This Sunday we’re doing Baptisms and BBQ at our place in lieu of a regular service. Then we’ll head down to the church building to watch the fireworks. Bring a drink, side dish, swim gear, and chair. We’ll do the rest! If you want to get baptized shoot me an email. Click Here for directions to our place. See you at 6pm!

• What a crazy Sunday! Our drummer had a death in the family so he couldn’t make it. We asked another guy to fill in at the last minute but he hadn’t drummed in quite a few years. He made it to rehearsal and was doing pretty well. But then he had to go and pick up his family and come back.
• It was 10 min after the service was supposed to start and he still wasn’t back so I gave him a call. Turns out he was running late, and having 2nd thoughts.
• So, we completely changed it up. I switched from electric guitar to acoustic guitar and vocals. Eric changed from acoustic guitar to drums. Jamie thought I was going to lead as well, but I made her lead. I’m not too confident on vocals. Every time I could hear my voice in the monitors I backed off the mike. Then Alex, the sound guy, would turn up my mike. Then I would back off even more.
• It was actually hilarious. Eric did awesome on the drums, Jamie rocked leading, and I just tried to keep it all together the best I could!
• Here’s the ironic part: the sermon was on Unstoppable Worship. The premise was that worship is not just about music. In fact, it has much less to do with music than we think.
• Music is just one small part of our worship. Worship is a lifestyle, not a music style. But it’s amazing how nit picky we can all get when it comes to the music in church.
• I think it’s worth a listen. Funny thing is, the microphone made me sound like I was talking with a lisp or something. Gotta just love technology!

You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting much. Part of that is because we’ve been watching the One Prayer video teachings and we aren’t recording any sermons. The other part is that I’m just taking a break.

However, this Sunday I will be preaching on Unstoppable Worship. It will be recorded and I will be updating the blog. Don’t give up on me yet.

• We launched the One Prayer campaign this week! I love what Craig Groeschel has done with this.
• Basic premise is this: Jesus prayed in John 17:20-24 that his church would be one. What if churches around the world united together, shared resources, and  gave generously? That is what One Prayer is about!
• The theme this year is “Unstoppable”. This week we heard from Steven Furtick from Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.
• His sermon was “Unstoppable Power”. We are to be the power of God through Christ. We are conduits for His power.
• Each of us has been given gifts to serve others and glorify God.
• Many of us have often said, “If only I had a million dollars, I would give so much away to charity!”. The fact is, if we aren’t generous now, we won’t be generous if we become rich.
• We need to think “inside the box”. In other words, what do we have right now that we can use for the Kingdom of God? Stop wishing for things we don’t have, and start using what God has already given you!
• God has already given us everything we need to do great things! Stop focusing on what you don’t have.
• Steven’s analogy of the bunt in baseball was one of the best I’ve ever heard.
• If you want to listen to his message, I would encourage you to go to http://2010.oneprayer.com and register, and listen to his message.
• Next week is Craig Groeschel’s message, “Unstoppable Courage”.

• River City Sunday on the Lochsa was a huge success! In case you didn’t know, we canceled church as usual and instead we went up camping on the Lochsa River in Idaho.
• We had 61 people either camp with us or come up for the service. That’s more people than we had each of the last several weeks!
• Maybe we need to think about how we do church for the rest of this summer. Rumor has it we may be doing church outside at least once a month! Rumor also has it that we might be resurrecting communion meals on those days as well!
• We had a great time camping with everyone even though it rained every night. At least Sat and Sun were nice.
• We pulled off the 1st pig roast in the new smoker trailer. It turned out perfect! Couldn’t have asked for a better maiden voyage. Can’t wait to fire it up for 4th of July and tailgates this fall.
• We did the service in an amphitheater at the campground. Couldn’t have been a better place to worship our Creator.
• We did an acoustic worship set with guitars and drums.
• Kevin Beeson came up from RCC Lewiston and brought a great message on the balance between sitting and waiting, and getting up and going.
• We’ve got to know when to sit and wait on the Lord, and we’ve got to know when it’s time to get ‘er done!
• The analogy he used was that the 2 greatest commandments are to love God (sitting and waiting on God), and to love your neighbor (getting up and going to serve people).
• We actually had some visitors at the service and also camping with us. We even had 2 strangers show up for the service! Good stuff!

• The last 6 weeks have been AMAZING!!! River City Church hasn’t grown this much (spiritually speaking) since we launched.
• God has been using worship, prayer, preaching, and LifeGroups to bring about this change. I really feel that we’re on the right track.
• God has been changing lives like we’ve never seen before. Individuals, relationships, and marriages restored.
• I am going to miss the Fallen sermon series. The Book of Galatians has been life changing. Did I already mention that?
• I preached for over an hour last night on sowing grace into our relationships. The bottom line is that the way we sow grace into others is through forgiveness.
• The best way to work through forgiveness is first to take the plank out of our own eye so that we can see clearly.
• Then and only then can we humbly approach others regarding forgiveness.
• Too much to explain here. You better just have a listen below:

Just want to remind everyone that we’re not having church as usual this Memorial Day weekend. Instead we’re going camping up on the Lochsa River in Powell, Idaho. It’s about an hour drive from Missoula and we’d encourage everyone who doesn’t want to camp to at least come up on Sunday. We’re having a pig roast at 2pm Sunday, and then a church service outside at 4pm with guest speaker Kevin Beeson from River City Church in Lewiston, Idaho. We’ve got 54 people confirmed so far! Don’t miss it!

