• We’re moving! In about a month we’ll begin meeting at the LifeStyle Fitness building on North Reserve, in the Arby’s parking lot.
• You may be wondering why we’re making the move. I spent the evening laying out the rationale for the move and fielding questions. You can listen to that below. But I’ll try and summarize it here.
• We’ve been talking about our mission for the last month, which is to “Make followers of Jesus wherever we go.”
• Our mission flows out of God’s mission, which is to “Grow His Family and Kingdom”. When God looks at the world, he sees a whole bunch of people that aren’t a part of His family. Radical problem.
• Radical problems call for radical solutions. His solution was to send His only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. He appointed His church, us, as the messengers of this radical solution.
• If you’ve ever heard someone say that God doesn’t care about numbers…well, they’re wrong. There’s a book in the Bible titled “Numbers”. Hmmm. Also, read the book of Acts. How many times does the Author boast of thousands being added to the church daily? Sounds like it might be important.
• Numbers aren’t everything, but God wants to grow his family, so numbers obviously have to matter.
• Since RCC has made the move from Sunday mornings at the City Life building to Sunday eves at Convergence, our avg attendance has dropped 30% and stayed there.
• As your pastor, I’m here to tell you, “That’s a radical problem!!!” We can’t be satisfied that we’re doing everything we can to reach this city for Jesus when our church isn’t growing.
• We need a radical solution.
• Don’t get me wrong. I love our church. I believe that God is moving among us, and we’re seeing lives changed. I’m not questioning that. But there appear to be some barriers that are keeping our church from growing.
• The first barrier is our meeting time. Sunday evenings just aren’t the best time to meet. In fact, it is the worst time to meet. Particularly for young families. Many people WILL NOT come to RCC because of the time. Something needs to change.
• The second barrier is our location. It’s not bad, but it’s just not good. For the last 2 1/2 yrs we’ve met on the south end of town, which is saturated with church buildings. We feel strongly that God has called us to meet on North Reserve, which has very few church buildings (see map), and is the fasting growing part of our city.
• We’ve been knocking on doors in that area for the last 3 yrs but haven’t found any open…until now.
• The LifeStyle group fitness building has become available and will make a great meeting location.
• The third barrier is lack of momentum. We haven’t reached a critical mass at our church that provides the momentum necessary to move us forward. This is working with the 1st two barriers to keep us from growing.
• Radical problems call for radical solutions. We could just stay where we’re at, and hope for the best. But that’s not the type of leader I am.
• As long as you are a part of RCC, I will challenge you to do whatever it takes to reach this city for Jesus Christ. I will never settle for good as long as we have the potential for great.
• So in about a month, we will be moving to Sunday mornings on North Reserve. Don’t know the exact time yet, or the exact date we’ll be moving, but it’s happening!
• In the fall, we’re going to create some momentum by doing a huge Grand Re-Opening in our new location.
• So what needs to happen in order for us to make the move?
• We need to raise about $3500 to do this right. Good news is that we’ve already raised $1500! We’ve only got $2000 to go. The 2 largest expenses are chairs and a cargo trailer to keep them in. We’ve already got the cargo trailer. Now we need 100 chairs.
• Here’s how we’re gonna do it: I’m asking each one of you to help out by purchasing a chair for yourself and each person in your family. However, if that’s all we did, it would be a little shortsighted, because we want the church to grow, right?
• So I’m also asking each of you to purchase an additional chair for each person in your family.
• So for myfamily of 6, that would mean buying 12 chairs. At $10 each, that’s $120.
• Now maybe you don’t have any extra cash right now. I understand.
• That’s why we’re doing a church eBay garage sale! All you have to do is bring in your items that are worth $25 or more, and we will list them on eBay for you and sell them to raise funds for the move.
• I’ve already found enough items to raise at least $250 for our portion. I’m sure most of you are just like me, and have stuff lying around that you haven’t used in a while. Bring it in next Sunday!
• So for the next 2-3 Sundays we will be accepting offerings to help pay for the chairs. If you decide to give money, just write on your envelope “Chairs” so we will know that it is not your usual offering, but it is above and beyond to help pay for the move. Also bring in your eBay items. We’ll take care of the rest.
• I hope you can get excited about what God wants to do with RCC. Our goal is not to become a mega church, but to reach as many people with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ that we can. It’s to see this city transformed by the love of God. And by the grace of God, we’re going to see that happen!
• Can you believe that with me? Will you do whatever it takes to see that happen? Me too!

You won’t want to miss this Sunday @6pm. We’re having a family meeting and communion meal together to announce some big news! We’ll meet at regular time and we’ll have pizza for the kids downstairs. The adults will have a potluck meal upstairs together, so bring some food to share.

Here’s to believing that our best days are ahead of us! Ephesians 3:20 days!

• You may have noticed that we didn’t hold our service last Sunday. Instead, we encouraged people to go hang out with friends and family for the Superbowl and be the church “wherever we go!”.
• Sounds like we had some good parties.
• Last night we continued the “Wherever You Go” series with a message by Darin on being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that we’d be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
• But first, he said we’d be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit!
• Jesus did not intend to send us on mission without first equipping us.