Between Sundays

Hey Church!

Hey Church!   We have some developments to report!

First of all, the launch of our 21 month long Capital Campaign was awesome!  There are so many people who genuinely love their church and are willing to sacrifice and invest in the Cause!

Here are the opening numbers (representing only ‘new money’ and not including the $150,000 donation back from one of the property vendors):

21 Month Capital Campaign Summary

Number of Giving Units to Date                             259

Pledge Sunday Giving (April 1, 2012)           $180,797

Giving after Pledge Sunday                               $5,900

Pledged over next 21 months                       $589,252

        Total Given or Pledged to Date:          $775,949

FIRE HALL: i’m pleased to report that i’ve met with the architect and seen the preliminary drawings on the Fire Hall.  i’ve been told that we should have drawings ready for a building permit application in 2 weeks!

The current plan is to do as little alterations to the Fire Hall as necessary.  We’re looking at removing a couple of partition walls on the third floor to make room for 4 more offices.  After that, we’re hoping all that is required is ascetic and decor related.  At this point we don’t have any major development plans for the main floor.

Volunteer work crews should start on the Fire Hall in about 2 weeks.

ALLMAR PROPERTY:  We’re still working with the lawyers on the final sales agreement for the Allmar property.  i can report to you that i met with the elders last night for our first discussion about development plans since the Capital Campaign totals-to-date were calculated.   Here is our plan:

1. Assemble a Building Committee

2. Assign the architect to do a feasibility study on the Butler/#8 building development potential vs. the WoodShed building development potential.

3. Have the Building Committee and architect begin to dream up a Phase 1, 2, 3 development plan that would get us out of Jubilee quickly and into our own space…even if that space needs to change, morph and grow over the years as money becomes available.  (Jubilee costs us about $3000 a month, so we’d like to invest that money in development rather than use it on rent).

So, thanks for checking in and stay tuned for the next Volunteer Crew date to be announced soon!

- Todd

Church!  As we’ve been talking about for the last few weeks, we set aside yesterday, March 27^th as a Day of Prayer and Fasting…particularly for the Deep Roots initiative and the future-shaping Capital Campaign/Pledge Sunday this weekend.

Our staff had a great day off-site together praying for our church and learning more about prayer.  At one point, i sent each of them off with a book on prayer from my library.  Their job was to learn more about prayer and then come back and teach us.  It was so incredibly rich!  Here are just some of the concepts that they shared:

• When we hold on too tightly to the good, it means we can’t embrace the even-better that God has for us.
• Prayerless people cut themselves off from God’s prevailing power.
• Prayer is the key to unlocking God’s prevailing power.
• If we are living close to God, it is easy for us to hear the whisper of His voice.  If we are living further away from God, it takes much louder and more drastic sensations to get our attention.
• Most of us pray ‘achievement oriented’ prayers and need to learn to just linger in His presence more.
• Many of us have created a life that doesn’t need miracles!
• May we be the kind of people that God can trust with a miracle.
• Rev. 1:18, 3:7 and Matt 16 speak of Jesus holding the keys.  What we allow…He will allow.  What we loose…He will loose.  What we bind…He will bind.  We have an incredible responsibility to pray and activate Heaven’s power!
• Matt 7:7 (ask/seek/knock)…but what about when it doesn’t work.  Richard Foster provided a powerful illustration.  He said, when our TV doesn’t work, we don’t assume there is no such thing as television ‘sound-picture’ transmission.  We simply search, try, push buttons, wiggle wires, adjust and fix the TV.  We know it’s supposed to work…and so we are determined to figure out why it’s not.  However, when it comes to prayer, many people ask, seek and knock…and when it doesn’t work, they assume there is no validity to prayer or that God doesn’t exist.  Foster challenges us to approach prayer like we would approach a TV that isn’t working.  Assume it’s supposed to work and then figure out why it’s not.  Search, try, push buttons, wiggle wires, adjust and fix the prayer transmission and reception.

It was amazing how quickly the day went as we knocked on Heaven’s door.  We prayed for our church, our community and the future of Riverwood.  We prayed for the Pledge Sunday this week…and for the 100’s and 100’s of personal decisions that will be made.  We prayed for greater effectiveness and impact…and for a remarkable weekend of outreach and worship on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

i hope you too had a great appointment with God yesterday.  If you missed it or weren’t able to squeeze it in…hey, there’s always today!

Have an awesome rest of your week…

Pastor Todd

So, after a couple of weeks of waiting, Riverwood was introduced to the ‘big idea’ this past weekend.  If you missed the reveal, you can access the video or audio of the service on our website:  www.riverwood.cc  (go to ‘messages’ after Tuesday)

In a nut-shell, here is the three-part plan:

#1 Everyone Adopts-a-Block & Prays

Imagine a sponsor-kid fridge card that many of us have.  We’ve simply borrowed the strategy.  We have captured 1200 pictures …with 3 Elmwood homes in each one!  3600 homes in total!

