RPCC Blog

4 Things

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:54:00 -0000

This week John talked about the natural tendency of things in life to grow more and more complicated. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time made having a relationship with God complicated. Jesus came with a simple message--not an easy to follow message, but a simple message. He made having a relationship with God simple. So simple the religious leaders of the time killed him for it.

The church began with a simple message. However, the church also has the tendency to get complicated. Over the past 2000 years we think the church has gotten pretty complicated. This has left many people thinking that church is for “church people” not for them. Less than 4% of the population of Ventura County attends church. River Park Community Church is going to change that.

Our goal at River Park Community Church is to keep it simple; you won’t see us having a huge menu of activities and classes you have to attend to be a part of our community. Instead, we believe a growing relationship with Jesus Christ is about three things: growing in greater intimacy with God, community with people inside the church and influence with people outside the church.

In order to fulfill that mission we need people to do four things. We don’t have a fancy title for the four things, no great artwork or branding. We just call what we do “the four things.”

The four things are . . .

Strategic Service: be a part of a team to make Sunday morning happen: (could be greeting, tech team, road crew, children’s small groups, acting, singing, stage management, hospitality etc. . .) Contact us at info@riverparkcc.com about strategic service opportunities. Or, you can stop by the information table any Sunday morning.

Community Groups: A community group is a small group of people who meet regularly to study the Bible together. It’s a safe environment to discuss the issues and challenges of life. It's also where people pray, care for one another, and are missed if they don't show up. They are made up of five to six couples or five to eight individuals and are the place where people are personally encouraged and challenged in their relationship with God and each other. Email james@riverparkcc.com for more information.

Percentage Giving: We have very real monthly financial needs to continue the ministry of River Park Community Church. However, we believe at RPCC that you need to give, more than we need you to give. We believe God has a plan to provide for our needs as a church, but we also believe that one of the ways we grow is by giving. Particularly, we grow when we decide to give a percentage of our income on a monthly basis. It is this sort of regular giving that allows us to offer irresistible environments like Kidstuf and our Worship Experience on Sunday mornings. I find the easiest way to be a regular giver is to be a part of our online giving program called e-give. Clickhere for more information.

Invest and Invite: We don’t offer a lot of special outreach events. Instead, we want our Sunday mornings (Kidstuf and Worship Experience) to be a compelling environment on a weekly basis. We pour the vast majority of our resources into making every Sunday morning a place where you can unapologetically invite your friends. It is our only outreach strategy.

This is what we mean by invest. We all have a group of relationships with people in the community. They might be other parents on our kids’ soccer team, the co-worker in the cubicle next to you, the person you pass your clothing to at the dry cleaners, your child’s teacher, coach, dance instructor . . . your neighbor who you see every other month. These are people we already have relationships with.

Investment is when we take the time to learn their story, to hear their life struggles and life-celebrations. It is taking the time to build a relationship with those we are already connected with.

Invite is when we “just ask.” It is when we ask someone to come with us to a worship experience or a Kidstuf production. We invite someone when we make a specific ask. “We have this zany, crazy Kidstuf production that my kids’ think is a blast. And you know what? . . . it has even helped me talk about determination with my kids. What are you doing this Sunday? Would you like to go to Kidstuf with us at 10am. It is over at 11:45am . . . our families could go together and beat the lunch rush at Topper’s Pizza.” Or it might be, “You won’t believe this church I am a part of. It’s like no new church ever. You’ve got to come. What are you doing this Sunday at 10am. Want to go with me? We could do lunch after.

That’s our strategy. It’s simple. Invest and Invite. You do the investing and inviting and we will do our best to create an engaging, compelling and helpful environment for you and your family each week.

Who are you investing in? Who can you invite this weekend?

What Would You Say?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:34:00 -0000

This week I'm sitting down to plot out the preaching calendar for 2009. I take my job as Lead Communicator very seriously. It is a privilege and an honor to open God's Word and teach it, but as things get really rolling at RPCC, I want to make sure I'm answering questions people are actually asking when I take on a series.

The Bible has so much to say on issues that people struggle with every day. I love how preaching, when it's done well, can help bridge that gap.

So...if you could design a series or pick a topic to cover, what would you say? I'm all ears.

Launch Sequence Has Been Initiated

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:20:00 -0000

So, we're off and running. There is no turning back now. Launch sequence has been initiated!

