Greetings Church Family,
I pray that you are having a wonderful Holy Week and that this mailing finds you and yours well. Be assured that you are much loved, missed and remain in the daily prayers of our church staff, leadership and church family.
Currently our church staff is preparing two Holy Week services to observe and celebrate the season.
First, this Thursday, April 9, beginning at 6pm, we will participate in the unique worship experience -
Tenebrae, A Service of Shadows.
The service will be led by our church staff and members of our church family. Included in this moving worship service will be the story of Christ’s Passion experienced through the reading of scripture, seasons of reflection and prayer and worship of our Lord and Savior through the singing of traditional Easter hymns. The Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service will be available via
Zoom
.
For those who would like an even deeper worship experience, may I suggest that you worship by candlelight. (And the light from your computer screen or television monitor
🙂
)
Second, this Sunday I will be bringing an Easter message from
John 20
exploring
The Resurrection of Christ
. What a true joy to preach on Easter Sunday, especially to those I love and miss so deeply. Know that I wish we could gather together for Easter, but since we cannot, join me in prayer and worship via
Facebook Live
this Sunday at 10:30am.
The two big questions I am being asked these days are (1) When will we worship together again and (2) How are we doing financially. For those who missed last weeks responses...
1.
When will we worship together again?
At this point we still don’t have a final answer to the question. What I can report is that
we have set
our next target for gathering on May 3
. The Church Council will meet again on April 19 to assess current information and determine if the date is still viable or if we need to push it out further. This decision also means that outside of digital meetings, there will be no RBC gatherings during the month of April.
2.
How are we doing financially?
Here is what I can report,
we had strong first quarter giving
to the general budget as well as continued giving to both the debt retirement and mission support buckets...
and we are off to a great start for April
.
I am tremendously encouraged and thankful for you and your financial support of the mission and vision of our church family. Know that your contributions and gifts are appreciated and needed. We are still ministering to our church family, our community and those in the kingdom daily. The mission of the Master remains before us and together we are fulfilling the opportunities before us. Your tithes, offerings and gifts make this possible.
We continue to have people ask how to give online. The easiest way is to go the Riverchase Baptist website and click the Giving tab at the top of the page. To make it as simple as possible...just click this link
https://www.riverchasebaptist.org/giving.html
and you will be directed to the RBC Giving Page. There you will see three ways to give...
Online Giving, Mobile Giving and Giving Cash and Checks.
I close today's newsletter with a heart overflowing with much love, joy and gratitude. In just a few days I will celebrate my first year anniversary as Senior Pastor of Riverchase Baptist Church (April 15). Most of you will remember that I preached my first sermon from that role on Easter Sunday. Excitement, anticipation and hope filled the day. (Not to mention a healthy dose of fear and nerves.)
Over this past year God has richly blessed our ministry together, and for that I am sincerely and humbly grateful. I love you deeply church family and believe our best days are right before us.
I do want to take a moment to say thank you to the search team for making this opportunity possible and for your support throughout this first year of ministry together. Sincere thanks to Stan Craft, Chairman, Reagan Denson, Barbara Tittle, Cathy Pecher, Mary Smith, Phillip Crittenden, Sherry Loper, Josh Caldwell and Page Rubin.
Thanks also church staff for a wonderful first year together. Thanks Chase, Murphy, Claudia, Becky, Nancy, Roberta, Cameron, Amy and Rhiannon. Well done good and faithful staff team.
Please continue to pray daily for Melinda and me. Know that I am tremendously thankful that we are family and that we are in this thing together.
Once this thing is over, let’s celebrate God’s abundant blessings together. I love you all and I am honored to serve as your Pastor. Give me a shout if you need anything.
Peace, Hope, Love, Joy and Jesus to all!