Next Sunday, you will have the opportuntiy to begin ‘ADOPTING-A-BLOCK’ of 3 homes.

Your job is simple and two-fold:

PRAY everyday for the next 366 days for the people who live in those homes!

You will probably never meet them.  You won’t know their names or their specific situation, but everyday for a year…we can pour God’s blessing into the homes in our community.  We’ll pray for health.  For finances and jobs.  We’ll pray for the relationships in those homes.  For strength, courage, joy, hope, healing and freedom.  We’ll pray for prosperity and success.  Favour and blessing.

The second part is as challenging…

#2  Let Them Know We are Praying!

Next weekend when you pick up your ADOPT-A-BLOCK card…you will actually be picking up a PACKET.

In the packet will be:

• Your 366-Prayer Fridge Card
• A Registration Card (so we know exactly who has which homes)
• Three blank envelopes
• Three blank pieces of paper
• and one ‘Template Letter’

What we are going to do is send a message to all 3600 homes in our community.

You and I may never know who we are praying for, but they will know we are praying!

Now, it will be the same message with no deviations.  What we are asking you to do is simply copy, word for word, a letter in your own handwritting.  Then we are going to go out, each of us walking up to the homes we’ve adopted and hand deliver the letter to their mailbox.

Now, there is a third part to the DEEP ROOTS, ADOPT-A-BLOCK plan.

We’ll simply call it…

#3 Offer Personal Prayer

We’ve ordered 3600 fridge magnets that simply say … www.pray4me.ca  By next week, this will be a Riverwood/Elmwood exclusive website that will be an opportunity for people to request prayer.

Church, if we can actually pull this off, there will be over 1.3 million concentrated, expectant, focused prayers pouring over and into our community.

What kind of difference could that make?  Well, we’re about to find out!

So…what do you think?  Silly?  Impossible?  Big enough?  A God-thing?

- Todd

Sometimes, when we are in the middle of it, we can’t see just how remarkable it really is!

This morning is my day off.  Well, it’s supposed to be, but because of all that is going on this week i need to work.  On my way into the office this morning i stopped at my usual neighbourhood 7-11 for my coffee refill.  i know all the staff there by name but i don’t think they really know who i am.  At least, i didn’t until this morning.

After filling my cup i approached the till and said good morning to the manager.  Usually we keep it simple, but today he asked, “So?  Things are pretty busy for you?”  Now, i’m wondering from what context he’s asking the question.  Just generally speaking…or is he asking specifically about the church and me as lead pastor.  i got the sense it was the later, so i told him we are in a very busy and intense season.  His reply was, “Ya.  i’ve heard you have like 800 people going to church over there.”  i didn’t want to challenge him in any way, so in a rather sheepish tone i said, “Well…yesterday was probably a little more like 13 or 1400.”

Unable to contain his surprise, he let out a “Holy miracle!”

i’m thinking he meant “Holy mackerel!”…but it came out “Holy miracle!”

We chatted a bit more about what’s happening at church, the buildings we’ve purchased and the plans for expansion.  Then i walked out with his expression and phrase was left bouncing around in my head.  “Holy miracle!”

As i drove up to the church a few minutes later i thought i might have heard the Lord whisper to my soul, “…and don’t you forget it!”

Now…i’m ready for my day.

- Todd

PS…wiktionary’s explanation of “Holy mackerel” – Recorded from 1803 with uncertain origin, but possibly a euphemism for Holy Mary, with Mackerel being a nickname for Catholics because they ate the fish on Fridays. Another suggested explanation is the practice of selling mackerel on Sundays in the seventeenth century (because its quality deteriorates rapidly), so it was known as a holy fish.

 This past Sunday we studied one of the first-ever composed Christmas songs, Mary’s song found in Luke 1:46-55.  We discovered how Mary journeyed from confusion and trouble to an accepting attitude…and then on to ‘magnify the Lord’ right in the middle of her trouble and crisis.

This week i’m inviting you to write your own “Magnificant”!  It doesn’t have to be song-like…just words from your heart that will make the Lord ‘conspicuous’.

Use the ‘comment’ button to leave your own Magnificant and let’s turn our eyes from our troubles and stresses…to the greatness of our Lord!

- Pastor Todd

 One hundred couples found their personal ‘date table’ all set up and ready for an evening of fun, conversation and romance this past Sunday night.  None of us were taking notes, so here, in print, are some of the ways you and your spouse can CRE81DR in your marriage:

1. BE EXTREME!  -  Tim taught us that none of us should settle for an ‘average’, ‘OK’, ‘tolerable’ or even ‘healthy’ marriage.  Let’s start putting some passion back into our marriages!  Let’s start getting a little extreme!  This is about adjusting your mindset.  When you start thinking in terms of loving our spouse with an ‘extraordinary’, ‘amazing’, ‘astonishing’, ‘exceptional’ love, we’re awakened to the fact that there is more potential in our marriage than we are currently experiencing.