We had our first adult worship experience Sunday, and we can officially say that River Park Community Church is a reality. We sang. We prayed. We read some Bible verses. Heck, we even took up an offering. That makes us a church, right?

Sure, there were some sound gaffes, and we have a lot of room for improvement. But our best guess is that close about 130 people were there -- including five new families from the neighborhood who don't go to church anywhere. That seems like a good number.

We'll talk about this more in a couple of weeks, but Jesus turned the world upside-down with 120 people in an upper room in Jerusalem who were just willing to do what he said. They were largely uneducated people with few resources and little clout. But they found that when they did what Jesus says, they were as unstoppable as Jesus is.

I wonder what Jesus could do with 130 people in a rented room in Oxnard. I don't know everyone who was there, but I bet we're better funded, better educated and better connected than those original folks were.

The question before us, however, is this: Are we willing to do what they did? Are we really willing to bet the farm on Jesus and his crazy plan to redeem the world?

If we did that, if we really went all in, throwing caution to the wind and jumping into whatever God has planned for us, if we really believed we were as unstoppable as Jesus is, what might happen in Ventura County?

That's not a rhetorical question. I'd love some answers here. What do you think might happen here if we really rolled up our sleeves and started doing what Jesus says?

Launch Sunday

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:40:00 -0000

6 weeks ago we had no sound system, no cast, no vocalists, no Kidstuf dancers, no greeters, no tech people, no set, no kidstuf director (or at least she hadn't started yet) and today we had our first Kidstuf production at River Park Community Church. Zero to full production in six weeks--that is an amazing feat. As noted by Jeff Cowan--putting this caliber of sound & audio system together was nothing less than supernatural. Putting a production like Kidstuf together in less than 6 weeks was nothing less than supernatural.

Some facts:
5:3oam our trailer was picked up from storage.
6:00am: set-up began and was finished by 7:30am
10am over 120 people shared an expereince together called Kidstuf and learned that: "God knows everything, so we should learn what He says."
At least 4 families came from the surrounding neighborhood in response to post cards that were passed out on Friday and our signs on Sunday morning. And . . . they registered their children for Upstreet.
By noon everything was taken down and loaded into the trailer, while our sound system was tuned for the room.
At 1:30pm I enjoyed lunch with my family.

Great work by an amazing team of people! We are praying that impossible things would happen through River Park Community Church so that there is no mistaking who gets all the glory.

Pictures of this Sunday are soon to follow on our website and facebook group!

Most Valuable Asset

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:06:00 -0000

Needless to say, this is a huge week in the life and history of River Park Community Church. Last Sunday, we practiced loading in and loading out with our brand-spankin'-new KidStuf set. We ran through some of the songs we'll be singing this week. We danced. We laughed. We drank coffee.

But this Sunday everything changes.

This Sunday, it's not practice. This Sunday, it's not just for a few interested people. This Sunday, it's live and for real.

This Sunday, dozens of families will enter our doors and experience KidStuf for the very first time. This Sunday, moms and dads will be given some tools to help their children grow in the virtue of Knowledge ("learning something new so you can be better at what you do").

This Sunday, people who don't even realize that what they're really looking for is a relationship with God will show up -- kids in tow -- and experience something they never expected: a church that actually wants to help them be better parents. And, in the process, they'll probably begin to discover how different God actually is from the way he's so often portrayed in our culture.

But allow me to say, on behalf of our entire staff, that the most valuable asset River Park has to offer is not a program called KidStuf. It is not the coffee that we'll serve or the songs we'll blast through the speakers we still have yet to buy (our to do list is pretty long right about now!).

The most valuable asset we have is you.

Our volunteers will make our break this Sunday. My money is riding on "make". You will be the ones doing the really heavy lifting this Sunday (and every Sunday, for that matter). You'll do the inviting. You'll do the welcoming. You'll actually create the sticky factor that will make KidStuf a success.

See, there's a false notion that if we just build a fun and exciting environment, people will come and come back. But that's not really true. Sure, they may come once or twice, but eventually they'll stop showing up for the show.

Unless they've made some friends. Unless they've built some real relationships.

So, as you go about your duties this Sunday, as you're summoning all your inner strength to avoid hitting the snooze button at 0-dark-thirty, as you're pouring coffee and smearing cream cheese on bagels, as you're lifting those set pieces and running that sound cable, as your rehearsing your lines and holding those babies, know this: you're not just putting on KidStuf; you're not just helping launch a successful program; you're actually creating an environment where people who are lost and lonely and confused about life can establish relationships with other folks -- some of whom are in the same boat -- some of whom are a little further down the path of life -- all of whom are in desperate need of a deeper and greater relationship with the best Parent of all.

