• What a great service tonight! I enjoyed everything about it…my personal prayer and worship time before the service, meeting new people, the worship, preaching on the importance of community, commissioning LifeGroup leaders, praying for people.
• I felt like there was some breakthrough tonight. Maybe it was just in my life, but I don’t think so.
• I’m so stoked that almost everyone signed up for a LifeGroup!
• RCC seriously rocks. We have almost 100% participation of people in ministry of some sort. Now we have nearly 100% participation in LifeGroups. That may be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. RCC is beating the statistics!
• I talked about Consumer Christianity tonight, but we have few people in RCC who just show up on Sundays. Most people are involved one way or another. I love it!
• Acts 2:47 basically says that when people saw how the church lived in love and community, that people wanted what the church had and God added to their numbers daily.
• I want to be that church. I want RCC to be revolutionary, counter culture in such a way that they desire the Jesus that we know.
• I think once we get that, God will grow His church.

Here’s the daily reading for the week of Jan 24th:

Matthew 19-21     Sun, Jan 24
Matthew 22-24    Mon, Jan 25
Matthew 25-26    Tues, Jan 26
Matthew 27-28    Wed, Jan 27
Mark 1-3               Thur, Jan 28
Mark 4-5               Fri, Jan 29
Mark 6-8               Sat, Jan 30

• I don’t know about you, but I’m loving the RCC Challenge sermon series!
• But before that, Alex and crew stepped up tonight and did a great job with worship.
• I’ve talked with a bunch of people who have been stepping up to the RCC Challenge each week. Even had someone take the tithe challenge for the first time!
• This week I talked about spiritual drought. Sometimes we go through seasons when I believe that God wants to teach us something. Other times, we go unnecessarily through deserts because we don’t plant ourselves near the living water.
• We need to find the well of living water and plant ourselves there.
• The Bible is the living water that nourishes our soul.
• We may be in a desert season because we haven’t planted our roots deep in God (Jeremiah 17:5-8), or because we haven’t been spending enough time at the well (John 4:4-15).
• Perhaps we need to open up the wells that once nourished us (Genesis 26). Go back to the habits/disciplines that used to quench our thirsty souls.
• Sorry, but had some technical difficulties and didn’t get the sermon recorded this week. But visit the 3 passages above and you’ll get it!
• By the way, the Challenge this week is to read through the New Testament in the next 90 days.
• We’re doing it together as a church, and I’m believing that God is going to transform RCC during this time!
• Did I mention that LifeGroups are starting next week?!?!

This weeks RCC Challenge is going to be digging deeper into the Word of God. I’m challenging RCC to read the entire New Testament in the next 90 days. Here’s the schedule for the coming week:

Matthew 1-3        Mon, Jan 18
Matthew 4-6        Tues, Jan 19
Matthew 7-9        Wed, Jan 20
Matthew 10-12    Thurs, Jan 21
Matthew 13-15    Fri, Jan 22
Matthew 16-18    Sat, Jan 23
Matthew 19-21    Sun, Jan 24

Let’s do this!

• 2nd week in our new building. Much less stress this week!
• No matter how well things go, change always adds an element of stress.
• Continued the RCC Challenge in the area of finances. No talk on Biblical finances would be complete without a sermon on giving.
• This is the topic that pastors fear most. Yet, the Bible has so much to say about giving that we would be wrong not to address it.
• Started with this: God doesn’t need your money, He wants your heart.
• Giving is about our heart more than anything else. Do we really trust God?
• Next, 2 Cor 9:6,10 says that God gives seed to the sower.
• I told RCC that it was popcorn Sunday and handed out bag of popcorn seeds. I then said that many of us have been eating the seed that God intended for us to sow.
• I ended with Malachi 3 and a challenge to test God in our giving.
• I gave a money-back guarantee. If you choose to take the challenge and begin giving 10%, and God doesn’t bless you, then RCC will give you your money back.
• What’s there to lose? Let’s test God together in this!

• The first service in our new building was great! I had a lot of people tell me that it felt like home.
• The new building has a lot more usable space, and has a much warmer feel than our old space.
• AND, it costs less!
• I love the vision for Convergence Ministries, the group who owns the building. They want to share resources with churches to reach Missoula for the Kingdom of God.
• We’re the fourth church to use the building. What a great way to partner with other local churches to reach Missoula!
• We started the night with an open house with hors d’oeuvres and refreshments.
• Worship went great, especially considering the sound system was all new to us. The presence of God was definitely felt last night.
• I sort of forgot that it was night time rather than morning. Once inside the building, it all felt the same.
• We kicked off a new Kidway curriculum and the kids loved it. We’ve got lots of classroom space!
• We started a new sermon series called RCC Challenge 2010. I’m going to challenge RCC in the area of finances, relationship with God, and community over the next few weeks.
• We talked about finances last night. I challenged our people to do the following: 1) Decide to follow the Word of God when it comes to finances, 2) Decide to be in unity with our spouses concerning finances, 3) Work hard and smart, 4) Get out of debt, and 5) Save.
• Next week we’re talking about giving!