October 2008 Archives
4 Things
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?
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
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?