David Kennard

http://www.riversideconnect.org/

Books they're reading:

• Contrarian's guide to knowing God
• Going all the way
• Unchristian
• Launch
• Fusion
• Simple Church
• Dark Side of Leadership
• Become a Better You
• Renovation of the Heart
• A Work of Heart
• Making Vision Stick
• What a Difference a Daddy makes
• Improving Communication in your marriage without talking about it
• Simply Christian
• The Missional Code
• Chase the Lion
• Why Men Hate going to church
• Dog training, fly fishing, and Sharing Christ in the 21st Century (Ted Haggard)
• Go fish series by Andy Stanley
• Creative Leadership (Bill Hybels)

The services at this church are approximately an hour and ten minutes long. David, according to Tom Rees, is the small group guru. I definitely enjoyed this group's welcome - they came and introduced themselves to us like they cared about getting to know us. There have been many speakers that say we need to get to know people and care about people but they don't care to get to know us as a class - and we're people. :-)

David said certain no-no's would be pressuring guests to give. In order to gain people in their small groups that are seeking, Riverside has announced the small group through the newspaper called free market small groups. David says that the equation for discipleship should be

D = R + I

Discipleship = Relationship + Intentionality

Three things you look for when hiring staff is Competency, Character, Chemistry. If you don't have a small group ministry in your church, where do you start?

1. Leader must be supportive


2. Small group leaders care for a person in the group that may be in the hospital, sick, just had a baby, etc.


3. Let people know that as a believer, they are part of the priesthood.


4. Teach people through scripture that small groups are important (Eph. 4)


5. The Sunday schools are done through semesters (fall and spring)

Christianity:

1. Dream
2. Develop
3. Discover
4. Dedicate
5. Devote

Nick Poole

nickpoolenow.com

Nick Poole is on staff at Allison Park Church and is the head of the Multi-church movement and the pastor of church planting movement. Allison Park is the mother church of 7 church plants and also pours support and leadership guidance to 7 other churches in the area. Nick currently preaches every third Sunday at one of the church plants and helps the youth leader and also heads the staff meetings weekly.

Allison Park is planning on planting a church each year for as long as possible. The newest church was just launched this Sunday and meets in a boxing gym. They plan on doing 3 preview services in the future in order to build momentum. It is a good idea to have a good worship leader at a church and to find one early on. One thing to realize is that the people who are coming from the mother church will go to the church plant usually for only a season but then goes back to the mother church.

When interviewing for a church you should ask what the church's vision is in the future. You don't want to get on board for a church that is simply maintaining. Also, see what type of leadership the church will give - make a hypothetical situation in order to hear what they would do in a particular instance.

I'm amazed at Allison Park Church and the huge vision that it has. I was an intern there this past summer and was able to see many of the ministries and actually be a part of them. They are constantly moving to a next level and are continually learning from mistakes and trying to do something that works. They are focused on Jesus and His leading.

New Believer

Mike

1. Tell me about your journey to faith in Christ?
I first I joined Global Cafe which is the event for international students and organized by some churches and they have bible studies. I was attracted by their teaching and by the bible. So they encouraged me to read the bible and that was the start of my journey. All of these things were very important in getting to know God.

2. What helped you the most to step over the line and make the commitment?
Being involved with an Asian outreach ministry who encouraged me, talked to me, answered my questions and clearing the obstacles out of the way in my faith to Christ.

3. What has been the best part of becoming a Christ follower for you?
I have less control of my own life, which means less anxiety and I have assurance in my day to day life position. I don't need to worry if I do the right thing, I know I always have the chance to correct my errors as long as I have faith in him and also I have more assurance.

4. What has been the most challenging part of following Christ?
Making decisions, I was hesitant to make some recent decisions and I made the wrong decision but God shut that door and opened the right one for me. I have a great counselor which is the bible and the Holy Spirit so I'm happy to know that He helps me.

5. What do you think is helping you grow the most in your faith?
I think fellowship with other Christians is the most important thing and also reading the Bible.