River Park went down to Georgia

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:53:00 -0000

Friday was our first official meeting since James and I returned from an internship at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. To celebrate we had a Southern potluck—does that make us Baptist? Maybe . . . Southern Baptist?

Our featured food was Marcona Almonds—guaranteed to keep your spleen lean. They are from the South of Spain . . . which is a sort of South.

If you didn’t make it, you missed some great food and lots of sweet tea. You also missed an update on what is happening at RPCC.

Some things we talked about:

The mission of River Park Community Church is to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating irresistible environments that encourage intimacy with God, community with insiders and influence with outsiders.

In a past blog I talked about 5 catalysts of faith—five things that God uses to grow us spiritually. They are practical teaching, providential relationships, private disciplines, pivotal circumstances and personal ministry. We believe that the best thing a church can do is create environments where those five catalysts can be best leveraged. One of those environments is community groups. A community group is a small group of people--8-12 people committed to meeting together on a regular basis for fellowship and Bible study. It is where I believe that all five catalyst converge. It is where people do life on life.

Important Dates: Our goal is to launch two irresistible environments in the fall: Kidstuf on September 14th and our Worship Experience on October 5th. We will be alternating Kidstuf and the worship experience until January 4th.

Our next launch meeting is Sunday August 3rd at 6:30pm at the DeLillo’s.

Four Things: I often get asked about membership at RPCC. Membership is participation. Specifically, to be a part of RPCC we want people to be involved in four things. (One day we will have some great branding for this, cute logos and maybe a jingle—but right now it will be known as four things.) We want every person at RPCC to be involved in community groups and investing in outsiders and inviting them to our environments. We want people to be percentage givers and involved in personal ministry at RPCC. Those are the four things.

Hope to see you on Sunday August 3rd at 6:30pm. We are currently attending the 9am worship service at Camarillo Community Church.

48 Hours

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:29:00 -0000

48 hours at home, then a plane back to Atlanta for “nRich.” I am looking forward to talking with some of the other Strategic Partners of North Point. For those of you just now jumping in, our core team (James, Julie, Cheryl, John and I) are going to a two day conference for Strategic Partners hosted by the Campus Expansion Team at North Point Community Church.

We are looking forward to sharing all that we have learned last month at the internship and what we are going to learn this week at nRich. The last 7 weeks may have felt like a long pause—but it has been an incubation time for our core team.

A tidbit of what we have been learning:

We have said that the purpose of River Park Community Church is to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. When we say “growing relationship” we are talking about spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not a class or a checklist. It is not even primarily a set of doctrines, beliefs or practices, though many may have grown spiritually by utilizing those tools. We believe that spiritual growth is about three relationships: a relationship with God, a relationship with other believers and a relationship with people outside the church. We have defined spiritual growth as growing in greater intimacy with God, community with people inside the church and influence with people outside the church.

The Five Faith Catalysts

We believe there are five primary catalysts God uses to grow our faith. We refer to them as, you guessed it, the five faith catalysts. These five things are not listed anywhere in the Bible. We came up with the list by observing how God works in the lives of believers and even unbelievers. We are not arguing that these are the only five leverage points God uses. But we are saying that every time we hear someone recount his or her faith journey, at least one of these five dynamics is a part of the story. They are:

Practical teaching
Providential relationships
Private disciplines
Pivotal circumstances
Personal ministry

Practical teaching reveals where we are and where we need to go. Providential relationships allow us to hear from God through others. Private disciplines tune our hearts to God’s heart. Pivotal circumstances force us to look at God. Personal ministry enables us to experience God’s power. Each of these, in its own unique way, builds our faith in God. And at some point in your spiritual journey, each of these catalysts will intersect with your experiences.

I believe that these five faith catalyst point to why we believe River Park Community Church should do two things well: Sunday Worship Experiences and Community Groups.

Two things happen in our Sunday Worship Experiences: practical teaching and personal ministry. This is where you hear practical teaching on a weekly basis and it is where you can use your gifts and talents in ministry.

Three things happen in Community Groups: providential relationships, private disciplines and pivotal circumstances. Here is how it works. Community Groups are simply the environment where people can build close personal relationships. It is where people do life together. The relationships that are built in community group become providential relationships when we experience pivotal circumstances in our lives. During family tragedy, marital tension, the throws of parenting or a layoff our community groups are there. It is where we say that care, accountability and belonging happen best.

