Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will fid it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” – Matthew 16:24

Now if I were trying to get people to sign up to help me do something, I probably wouldn’t try to scare them senseless before they could even get out of the box.  I don’t suppose Jesus was trying to scare his followers in Matthew 16:24, but I do think He was letting them see a realistic picture of what it meant to be his follower.  Simply stated, it meant losing your life.

None of us relish the thoughts of losing anything, especially our lives.  Our human instinct to protect ourselves, to run from the hint of danger and death are so strong, that hearing a sobering declaration like that from Jesus is hard for many of us to digest.  Especially when we are so accustomed to hearing that God only wants good stuff for us, He doesn’t want us to face danger, hardship, or suffering. Sadly, too many people have been given that marshmallow theology, and when hard times come they’re blown away, “But I thought this wasn’t God’s will for my life.  Why is this happening to me?”

Truth be told, God certainly doesn’t want to see any of us suffer, or go through hard times or trouble, but sometimes He does allow those kinds of circumstances to enter our lives to strengthen us or to fulfill a greater purpose.  Laying our life down, losing it for the sake of Christ means we don’t try to oppose Him, when he does allow bad stuff to happen to us.  That kind of surrender is what Jesus calls us to if we are to truly be his disciples?  That kind of life is the life that says, “God I trust that you have a plan for my life and if that plan involves good stuff and bad stuff, I’ll take it, because I TRUST YOU!”

This is where the life of discipleship begins.  This is where the true follower of Christ stands out from the crowd.

So are you willing to lose your life, to Christ?  Will you trust Him to be fully in control of your life?

What do you have to lose?

Join us this week @RiverChurch_ as we continue our series “The Loser”

I don’t know much about sailing.  I know the conditions certainly have to be perfect, and I know that there is a great deal of preparation in making sure the sails are set just right before launching out to sea.  I think I would enjoy the preparation part, but the part I would enjoy most, which is what I presume most “sailors” would say is their favorite part is when the wind hits those sails and the boat truly launches.  I imagine there is no more breathtaking feeling to stand below massive cloth panels with wind and to glide across the water.

Another item on my “bucket list” was to plant a church.  A life giving church that was committed to truly being the church that Jesus created during his time on earth.  After nearly six months of preparation, last week we finally raised the sails, and launched RiverChurch officially out into the city of Chattanooga.

Now if you’re a church planter reading this, when I say the word “launch” you will certainly have a prescribed set of images that may run through your head.  At least images of what you’ve heard a church plant launch should be like:

An energetic worship service, with lights, smoke machines, a rockin band of 20 somethings in Aerropostle shirts and pointy shoes, nifty giveaways for the guests, all preceded by a huge community wide marketing blitz letting people that your church, a different church from the other 50,000 in your city, is coming and its “gonna be cooler than all the others.”

Well the launch of RiverChurch was probably nothing close to that.  We did the community blitz a week before, just letting people know we were new to the neighborhood and would love to get to know them.  We left them a couple pieces of candy, with the expressed wish that we could find a way to make their lives a little sweeter, (cheesy? Maybe.  Effective? Likely.)

I can tell you more about the specific details of our launch, but let it suffice for me to say that the launch of RiverChurch was certainly not textbook.  In fact, one friend told me sometime ago that I was going about this whole churchplanting thing in a very unconventional way.  That bothered me at first, but I’m cool with it now.

No, our launch Sunday was primarily attended by the 25-30 people that had comprised our launch team and then about twice as many guests and people who were meeting us for the very first time.

Launch Sunday for RiverChurch was more about launching our individual lives into our own worlds, fulfilling the Great Commission.  It was kind of like untying the ropes of multiple sailboats, and launching them out into the spiritual waters of our city, rather than one large mother ship.  That day we focused on the fact that we’ve been called to make disciples and in fulfilling that Commission we will find our purpose.

For those who were new to our gatherings, which had been in existence for several months before, we invited them to become a follower of Christ, if they weren’t one, and challenged them to set sail as well, living a life as a disciple who makes disciples.

It was an exciting day.  It was a cold day.  Two days prior snow and ice fell on our community, forcing nearly every other church in the city to cancel services or meet at an alternative time.   But for us launch Sunday was as much about a community of faith recommitting to be launched back out in a cold world that needs our light, as it was about opening our doors, and flipping on the neon lights that would say,  “Yes, We’re Open”

Unless you follow us on Facebook, or twitter, our launch may have come and gone, and you may have never felt a tremor effect from it.  But that’s okay.  Last Sunday was launch Sunday for RiverChurch, Last Sunday a fleet of disciples were launched into their community for the purpose of making disciples, guided by the principles of loving God & loving others.   And as unconventional as it was, I believe Chattanooga will never be the same again.

RiverChurch is partnering with Operation Compassion a disaster relief organization that has already mobilized and providing immediate help in Haiti.  We will be taking a special offering this weekend at our gathering to go to Operation Compassion for Haiti.  If you would like to partner with a reputable organization go to Operation Compassion’s website and make a donation

Regardless of who you partner with, don’t just be moved to tears, be moved to action.  Do Something Now for Haiti

Its a fashion must-have – your very own RiverShirt!!!!

