Come see our new digs this Sunday before the service! We’ll be serving refreshments at 5:30pm so that you can look around before the service at 6pm. If you’re a regular member please bring a snack to share. If you’re a guest, just bring yourself and your family. Hope to see you on Sunday!

• It’s official! We just had our last service at the City Life Center.
• That building and the YFC Staff have been a blessing to us, but it’s time to move on.
• I’m really believing that God is positioning RCC for blessing and growth in 2010. Actually, I KNOW He is!
• We knew we’d be moving all of our belongings today, so we kept everything simple.
• Alex did a great job with an acoustic worship set.
• We didn’t do espresso.
• We didn’t set up the nursery.
• We had a ton of people help us load up the trailer. Even some 1st time guests helped!
• I spoke on the Cosmic Gift Exchange that God initiated 2000 yrs ago.
• God gave us His Son. That is agape love. The ultimate sacrifice.
• In exchange, what do you give the God who has everything?
• The only thing on His list is: YOU!
• Mark 12:30 says to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
• He wants you. He wants all of you. All of your devotion. All of your worship.
• He doesn’t need you. He wants you. That’s even better.
• I think it’s a fair trade.
• See you all next Sunday @ 6pm at Convergence Ministries, 3020 South Ave W !!!

One cool thing about having a blog or website these days is that you can see where all of your visitors are coming from. I just wanted to say thanks to some of our international visitors who visit this blog each week. I know who some of you are, but most of you are strangers!

• Manitoba, Canada
• Germany (I know some of you)
• Austria (I know who you are!)
• Indonesia
• Barbados
• South Africa
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Philipines
• United Kingdom
• and so many others!

Feel free to comment on any posts. I’d love to hear from you, hear what you’re doing, how you found River City Church, and so forth. Feel free to email me at brian@rccmissoula.org!

Mark Batterson has quickly become one of my favorite authors of the day. Mark is a left-brained logical thinker who has also managed to harness the power of right-brain creativity and yolk the two together. In my opinion, this is a rare and valuable trait that more of today’s  leaders need.

His first two books, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase dared me to chase after the God adventure for my life. I felt as if every chapter of these books dared me to go big in everything I do for God. Primal is different in that I feel as if Mark slowed down a bit in order to dig a little deeper. The entire focus of the book is an unpacking of Mark 12:30, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind and with all your strength.” This passage is what Mark calls the “Primal” Commandment, and it is the simple precept on which our entire faith is built. We are to wholeheartedly love God with our entire beings. Mark proceeds to dissect this passage and barrages us with fascinating scientific facts that engage the mind, yet woos us with true, heartfelt stories of compassion that grip our hearts. All the while making brilliant analogies between the natural world and our spiritual lives that keep me asking, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”.

I tend to read a lot of books through about 2/3 of the way, and then get bored. All of the good stuff is usually up front, and the last third seems to be filler that was required by the publisher to make sure they met their page quota (whatever that is). Not so with Primal. Just when I thought perhaps it was going to slow down to a crawl, it accelerated like a roller coaster as it finishes its initial slow, methodological climb, only to release into a 100mph freefall, filling the riders with adrenaline.

Mark wraps things up with a cry for reformation. Much like the last reformation that changed the world, except the rally cry of the next reformation will not be sola fida, faith alone, but amo dei, love God. This is where I found myself on my knees, confessing that perhaps I have loved my dreams more than I have loved my God. As Mark says, “Everything minus God equals nothing. God plus nothing equals everything. At the end of the day, all that matters is God”. Reformation will happen when a people begin to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. A rediscovery of something ancient, something primal. A rediscovery of the Greatest Commandment.

If you’re looking for a book to kick off the New Year, pick up a copy of Primal. You won’t be disappointed!

• 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.

This Sunday we will be announcing something big for the RCC Family, an early Christmas present if you will, and you will either have to come to hear it, or wait until Monday morning and read it right here. Might I suggest you come and hear it in person?

• Awesome day today!
• Lot’s of visitors today. I love getting to meet new people.
• People braved the snowstorm. 8-12″ of snow piled up last night, but that doesn’t stop Montanans.
• Eric and Jamie Beeson shared some of their struggles and victories over the last year. What a great testimony of God’s goodness
• Great response after the service. They got to pray with some people, and I know a lot of people were touched by their story.
• Unfortunately the sound quality isn’t great, but it is still well worth taking the time to listen to. Click below to hear their story:

• 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.
• Repeat: You won’t want to miss it!

I must have told Abigail at some point that December 25th probably isn’t Jesus’ real birthday, and in fact we don’t know what day he was actually born on. So, she has decided to go with “Every day is Jesus’ birthday”. Abby just figures since we don’t know His actual birthday, we should live as if every day is Jesus’ birthday! What do you think? Could we change the world if we truly celebrated the birth of our Savior each and every day of our lives? I’ve got a lot to learn from my little Abby.