Private disciplines are private, but they often require the accountability of others around us to become habits. Community groups provide the close personal relationships with people who can hold us accountable to develop spiritual disciplines. It is also these same close personal relationships that help us apply the practical teaching we hear in the Sunday Morning Worship Experience.

It is really only the person who is doing life with you, that knows the circumstances of your life best, that can layer God’s truth into your life in a relevant and often life transforming way. I suppose that we can wait and hope that the winds of chance will place that one person in our life at the right time to speak the right words to us when we are experiencing one of those tough unexpected seasons of life, or we can be intentional and connect in a Community Group on a regular basis.

We believe that community groups are one of the most powerful ways we can leverage the five faith catalysts that God uses to change our lives. They are the five most common things God uses to help us continue in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is why we have made community groups the destination at River Park Community Church. We see everything we do as a step toward that destination. If a program is not a step toward that destination, than we don’t do it. period.

The 30-Day No Freak-Out Challenge

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:49:00 -0000

While Damon and James -- with families in tow -- were winding their way back west, I've been out here in northern California filling in for a pastor friend of mine while he took his family on a much-needed vacation. It's been a wonderful time for me to be alone with God, think about the future, plan some writing projects and just take a break from all the things that will begin filling my schedule again when I get home Tuesday night.

I've done a three-part series up here called "Contents Under Pressure". It was really just some stuff I needed to get up and talk about. It worked out that other folks needed to hear me talk about it! It's been therapeutic for me and, I think, helpful for them.

I wrapped up yesterday's message with what I've called "The 30-Day No Freak-Out Challenge" -- not the most poetic title I've ever come up with, but it seemed to resonate with lots of folks. In fact, I'd like to extent this little challenge to all of you at River Park Community Church as well. Here's the deal:

Jesus, when he lived here on earth, was often very busy. He had a lot to do, and he had arguably the most important job ever. And, when he thought about what he would have to face in the crucifixion, he actually said, "That distresses me" (see Luke 12:49-50).

But -- this is where Jesus is unlike many of us -- he never allowed his stress to hinder his relationships or become an excuse for irresponsible behavior.

How was he able to do this?

We see a pattern emerge in Jesus' life -- a rhythm of work and rest, community and solitude, service and prayer. In fact, earlier in the same book, Luke tells us what I think may be Jesus' secret: "He often withdrew to lonely places to pray."

Can you guess what the key word is in that sentence? I think it is the word "often".

He didn't wait until he was about to explode to get away. He didn't wait for a lull in the action. He didn't wait "until things settle down" to withdraw. He did it early (according to Mark 1:35), and he did it often.

So, here's the challenge: What if everyone who is a part of the RPCC launch & support teams made this a habit for the next 30 days? What might happen in our relationships? What might happen in our homes and in our workplaces?

Here's what I suspect might happen: Things will continue to go wrong at times. We'll continue to have many of the same struggles as everyone else. Financially. Vocationally. Relationally. But -- here will be the biggest change -- we won't be freaked out by things. In fact, we'll experience an inexplicable sense of peace in spite of our circumstances. That is, after all, what we're promised (see Philippians 4:6-7).

And that might be just the kind of thing some of your unchurched friends and neighbors are looking for: a church full of people who experience hard times just like everyone else but refuse to freak out.

So, how about it? Are you up for the challenge? Carve out a block of time each day to spend alone with your heavenly Father and see if the promise is true.

Week 2 Complete

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:43:00 -0000

This week Damon, John and myself (James) spent 6 intense days learning the simple strategy of North Point (www.northpoint.org).

Their strategy is exactly the same as RPCCs strategy; "Leading people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating irresistible environments that encourage intimacy with God, community with insiders and influence with outsiders."