Okay, maybe a little overkill but you can get yours for $10.  Just email info@riverchurch.me to order yours!!

We are just under 4 weeks before RiverChurch publicly launches in the city of Chattanooga!

Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 10 a.m.

58 Commons, 4355 Highway 58, Chattanooga, TN 37416

Mark your calendars for this important day, and make plans to be with us.  If that’s not possible then maybe you would like to help us launch by giving a one time Launch Offering or a monthly gift for our first official year of ministry.  Your gifts can be mailed to:

RiverChurch Chattanooga, P.O. Box 22054, Chattanooga, TN 37422

Whether or not you can join us or help financially, please pray that RiverChurch can truly be a “river who’s streams make glad the city” of Chattanooga!

Our first official community impact event, City On A Hill, was a hit.

Thanksgiving brought us the opportunity to provide several families with full thanksgiving meals, complete with frozen turkeys, dressing, vegetables and even dessert.

A couple of weeks later we invited some families to join us for a special Birthday Celebration for Jesus, and sent Christmas gifts home with them for their kids to open on Christmas morning.

If 2010 looks anything like the last half of 2009, then its going to be a great year for RiverChurch.  Check out some of our memories here:

• City On A Hill
• Help Hillcrest Day
• First Worship Gathering
• Vision Meeting

That was our goal last night; to Shine!!  And I gotta tell you I think we did.  Please don’t misunderstand that statement.  Last night wasn’t about RiverChurch it was all about letting Jesus shine through us into our community, and man it was amazing.

We only advertised at the school where we held the event, that was scheduled to start at 7pm.  We planned to start when it became dark outside so we could light the hilltop up with tons of lights.  But people started showing up at 5:30 and we held them off as long as we could.  Once all of our cars were in place and the decorating was complete we flipped the switch and the first ever City on A Hill was clear for lift off.

There’s no real way to know how many people came to City on A Hill, but suffice it to say there were a lot of people that came.  We prepared almost 500 hotdogs and before the night was over every last hotdog was gone.  We were even scrounging to find a few pieces of candy for people who were coming  right up until 9pm when we shut it down.

Our team was amazing, they laughed, they dressed up in great costumes, and they smiled and hugged, and oohed and ahhed at every kid that came to their cars to play a game and get some candy.  And these kids loved it.  Some came by themselves and just clung to some of our workers. 

I think the coolest thing about the night was what happened at very beginning.  All day long it had been raining, and although the weather forecast was supposed to clear up there were times throughout the day that it didn’t look very promising.  We started setting up at 3pm under a vey heavy cloud cover, and from a distance we could see what looked like more rain coming.  I walked through the parking lot of ths school praying that God would blow the rain over.  Then somewhere around 5:30 or 6 the sun came out just as it was setting behind the school, and directly over our hill appeared the most beautiful full rainbow.  It was absolutely breathtaking.

The custodian for the school walked up to me, and said “I think somebody’s happy with you tonight!”

I’d sure like to think so.  I’d like to think that we shined for him last night, and it made him happy!”

It’s our very first Community Impact event!!

And we are PUMPED!!!!!

On Saturday, October 31 @7p we will be gathering at Hillcrest Elementary School off Highway 58 and we’re gonna light that hilltop up!  We’re using spot lights, flood lights, Christmas lights and any other kind of light we can find to light up the night sky.  If you’re driving by on Highway 153 you’ll see us.

Its a trunk or treat type event, but when people arrive on the hill they’re gonna find our peeps, sitting outside of their cars, loaded with candy, decorated like city shops, prepared with fun games, ready to have a rockin’ time.  We’re renting an inflatable slide, which will be the city park.

We’ll have a

Post Office,

a Grocery Store,

a Candy Store,

a Pet Shop,

a City Jail,

a Used Car Lot,

a Beauty Shop,

a Toy Store and

a Hot Dog Stand, stocked with over 400 hotdogs!!!!

Our Goal:

- To be a City on A Hill that cannot be hidden.

- To let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.

In other words: To do just what Jesus told us to do.

If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and say hi!!!

See ya at the City on A Hill!!!!

Oh yeah, Mr. Weatherman says its supposed to rain.  Help us pray he’s wrong – just this once ‘-)

At 8:30 we’ll be working at Hillcrest Elementary School for our second Help Hillcrest Day.  Last time we did some sprucing up on the outside of the building, and we’ll continue where we left off this Saturday with painting some of the railing along the sidewalks as well as clearing out trash and overgrown bushes that have confiscated some valuable parking area.  We’ve even got a few projects on the inside as well.  We’re really excited about supporting this school within our community, and they seem excited to have us around to support them as well.

Then Saturday night we’ll be pulling together the people who have committed to help get RiverChurch off the ground for a RE/GROUP Meeting.  We’ll be talking about the Vision of RiverChurch, and how the Launch Team members see themselves fitting into that vision.  We’ll be making plans for our official launch in January as well as talking about some other great stuff coming up this year.  This meeting will follow our normal time of Saturday night worship together, only I MAY teach a shorter sermon, we’re still not sure that’s even possible. :)

At any rate its going to be a great day.  So if you’ve been wanting to partner with RiverChurch or just come along and help us out a little, we’d love to have you at either of these important events.

We’ll see you there.