Great service last night. Seems that we continue to have a few first time guests each week, and also had a few people come back who we haven’t seen in a while.
I thought worship went well. We’re doing 3 songs at the beginning, and 2 at the end. We might even swap that around. The response time has been really good the last couple of weeks.
We played Jenga in church. I used the Jenga puzzle to represent the church. I then labeled a bunch of the pieces with different spiritual gifts. Each piece represented a unique person in the church with unique giftings. I then had people come up and take out pieces one by one until it collapsed. You get the point.
God has shaped each of us to serve Him in a unique way. None of us was created identical. We need to celebrate our differences.
The church is incomplete without you. RCC needs you to show up and serve with your unique gifts.
The best place to exercise your giftings and abilities is in a LifeGroup. If you aren’t in one now, get in one!
As is our new tradition, we wrapped up the evening with some ribs and a Cold Smoke at Famous Dave’s BBQ. Gotta love that place! Good food, good friends, can’t go wrong.
Last night was a sparse spouse night. At least 6 of our regular families showed up with one of the spouses missing. Just a quirky observation!
It was great to have the Lewiston worship team over. Thanks to Sam, Becky, Brittney, and Justin for making the 4.5 hr trek each way in one day! Thanks also to Logan for filling in on the drums!
Don’t know if you noticed, but Logan was playing with a trick set of Guitar Hero drumsticks. Turns out no one had any drumsticks when he showed up yesterday. Also turns out that all the music stores are closed on Sunday. Game Stop was open though!
Continued our Wild Goose Chase series with “Being filled with the Holy Spirit”.
Some people believe we are filled when we first believe. Some people believe we are filled later. Some people believe we are constantly filled. I say “Yes!” and “Amen!” to all three!
We had a good response time. God to pray for some people. I’m seeing healing happening, and the Holy Spirit moving. Gotta love that!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Lot’s of love floating around RCC tonight.
We continued our series Wild Goose Chase tonight and talked about the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Based on what we see in the New Testament, the evidence of the Holy Spirit comes is manifested in 3 ways:
1) The Power to Effectively Communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ
On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples and the first thing that happened is that they all spoke in tongues proclaiming the miracles of God.
Then the most unlikely preacher of all stood up and boldly declared the gospel of Jesus Christ
2) The Power to Effectively Demonstrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Jesus worked miracles to confirm His Word and his disciples worked miracles to proclaim the gospel.
In fact, Paul told the Corinthians that he didn’t try to persuade them with wisdom or lofty words, but by the power of God.
3) The Power to Effectively Live Out the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Some of us have a form of godliness in our lives, but we don’t let God change our lives.
The fruit of the Spirit should be evident in our lives as a sign that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and that we continually becoming more like Christ.
So much more to share, but you’ll just have to listen for yourself!
We had a very intimate gathering today. We changed our service time so that people could make it to church and still watch the Superbowl, but we still only had about 50% of our usual attendance.
That didn’t stop God from showing up! Worship was awesome today. Very simple acoustic set. Probably why it was so sweet!
It was great to have Eric and Jamie up there leading again. You’ll be seeing more of them in the weeks to come.
We continued our series “Wild Goose Chase”. I wanted to share what Jesus’ disciples experienced on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
I decided to show a video from a session at the Lifelinks leadership conference last October. Priscilla Reid did a great teaching on the power of the Holy Spirit, and she is also a very good storyteller. Her rendering of the day of Pentecost almost makes you feel like you were there!
I’m believing that the Holy Spirit is going to do a transforming work in the people of RCC over the next couple of months.
Great service last night! We had a lot of new people even though it was snowing out.
It was Sam and Emily’s last night leading worship for a while. They’ve been so faithful and such a blessing to RCC. Be praying that they would clearly hear God’s voice regarding this next season for them.
Looks like Eric and Jamie are going to step up and start leading again. Looking forward to a new season of worship!
God was in the house last night! I sensed the presence of God in a way that I haven’t since we moved into the new building.
I feel like there’s an expectation in the people, and that we’re on the verge of a move of God. Not even sure what that means, but I’m excited!
Kicked off our new series, “Wild Goose Chase”. The Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit, “An geadh glas”, meaning the Wild Goose. They believed that living a Spirit-filled life was akin to chasing a wild goose. Wild geese are unpredictable, untameable. They can’t be caged.
We started last night by tacking the most basic, but important questions: “Who is the Holy Spirit? And, what is His primary purpose.
The Holy Spirit is not a force, energy, or power. He is a person. The 3rd person of the trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal, co-existant, and co-equal.
I likened the roles of the 3 to a building project. The Father is the executive. He is the funder and calls the shots. The Son is the architect. He has the master plan. The Holy Spirit is the contractor. He gets the job done.
The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is this: To point us to Jesus and the cross; to bring glory to Jesus Christ.
One of my longest sermons in a while, but worth a listen!
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