What is evangalism?

I thought this blog article might be interesting for us. I especially like the Rick Warren quote, “Saddleback doesn’t have any kind of official evangelism program. We simply ask people, ‘What do you love to do most? Go do that with unbelievers.’ ”

Are Small Groups Important to this church?

Here's what I am wondering right now as we end 2007 and begin 2008: Are small groups part of the DNA of The River? One of my goals for this church is to think of ourselves as a "church of small groups." Many are connected with each other in small groups but my sense is that we don't see those groups necessarily as places where we provide the care for each other that we used to look to elders and/or pastors to provide. Will we ever get there or is The River's history one that makes it hard if not impossible to get there? Just recently again it seemed that folks were pulling and tugging at elders or pastors to do what small groups ought to be doing. Will that change? That's what I am wondering.

It's December 17 already?!!!

Yipes! It's the week before Christmas and time to post something! Yes, we did have our small groups leaders breakfast on Saturday, December 1. About 20 came to partake of the delicious food provided by Linsey, Debbie, Jill and Joel. Thanks guy and gals. We had a great time sharing God moments from our groups, reporting on our groups, sharing the sense by some that studying the Scriptures was central. For others the care that they provided to each other was a tie that bound them together. Some new groups had started up and I was glad to hear that.

Ruth and I are starting a new group next year. We are soliciting names of prospects, so pass along names that might be open to being part of our group. We plan on meeting about every three weeks. If too many sign up, we will get another or other groups going. Spread the word.

Have a wonderful, blessed Christmas.

Small Group Leaders Meeting

It's now November. Time to touch base. I'm letting you know that we plan to invite all small group leaders to a Saturday breakfast at the Riverhouse at The River on Saturday, December 1. We plan to serve breakfast at 8 a.m. and conclude no later than 9:30 a.m. It'll be a time to connect, pray, learn from each other and do a little training. Looking forward to getting together again. Our Sunday session in September was a really good one from my point of view. See you on December 1.

Kudos

Good job on the blog. Will your scripture reminder yesterday was perfect. I love the part about guarding our minds. What a dangerous place the mind is. I listened to a great talk yesterday by Voddie Baucom. Go to DesiringGod.org and listen to "The Supremacy of Christ in Truth in a PostModern Generation" Puts all perspective right where it belongs 'with Christ'. Looking forward to stimulating discussions. Soli Deo Gloria, Linsey

So here we go. I am very new at this, but the tech gurus in my life (Ruth and Lennie) are encouraging me to give it a try. This is a limited group, I am told. Only those I invite are part of this. I have invited all the small group leaders that I have in my email group to be part of this. And all of you can make contributions or comments. So feel free to do so.

Let me ask you how I can best be of service? What do you need? What frustrations do you have? What challenges do you face? What joys do you experience?

Small Group Conference in Chino

Here are pictures of some of the people who attended the conference at Crosspoint in Chino on Saturday, Oct. 6. It gave leaders a chance to connect with others from around the area as well as engage in deep conversations (as seen in the picture of Mark Leonard and Joel Verhoef).