Sunday, March 25, 2007

Prayer Request for the Week of 3/25 - 3/31

1. Praise the Lord for the doors that have been opened for us so far.
2. Praise the Lord for His goodness and the burden that He is putting on each of our hearts to reach a community that so desperatly needs the hope of Salvation.
3. Pray for Mick Manor and his knee replacement surgery on Tuesday.
4. Pray for Greg Whitton as he is traveling this week for work.
5. Pray for the Johnson's onSpring Break in Florida.
6. Pray for continued recovery of Kimm Davis from her surgery and for Clay as he prepares for his back surgery.
7. Pray for Nicole and I as we prepare for the assessment April 17-20 in Indianapolis.
8. Pray that God would burn the vision and the mission of The River on the hearts of our district leadership.
9. Pray for me as I am working on strategies for The River.
10. Pray that in the midst of this time of preparation we will all be vigilent to reach new people for Christ.
11. Pray for unity in the midst of the churches of Grant County.
12. And Praise the Lord for He is so good to us. It is only by His grace that we can reachout into a lost and dying world with the great message of hope that we have.

If you have a prayer request that needs you would like prayed for shoot us an email or mention it in the comments section for this post so we can be praying. It is time for us to experience war on the floor in order that we might win the battle that we are in.

Matthew

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Why The River

As our Journey begins together many have asked why the River. Where did that come from and what is it going to say aboout us. As I was praying and really seeking the Lord on what will we call this Church I found myself in the middle of the book of Ezekiel. And has I was reading I came to chapter 47 and the verses simply just jumped of the page at me. You must know that I had prayed that God would give us a name that would encompass everything we will be about. Which will be a place of refreshing from the daily grind of the world, a place to come and find community and what a better picture than an old water hole, a place to find healing, a place to be fed, and finally a place to be the healer and the feeder. With that said the first 12 verses of chapter 47 painted that picture perfectly. Understanding that the church is more than a simple building but the church is the people. Each and everyone of us at the River our the church and in this passage then the River must flow from the sanctuary which would be us. And as the River flows out of us it heads to the banks of the river where it meets up and supplies the nutrients to feed these trees. Where inturn these trees find health and begin the process of producing thier own fruit and leaves that can and will heal the needs of the people that come in contact with them. Now can you imagine a community of Christ followers that have the Spirit of God rolling out of them to a hurting community. I believe that community of believers can and will be found at a place called the River.

Let me challenge you to read that passage through a couple of times. Once you have read it through come back and post your thoughts on the passage and what it is you see when you close your eyes and allow God to begin to shape your dreams for our Great Church and the community that we will be reaching into.

Matthew