Upstream – January 18

Dear River Life,

As I sat down to type today, I was thinking how to start this weekly Upstream to you. It made me think about how the apostle Paul may have started an email. So I looked up and saw how he started Ephesians and I liked how he began his letter to his church in verses 1:2-4: “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”

I was struck how I usually end my emails with Grace and Peace and see here that Paul started that way! So, as you sit down to read Upstream, may you experience Grace and Peace at this moment!

What’s happening this week?
Where as last week was extremely busy, this week a bit lighter. We have some important things I want you to know about so you can look forward a ways out and put some things on your calendar as well as for prayer concerns at River Life.

Worship Director
Our worship director search committee had a wonderful time with a viable candidate for us to serve as our Worship Director this past Sunday. We have really sensed a good connection and we will be taking some more steps with him. He did sneak into church on Sunday and worshipped with us! Please continue to pray for this! We have waited for awhile and the story behind how the Lord introduced us to this brother is quite important. We want to be sensitive to the Spirit as we continue to walk down this road with him. I will keep you posted as we take more definitive steps with him if that’s what seems like we should do.

Interview
Tomorrow at 10:15 a.m., I am being interviewed by Dan Axtell from Restoration Life on his radio show. It will air January 26th at 3:00 p.m. on KFIA am 710. Dan is leading the Season of Service for Sacramento churches to work together to serve the needs of our city. So, if you have found a place to serve Sacramento, continue to do so. If you would like some ideas on how to serve and would like more information about what this is all about, click here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/17/4192419/sacramento-area-churches-gear.html

Joseph Offering for February
It seems that I find myself feeling a bit uncomfortable when I am at a stop light lately as there always seem to be someone standing outside in the cold with a sign out front asking for help. I never know what to do; do you feel that way? So, for February, we decided to do something about that. For our February Joseph offering we are collecting items for “Blessing Bags”. The items will be assembled into bags by our young people during the week. The following Sunday, we will pass these bags out to put in your car so that when you are at a light, you have something to give out. Here is a list of ideas of things you can bring: Gallon size Ziplock bags, chap stick, packages of tissues, toothbrush and toothpaste, comb, soap, trail mix, granola bars, crackers, pack of gum, band aids, mouthwash, coins, hand wipes, warm socks, gift cards for fast food.

DD & DD
Since we have launched an intentional discipleship paradigm at River Life that we are still working through (I meet with 8 other leaders who will continue to meet this year and then in the fall they will be leading new groups). With that in full gear, the question is, “What next Lord?” The LT has a retreat planned and we wanted to have some very important information to take with us on our retreat to process through and listen to. I really believe the Lord is at work and speaks in, and through, the Body at River Life. So, for February the LT will have Delicious Desserts and Divine Discussions. We would like to invite you into one of our homes (the LT) for an evening to let us know what you are sensing, what you are thinking about, what the Lord might be saying to you. This is open to everyone! (We are going to ask that children not participate as providing child care for each evening would be complex for the LT. Please secure your own child care for the evening you sign up for) I wanted to get the dates to you each week until then so you can look at your schedule and see which date would work the best for you. I’d like to have you sign up directly with the person hosting that evening so they can make arrangements. Here are the dates:

February 16 Pastor Bret
February 20 John McCardle
February 21 Christal Kapicka
February 23 Tina Bosh
February 24 Matt Johnson
February 25 Shannon Hardwicke
February 27 Catherine Puckering

Youth Ministry stuff
Finally, after our Parents Meeting this past Sunday, it was decided that our high school group will begin meeting right after church on Sundays (beginning this Sunday) and the Junior High group will be meeting Sunday evenings from 6:00-7:30 p.m. So please be aware of this change. On another youth ministry note: there seems to be some conflict beginning as our new youth pastor (a Trail Blazers fan) has led the charge to take students and adults to the Blazer Kings game on February 2nd. Evidently Bree believes that the Blazers will beat the Kings and has begun to make signs already and has Blazers gear she will be wearing. Please pray for this division in our church; that the Lord would bring about unity on the court and in the stadium (of course, all of this is just for fun!).

Have a wonderful weekend!

Grace & Peace…again!

Bret
River Life Covenant Church
“There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows.” Ezekiel 47:9