RCLB Family and Friends!

Hope you all had a GREAT summer and are getting back in the grind of things. It’s been a hot summer here in the LBC and it will be nice for things to cool down a bit and we prepare for this next season at RCLB.  It’s been a fun summer, with the “Food, Fun and Film” events to backyard BBQ’s it seemed like there was something going on every weekend and a lot of days in-between, it’s been great being family. =)

With this new season comes change and although change can be scary sometimes for us we have always said that we write our mission and vision as a church in stone but the way to get there in pencil. Because we want to always be flexible with the way we get there, being willing to change and adjust when needed in order to stay most effective with the call that God has given us. So some excited changes will be coming soon and we are asking that you be in prayer for this next season!

Keep praying and stay sensitive to the Spirit of the opportunities that God is giving us to be His church well. God has us here, in this city, at this time to do His work. Which is going to be a great and glorious work! I hope your excited to be a part of it!

RCLB Family and Friends!

The year is halfway over and we have seen God working in so many ways. New people, new families, new lives and new dedications. We are walking through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and learning what it means to be in love with God so that it overflows into all the world.

Over the last month we have been challenged as a church to be unified in outrageous generosity and fervent prayer as exampled by Jesus. In doing this our goal is to seek God’s will, direction and favor in being apart of His plan in Long Beach. We hope that you would join us in prayer!

Keep praying as we go into a time of prayer and seeking direction for the opportunities that God is giving us to keep loving on our city well and to continue to be a healthy and growing church. These are ways that you can be specifically praying for.

1. Unity in our church family.
2. Monthly Mexico Mission Trips direction.
3. 5 for 12 love initiative. (Getting us more strategic and focused on loving our neighbor)
4. Generosity, commitment and obedience of our church family.
5. Right ways to partner with other churches in Long Beach.

Keep praying and stay sensitive to the Spirit of the opportunities that God is giving us to be His church well. God has us here, in this city, at this time to do His work. Which is going to be a great and glorious work! Be excited to be apart of it!

RCLB Family and Friends!

We are halfway through 2011 and excited to still be going and be used by God in the redeeming work of our city. We had a great Easter, Mothers Day and Memorial Day. Got our hearts focused on the sacrifices that people have made so that we can have hope and freedom. Jesus first and foremost who gave the greatest sacrifice so we could be saved from sin, mom’s who sacrifice so that we can grow up well and our soldiers that have sacrificed their lives so that we can stay free. Hope you all took communion hugged a mom and thanked a soldier recently!

We teamed up with City Church for Easter, another church plant and it was a great day of hanging and celebrating Jesus together. We had over 300 people come to 2 services and 25 children. Our egg hunt got rained on so we moved in all inside and just kept on going and it was a blast! Thank you all for your hard work and generosity to make this an event that we hope that city will want us to do over and over again.

Keep praying as we go into a time of prayer and seeking direction for the opportunities that God is giving us to keep loving on our city well and to continue to be a healthy and growing church. These are ways that you can be specifically praying for.

1. Continuing our morning service.
2. Monthly Mexico Mission Trips direction. (Our week long VBS trip in November)
3. 5 for 12 love initiative. (Getting us more strategic and focused on loving our neighbor)
4. Generosity, commitment and obedience of our church family.
5. Right ways to partner with other churches in Long Beach.

Keep praying and stay sensitive to the Spirit of the opportunities that God is giving us to be His church well. God has us here, in this city, at this time to do His work. Which is going to be a great and glorious work! Be excited to be apart of it!

Easter Sunday is coming up, which is the day millions celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now hold on, before you tune out saying that you don’t believe in this resurrection Jesus stuff. Have you ever asked yourself, what if the story of Jesus is true? What would that mean to you?

What if Jesus is the son of God and He did come here to show us what God is really like? What if He came here to show us as life as it was originally intended to be? What if your life now, with all the pain and suffering and death is not how it has to be.

What if, like the Bible says, Jesus really did let Himself be rejected by us so that we could be accepted by God? What if He really did choose to die for us, tortured and killed on a cross for us, so that we could really live?

What if the one and only God of the universe really does love YOU so much that He did send His one and only Son to die for YOU and then He rose Him form the dead, conquering death just so that He could be in a personal relationship with YOU.

What would that tell you about this God? What would that tell you about love and how much He loves YOU? How would YOU respond? What if we could stop asking questions and really know that truth?

Whether you believe all this or not, why don’t you join us?

Easter Sunday, April 24th 2011.

no pressure, no gimmicks, no confusion, just truth.

RCLB Family!

I hope this email finds you loving life because you are living in line with God’s plan and will for you! It’s been exciting to hear so many stories of how you are stepping out in faith taking hold of the opportunities God sends your way and then seeing God use you to do awesome things in your day to day! Keep on trusting in God, taking the time to get to know Him more and more, that way you can recognize the opportunities that He gives you and then have the courage to go boldly!

It’s been an exciting month! Watching God work as we launched a morning service in faith that it would glorify Him and that He would see it through! There was a need for a service in the morning, being more welcoming and available for families and children and it’s been great to see God bring new people to both services. We have had visitors each week, new children, people saying yes to Jesus, signing up for covenant membership, getting on board and behind God’s work for our church in Long Beach and we have baptisms coming up in two weeks! =) This is a great time of momentum for us and I’m excited to be apart of it with each of yall! Keep up loving God and loving each other! =)