A snapshot of our last week:
Sunday: Met the N.P. (North Point) staffer guiding us through this internship and also met the Lead Pastor of another new partner church from Jacksonville, Fl. We all met at the crack of dawn and drove two hours to visit Rock Point Church in Chatanooga, TN. This is one of 13 N.P. strategic partner churches. We helped them set up and generally hung out to observe and learn from them. Our job at these partner churches is also to critically evaluate them with our 'fresh eyes' and give feedback to their staff. We spent lunch debriefing and learning from their Lead Pastor. Very cool portable church!
Monday: Drilled down on Small Groups, lunch with a key N.P. staffer, then more Small Groups.
Tuesday: Wrapped up Small Groups and jumped into "Starting Point". Lunch with the N.P. staffer who heads up Starting Point. Wrapped up Starting Point in the afternoon and met the owner of the company we'll be outsourcing our accounting to. This company understands the unique needs of churches. I'm personally excited about this company as it will allow our accounting and administrative practices to be top notch and will free us up to focus more on our mission.
Wednesday: Studied "Foyer to Kitchen" strategy. Lunch with a Lead Pastor from a Strategic Partner Church. Spent the rest of the afternoon at Brownsbridge Community Church.
Thursday: Listened to the message "Everybody" and discussed. Lunch with Andy Stanley's administrative assistant. We gave her a gift from us to give to Andy as a "Welcome to California" gift. The gift? A pair of flip flops. Spent the afternoon in two different meetings. One with a staffer in the Strategic Partner department and the other with the CFO of N.P.
Friday: Began overview or "7 Practices" and had a great time of reflection and prayer.
Saturday: Our 2nd day off in two weeks! Yaay!!! John flew to Northern California for a week-long speaking engagement. He's had this camp and the following three Sundays of preaching in a church just north of San Francisco booked since last year. He plans to fly back and join us for four days next week. (Pray that their house will sell soon!) The Laings and the Delillos spent the morning at the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world. It was fun and very crowded!!! We got up close and personal with some whale sharks. I took my family to lunch at the largest drive-in fast food joint called The Varsity. The food tasted good but my gut is still churning 5 hours later. :) (I prefer The Habit!) That probably has to do with the fact that we ate breakfast at another classic southern 'greasy spoon' called The Waffle House. The Delillos spent the afternoon at Stone Mountain. This amusement park and laser light show will entertain them for the evening.

Wow, full week! Two great resources we are studying and encourage you to check out: "Creating Community" and "7 Practices".

Tomorrow starts another six-day week with a 2.5 hour drive to another partner church in Auburn, Alabama. We look forward to getting back on the ground with our team in Oxnard around the second week of July. We appreciate your prayers!

North Point Internship

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:23:00 -0000

James, John and I have spent the first four days together as strategic partners of North Point Community Church. . . . And we still haven’t been taught the secret handshake! However, John is going to try to distract the secretary so James and I can sneak into Andy’s office and take pictures of ourselves in his chair.

The campus expansion team has put together an intense internship schedule based upon the cumulative experience of their 14 other strategic partner churches. We will be visiting a different strategic partner each Sunday. This Sunday we will be visiting Cumberland Church in Chattanooga, TN. We will be learning the portable church set-up and tear down drill in four different strategic partners over five weeks. Afterwards we will meet with their lead team and debrief our experience.

Monday thru Friday are spent discussing various aspects of North Point philosophy and meeting with Campus Expansion team members. Over the next three weeks we will hit small group strategy, Sunday programming, finances & budgeting, big picture strategy and family ministry. If you are interested in pacing with some of the resources we are reading check out the books “7 Practices of Effective Ministry” and “Creating Community”. We are reading them this week and will discussing them next week.

Day 1: We heard the stories of the first 14 strategic partners. Here are some facts: the oldest strategic partner is 4 years old, (Wiregrass Church.) Nearly half of the strategic partner churches launched in 2007. We are one of two launching in 2008. We are the furthest West--the next furthest is Colorado Springs, CO.

Day 2: We had our first River Park Community Church staff meeting at North Point Ministries. They have set up an office for our use. I’ll have to take some pictures—it is quite a step up compared to my garage. Tuesday afternoon we watched a leader training DVD that sparked a 90 minute discussion--we are pretty confident we determined how to bring peace to the Middle East. Or at least, a few more things about small groups.

Days 3 & 4 were spent with Sanford Levings, the financial think tank on the Campus Expansion Team. Sandford represents 20+ years of experience as a CPA, venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Did I mention he has an MBA from Duke University, and knows the financial picture of a strategic partner? He will be walking the financial journey of River Park Community Church with us. What we have been learning is invaluable.

Today we will be debriefing what we have learned this week. We will be brainstorming ways to keep friends of River Park Community Church and launch team members abreast of the financial resources needed to impact our community in powerful ways.

We covet your prayers for how God will be guiding us in the coming weeks. I hope that you are each able to connect with each other this month. Our prayers are with you and your families