Upstream – July 10
Dear River Life,
On Sunday, we left church with the charge to be neighborly with all; not just some. Jesus, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, highlighted the race (Samaritan) of the hero of the parable to show the kind of quality of life we have when we “inherit” eternal life. My prayer for you this week is that you experience the Kingdom of God break into your life as you, in the words of Mr. Rogers, ask “Won’t you be my neighbor?” I did highlight a specific ministry of our conference called “The Journey to Mosaic” that will take place next month that deals specifically with race as a Kingdom issue. If you would like to participate this year, here is the link for the application and more details: http://www.pswc.org/images/J2M%202012.pdf. If you can’t go this year, you can stay tuned as they offer this experience annually.
It’s fun to catch up with everyone each week as people are either coming back from vacations or headed out on vacations. With all that traveling about, we have no idea who will be there each week in the summer. I can’t wait for the fall as we continue to see more and more new people join us this summer. When we’re all back on a school schedule, I think we might have some seating issues! So, if you’re new to River Life, welcome!
Here’s an update this week on the happenings at River Life…
CHIC starts Saturday (Covenant High In Christ)
Bree will be leaving this Saturday to take 2 of our high school students to CHIC in Knoxville, TN for a week. Please be in prayer for these 3; that they have a wonderful/safe trip and are able to connect with Jesus and continue learn what it means to trust him and follow him. They will return on the following Friday. Because Bree is gone, there will be no high school group this coming Sunday evening.
Leadership Team Nominations
It’s that time again to begin praying about our new members for our Leadership Team. If you would like to nominate anyone to serve in the capacity of giving vision, direction, and discerning together where the Lord may be calling River Life, please email me their names and/or Catherine Puckering at cpuckering@hotmail.com (she is our Church Chair). To serve on the Leadership Team, they need to be members of River Life.
Art Gallery Open House
This Saturday, Patris is opening her new art studio in Oak park. Check her work out at (www.artist.patris.com). She has invited River Life to come and see her new digs and some of her work.
Love, INC
For the past 2 summers, River Life has been Church of the Week serving with Love, INC (In the Name of Christ). We will be serving in this capacity again this summer from July 16-21st. Rachael Hoskins will be leading us. To sign up directly to help out that week as a family, Life Group, Men’s Bible Study, Women’s Bible Study, or just individually, go to http://www.loveinc.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31&Itemid=16 and click on “COTW sign up”. It will take you to the River Life week and you can sign up to serve; it’s that easy. You don’t need to sign up for the whole week! You can sign up for a two hour spot once during the week! This year Love, INC will be needing some food as well as other items. We will have sign ups each Sunday before the 16th of July as well as signing up on line. As we have been led to focus on discipleship, this would be an “OUT” experience for you to represent the King and expand his Kingdom here in Sacramento.
River Life Family Camping Trip
Mark your calendars! Our Family Camp at Tahoe this year is August 16-19. For more information, contact our Camp Director, Mitch Golden, at climbera5@yahoo.com.
Convoy of Hope
On September 15th, River Life will participate with other Sacramento area churches for Convoy of Hope. Pat Watters will be leading us this year to serve Sacramento with other churches! We are excited about working together with other brothers and sisters that attend other churches. We will be giving more information as the summer winds down. This is an OUT experience for us as a church.
Baptism
We have had a request for a baptism this summer. If you have been thinking about being baptized, please let me know if you would like to be baptized some time this summer. Currently, we have four people that have talked to me about wanting to be baptized. Stay tuned as we try and coordinate our schedules to celebrate this specific moment in the lives of our dear friends.
Membership Class
We will have our membership class THIS SUNDAY right after church in the ministry house. According to our by-laws, you need to go through our membership class if you have come from another church; even if it’s another Covenant Church. Come find out more about the exciting life of River Life! We will meet for 2 hours and we will not be providing child care.
Fall Sermon Series
Our fall sermon series put out by Peter Scazzero called “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” will begin September 9th. “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” will be helping us with 2 important parts of our discipleship paradigm by addressing our UP relationship with Jesus and our IN relationships with other people. To purchase Emotionally Healthy Spirituality to read over the summer, you can click here to order: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591454522/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=50551192&ref=pd_sl_61kssk6cm0_e. A video to explain more of this series can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrxB3lRbrgA&feature=plcp. This fall, I will be sending out discussion questions you can use in any group you are a part of (Life Group, men’s bible study, women’s bible study, etc…) to discuss the 8 weeks we will be in this series.
River Life Fall Women’s Retreat
September 21-23rd! Mark your calendars now!
Finally, I want to highlight, again, that we are being very mindful of creating a budget for 2012-13 on our Leadership Team this summer. River Life has really taken on so much and we’re seeing so many wonderful things take place. However, we’re a bit tight in our budget this summer. Please pray for our Leadership Team as we work on our budget for next year, as well as, be intentional about your support of this ministry. The Lord is doing some incredible things we get to be a participant with!
Grace & Peace,
Bret
River Life Covenant Church
“There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows.” Ezekiel 47:9
