out to all of our sponsors, all of our volunteers, and all of the people of Missoula who brought food donations. You helped make this a huge success. Also a thank you to the folks who have taken the time to politely suggest improvements for next year’s event. We really have taken those suggestions to heart and will work hard to make this event even better next year.

And to the very small number of angry people:

• So we planned for 2000, and we had 5000, but it rocked! I know some people aren’t happy, but our volunteers are absolute heroes and we raised about 2000lbs of food for the Missoula Food Bank. How cool is that?!
• More later….

• We talked about being missionaries to Judea and Samaria (aka our State, Region, Country) today.
• I focused on church planting because that is where my passion truly lies. I get so stoked as I pray for direction for our next church plant. The opportunities are almost endless!
• I know that God has a specific plan for using River City Church to impact our region and beyond through starting new churches.
• I’ve made a decision to be a risk taker for God when it comes to planting churches. It’s not going to take 11 yrs this time. I’d rather try and fail than not try at all. Are we going to make mistakes? You bet. Are we going to fail at times? Probably. Is there any other way to be a revolutionary? I don’t think so.
• Had a pastor in town call me because he heard I was leaving River City Church. Huh? As a matter of fact, I specifically stated on Sunday that I had no plans on leaving Missoula. Rather, I was going to make other people leave instead!
• We had 64 people today.
• Worship was great again today with a full band and a new bass player. Thanks Ben!
• I forgot to dismiss the kids. I hate it when I forget something that important! I even had it written down, but it just escaped me.
• We had our team meeting after the service. I have the greatest team a leader could ask for. We also added 2 more people to the team. Thanks Casey and Camille for your willingness to serve!
• Can’t wait for the egg drop on Saturday. Be sure to be there at 7:30 am so that you can help! You won’t want to miss it!