2.   WONDER BEGINS IN THE ORDINARY! – Now, this might sound like it totally contradicts #1…but it doesn’t.  For an attention-starved wife, stopping to buy her a favourite coffee or flower will feel extreme!  For a sex-starved husband, leaving a little, folded note on his plate that says… “After supper, instead of doing dishes, let’s go and make love!” will feel extreme!  For a conversation-starved wife, telling her you are skipping your game tonight to take her out for coffee so the two of you can just talk about stuff will feel extreme!  For the affirmation-starved husband, using your words to thank him instead of correct him will feel extreme.  Coffee.  Notes.  Words.  Time set aside.  None of these are extreme in and of themselves…but they have an extreme impact.

3. IDENTIFY RUTS AND RUTHLESSLY FILL THEM IN! – We are all prone to travelling the same roads in the same ways…and that produces ruts.  Identify the rut and refuse to stand for it.  Shake things up a bit.  Do things that are not predictable.

4. “I NEVER SAW THAT COMING!” – this phrase should be your goal.  Ask yourself, “What could I do for my spouse that would illicit the response, ‘Wow!  I never saw that coming!”

5.  BE INTENTIONAL! – Creating wonder in your marriage will never happen by accident or even naturally.  Marriages left to fend for themselves are like gardens left to fend for themselves.  They grow weeds and become over-run with the very things you don’t want in a garden.  If you are going to spark your marriage into a new season of intimacy, growth and connecting…you will need to be intentional!  That means you have to PLAN.  You will need to RE-ARRANGE your schedule.  You will need to take the FOCUS off yourself.  You will need to being willing to RISK and PAY THE PRICE.

6. WOMEN – BURN THE BLUE FLANNEL NIGHTGOWN! – This became something of a metaphor through our weekend, but it simply means that you may need to stop saying “So, do you want to do something tonight or not?”   For many couples sex has become mechanical and routine.  You might just want to make it a little more playful and mysterious.  And remember, when it comes to body shape and self confidence, husbands aren’t so concerned with what you do or don’t have!  They’re way more concerned with what you ARE DOING with what you do have!

7. MEN – OPEN YOUR MOUTHS AND SPEAK!!!! – Learn to talk!  You would love it if your wife would initiate some wild, hot, deeply-intimate sex.  Well…your wife would love it if YOU would initiate some focused, meaningful, ‘I-really-want-to-hear-your-heart-and-i’m-fully-engaged’ conversation!  Learn what this means!  Learn how to do this!  Stumble and fail and fall flat on your face…but be a man, get up and try again!  Just don’t stop sharing your ideas, hurts, dreams, concerns, hopes, disappointments and ponderings.  Learn to ask great questions.  Then learn how to listen with both your ears and your eyes.

8.  DO SOMETHING EVERYDAY! – “But that’s impossible!!!”  Really?  I don’t think so.  It can be a text message, a note in her makeup bag or just a phone call to say, “I was thinking about you.”  It can be delivering his favourite cup of coffee in the middle of the day.  It can be as simple as slipping your hand into his.  It can be as complex as planning a surprise weekend away with her.  Just break out of your ordinary routine to find some new-to-you ways to remind your spouse that they are on your mind everyday.

If your spouse isn’t very receptive…big deal!  Wear them down with your kindness, love and attention.  If your spouse isn’t very good at giving back…big deal!  The only hope you have of them learning is if they feel your marriage is a safe place to experiment and learn.  If your spouse is already creating wonder…great!…make it your goal to out-give them!  Whatever you do…don’t give up and don’t stop!

- Pastor Todd

This past Sunday i handed out some homework for couples:

Guys – turn your ‘relational posture’ to be FACE-TO-FACE with your wife.  This meant 1 hour of conversation, sharing words, emotions and ideas.

Women – turn your ‘relational posture’ to be SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER with your husband.  This meant enjoying an activity of some sort together.

Then i asked you to send me your photos.

Here are a few i’ve received.

(above) Ross & Della Apperly – “30 years of marriage says ‘face time’ works!”

Gwen Foord shoulders up to her husband James while Wendy Frejuk shoulders up to her husband Doug McMillan!

Raking leaves is way more fun when your wife shoulders up to join you!  Duane & Patricia Skjervem.

 ”I know… it isn’t recent… it was taken at the Zombie walk near Halloween… but
I thought it was kinda fun.”  – Jan & Juergen Severloh

(actually doesn’t look very ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ Jan :)

Carolyn and i took some face-to-face time over dinner at Applebee’s.

Was hard NOT to talk about work with so much going on, but we’ve become pretty good at learning to shift to more personal topics about ‘us’.

Jim & Joanne Wackal get super-serious about the whole ‘face-to-face’ time!

Way to go guys!

“Karl and I (Mackenzie) had a great date night this past Friday. We went to supper central and made meals for our family shoulder to shoulder. Our face to face time comes a little easier for us as I always try to sneak some time in the late evening for us to “check in” with Karl. But we’re still working on finding the time to sit for an hour and talk.”

 Keep the face-to-face and shoulder-to-shoulder date pictures coming!

- Pastor Todd