• Looks like I forgot to update you on last week’s service. And this week we had trouble recording the sermon. Oh well.
• We continued through the book of Galatians. Chapter 5 this week.
• Talked about how verse 1 promises freedom through grace. But for some reason, many of us aren’t walking in true freedom.
• I believe that many have received grace, but haven’t extended it to others. That will keep us in bondage.
• Touched on unforgiveness and how that prevents from loving God and others.
• Next week we’re going to really focus on how to walk through unforgiveness. Should be life changing!

• Sorry for the short post last week. I was busy, and in a bit of a funk to be honest.
• This week is different. God is moving so big in people’s lives that it’s hard not to be excited!
• I’m reminded that if 1 person enters the Kingdom of God, that all of the angels rejoice. It’s all worth it.
• We got a new drummer this week. I put out a call on Facebook for a drummer, and one of our own, Kelly Indreland, texted me within minutes saying he used to play all the time.
• So we went to the church yesterday for a couple hours and practiced. He can drum!
• Worship went awesome tonight, except that I broke a string on the first song. Of course I’m the only one that noticed. How can that be? I didn’t even finish the first song!
• I feel like we’re in this season right now where it doesn’t even matter what our talent level is. It’s more about the heart. Even so, I think worship has moved up a notch in the last month.
• Preached on grace again. Big surprise. I think we’ve preached on that the last 4 weeks. Doesn’t get old.
• In fact, it’s causing some serious life change for people. I’ll preach it for the next 80 yrs if people’s lives are being changed. Billy Graham did it. If you listen, his message didn’t change for all the years that he preached.
• He preached Christ and Him crucified. That’s all. The greatest preacher of all time.
• Oh, btw, if you want to know the real driving force behind all the life change, that would be prayer. God is moving RCC to pray more, and it’s working.
• Here are some lyrics from David Crowder’s song, How He Loves Us:
• “When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory”
• “If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking”
• “And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss”
• The original says, “And heaven meets earth like sloppy wet kiss”. I like that better.
• “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about, the way, He loves us…”

Dear RCC,

I want to let you know what a blessing it is to know and be a part of each and every
one of your lives. You are family to us. You are the reason that we moved to Missoula.
I don’t think it’s an accident that each of you found and became a part of River City Church. And we just love to be a part of what God is doing in and through each of you!

As the summer season approaches we realize that many will be (and already are) traveling and out of town on Sundays. That’s completely understandable and I hope
that during this time you will be refreshed and your families will be drawn closer
together. Family time is important. I know that we have many vacations already
planned, and we can’t wait to get out ourselves!

I also know how important it is to stay connected with the rest of the church. Whether
we meet on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights, it’s easy to put other things ahead of meeting with the rest of your church family to worship and celebrate all that God has
done and is doing. As important as vacation and family time is, we need to have balance.
I mean, what good is it if we are doing it at the expense of our spiritual well being and
the spiritual well being of our families?

Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to stop gathering together with other believers. Why is
that? It’s so that we can encourage one another. It’s encouraging when each of you
shows up on Sunday evening and worships together with us, and serves beside us.
On the other hand, it can be discouraging when very few people show up. It’s easy
to think that it’s not that big of a deal when you’re not at church on Sunday, that you
won’t be missed…but I would disagree. We really do miss you when you’re not there,
and we feel that it actually changes the spiritual atmosphere of our worship gatherings when a large portion of our people are gone. River City Church is still small enough
that it feels like a family. Just like you notice when one of your family members doesn’t
show up to the dinner table, your church family notices when you aren’t there on
Sunday evening!

I certainly am not trying to make you feel guilty or anything like that. If you know me
at all, or have listened to the sermons the last few weeks, you’ll know that I’m not into rules. And there are times when you just need to get away and will miss a Sunday
evening. But as your pastor, I simply care about your spiritual growth and the growth
of River City Church. I know that when people get disconnected, spiritual growth stops. I’ve seen it happen so many times. It’s just like a plant that is disconnected from it’s
roots; eventually it will wither. We don’t want to see you or your church family wither!  We want to see you thrive!

So what can we do to make sure we don’t lose momentum this summer, both
individually and as a church? Let’s stay connected! One of the reasons we moved to Sunday evenings is that we knew that people would have the option of playing all
weekend and still make it to church on Sunday. But for that to work, we have to be intentional and purposeful about showing up on Sunday eves together.

Here are a few practical things you can do to make sure Sunday evening services
remain a priority:

1) Sit down with your family and discuss the importance of being a part of your
church family. Make a commitment together to continue attending our worship
gatherings throughout the summer, even if it means cutting some weekend
getaways a little short.

2) Identify the barriers to making it to those gatherings on Sunday eves. As a
family, brainstorm ways around those barriers.  I guarantee you can find a way
if you make it a priority!

3) Get connected with a LifeGroup that will be meeting throughout the summer.
Several of them are ongoing and will be doing BBQs and other activities on a weekly
basis.

Let’s make it our challenge for the rest of this year to buck the trend of declining
church attendance during the summer.  After all, “The Church” isn’t somewhere
you go…it’s who you are and you don’t cease to “be” who you “are” because the
season changed. Let’s be the church. Let’s make gathering together a top priority.
If we do that, I believe we’ll actually gain momentum and I guarantee we will see
God use River City Church to do great things in our lives and our city! In case you’re wondering what your part is, it’s to simply show up and God will do the rest! Let’s
do this!

Blessings,

Brian