6. What advice do you have for me in helping others like you to grow in their faith?
I think spending time is really important also being patient and continuing to talk to people who aren't ready to accept Christianity. Don't push them too much before they're not ready. First be friends and hang out with them. Then they will open up their heart and their lives to you much easier. Always have a good attitude in the way you treat people.

7. What's your deepest desire when it comes to your relationship with Jesus?
I want Him to come into my heart deeper and give me a stronger faith. Also if He could reveal himself to me in an overwhelming way so that I could have more in Him.

Grace Through Faith?

Grace through Faith

Is it all our step of faith and so our salvation is based soley on what we do with the grace we are offered?

Grace - God's grace is given universally to everyone. The only people who are not saved are those who continue to fight against this grace. Thus, it's not a matter of "God has done everything and we simply have to take the next step," but a matter of "He has done everything and in order to accept it we simply need to stop fighting." It's not a pro-active step, but it's "stop resisting" (The only unforgivable sin is resisting the Holy Spirit until the day you die)

If it is by Grace through faith and faith is a gift from God and God only gives that gift to those whom He has chosen, what about James' writing on faith without deeds is dead? Why would God give the gift of faith to those whome He has chosen if He knew full well that they may not do the deeds and kill the faith. If God can know that they'll have a "live" faith, than how can He not know that they will also believe in Him and thus give them the gift of faith under those circumstances?

My thoughts.

Courtney Bancroft

Unchristian

Courtney is the campus missionary to Temple University. She and people that she ministered with in D.C. did the Gospel according to the Simpsons which attracted people's attention. It seems to be that the more attention the program can get, the better. It creates more discussion among the students.

She then visited Villanova which is a private school and tried to gain fundraising from pastors in the area. They were hard on her and her team, discouraging, and she had a hard time getting ahold of pastors. "I can take attacks from the enemy, it's hard for me to take attacks from leaders in the kingdom of God." - Tom Rees.

Part of the reason that Courtney believes she had a hard time was because her name's not known, chi alpha is not know, and pastors get many calls from missionaries asking for funding. "It's easier to give to a land you will probably never see than to talk to your neighbor."

She started ministry at Temple by getting a handful of students from AG churches in the area. She needed 10 students to be able to start the ministry but she only had four initially. Now she has about four Christians at Chi Alpha ministry and about four non-Christians and they host parties and events and she meets with a few of the non-Christians bi-weekly in order to talk about matters of the faith. Courtney had several trials and it seems like nothing but hardships in order to get this ministry going.

Some of the most difficult lessons that Coutrney has learned is that she's a lot worse at ministry than she thought. She had a lot more hesitancy when listening to Jesus' call than she had expected when it came to going to Temple, raising money, and growing in organization.

The top three things that the girls on campus deal with and struggle with are knowing what they want to do with their lives, figuring out what they actually believe, and sex. She suggests for pastors to have people who go to the college to help that pastor get on campus or resource the student to do a Bible study on the campus. Feed the students and hang out there.

Finally, Courtney feels that it has been best for her to simply develop relationships with the students in order to relate Christ to them later when they are interested.

Unchurched Friend #2

1. What do you think is the greatest need in your area?

More activity based church functions that might draw in different types of people.

2. Are you actively attending any church?

No

3. What are a few issues or topics that impact/interest you?

Drug and alcohol prevention programs, peer pressure as well.

4. Why do you think most people don't attend church?

I would say because most people think they have more interesting and better things to do. Not because its not good to go, but most people probably think that of they are all around decent people they are making the big man happy and going to heaven... Most people probably don't feel a need to go, and just would rather be doing something else on their off time.

5. If you were to look for a church to attend, what kind of things would you look for?

I would look for one with a good youth program because getting kids involved young is a good start for them, I would also look for one with a church that is active in activities and outings.

6. What advice can you give to pastors who really want to be helpful to people?

I would say try to relate the good word in real life situations or examples... I feel the more I can relate to a story the more I can believe in it and makes me understand it.

7. What is your longterm goal for your life?

Be a succesful person that was able to help people out whenever possible and have a family that thinks I've done a good job at supporting them and being a good dad.