“Oh, I’ve heard about you…”

“Aren’t you the pastor that…”

“Don’t you guys believe…”

I can’t tell you how many times I hear comments that start with this way.  People have heard something about me or Riverview that lodges itself into their brain.  Whether it’s true or not, the story they have heard determines what they believe.  Often, they are shocked to hear that no, we don’t brew beer in our building and yes, we believe in Jesus.

These conversations are eye opening for the people I am talking with, but a little of a sore spot for me because I hate being misrepresented.

“Oh, I’ve heard about you…”

“Aren’t you the pastor that…”

“Don’t you guys believe…”

Over the last several years, I have found myself starting many conversations with other pastors this way.  I have heard something about him or his church and it has lodged itself into my brain.  Oh snap…

Are you a judgmental sinner like me?  When someone brings up their favorite author or pastor they listen to online or the church they go to, do you immediately jump to conclusions?  Have you judged what they are about to tell you before they have even told you because of what you have heard?

This is why I am excited that Riverview is going to be a simulcast site for the Elephant Room on January 25.  On that day, seven pastors (some I have heard good things about, some I have heard bad things about) will discuss Race in the Church, Moral Failure by Church Leadership, Denominationalism, Essential Doctrines, The Gospel, Healthy Ministry, and Working with those you Disagree with.

We will get to hear directly from these influential pastors instead of hearing about them from others.

My plan is to give them each the fair hearing I always hope someone will give me.

If you would like to join us, click here to register for The Elephant Room.

This has been an exciting year at Riverview as we expanded the capacity of our Holt Venue, launched a new Church Planting Residency with our MSU Venue, and began preparations for another church plant within the next year. We are also gearing up to send over 200 people to Mazatlan, Mexico on short term mission trips in 2012, including all six of our pastors.

While numbers aren’t everything, they do matter a great deal (there’s even a book of the Bible called “Numbers”).  Here are a few numbers from this past year that I am humbled and floored by:

• 12,877:  Number of online views of our message videos (not including downloads)
• 104:  People went on a mission trip to Mexico
• 1,329:  Children were involved in RivKids
• 150:  Students were involved in our middle and high school ministries (Chaos and Element)
• 3,863:  People attended services at our Holt Venue on Easter weekend (51% higher than 2010)
• 2,762:  Average attendance at our Holt Venue (20% higher than 2010)
• 168:  Average attendance at our MSU Venue (18% higher than 2010)
• 2:  Riverview Church Planting Residents
• 86:  People were baptized (that we know about)
• 101:  Number of Life Groups (includes 913 people)

What do all these numbers have in common? They each represent specific individuals learning to become sacrificial followers of Jesus through the ministry at Riverview. By faith, we are making even bigger plans for spreading the message of Jesus in 2012. We know we can’t do this under our own strength, but we want to follow the lead of the Apostle Paul who wrote:  “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:2-5)

Would you prayerfully consider a year-end gift to help us spread the Gospel throughout the Lansing area and beyond in 2012?

Just click this link to give online.

One of the most encouraging things around Riv over the last year have been the number of young men who have asked for help in “manning up.”  They are fed up with the extended adolescence of our culture and they want to grow to be godly men who can lead in their families and churches.

Here are some of the suggestions and resources I have recommended to these men:

A great leader is a great follower first. - The greatest leader of all time, Jesus Christ, said he “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) The #1 thing you need to do to become the man God intends you to become is to follow the godman you are meant to follow: Jesus.  Serve like he did, study his book, follow his lead, love like he loved, fight like he fought, give your life for his church like he did.

Read biographies of great men. – Other than Jesus, no man is perfect.  Read the stories of great men in history and try to not only emulate their strengths but learn from their weaknesses.  John Wesley was a great evangelist and a terrible husband.  John Calvin was a great theologian with an unpleasant disposition (he was a jerk).  C.S. Lewis was a great thinker with some unorthodox views.

Fight sin in your life. – One of the scariest passages in the Bible is 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8: “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”  Many men want to do great things for Jesus, but they refuse to deal with their own patterns of ongoing sin (especially sexual sin).  When we disregard God’s call to holiness in our lives, we are rejecting the Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives.

Surround yourself with godly men. – Many young men surround themselves with dispassionate, lustful, lazy, drunk morons and wonder why they can never seem to inspire themselves off of the couch.  As the Apostle Paul warned, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’” (1 Corinthians 15:33) Find a couple godly men and team up to do something big for Jesus.

Today is my 40th birthday.

40.

The big 4-0.

There is absolutely no definition of the word “young” that applies to me anymore. Because of my newfound old age, I figured I would offer you 40 little nuggets of wisdom I have accumulated over the past 40 years. These appear in no order whatsoever because I am too old to attempt that sort of mental task.

1) No matter how old you are, you feel younger that you really are.
2) Spend time getting better at your strengths rather than getting better at your weaknesses (unless your weaknesses are sins).
3) Never say “never.”
4) Never say “always.”
5) God is faithful, even when you are not.
6) You will always remember what it felt like to drive your first car (this was mine).
7) I am rich – “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.” (Proverbs 31:10)
8) You can’t talk about Jesus enough.
9) Take time to read everyday.
10) Complexity is good thing in cigars, coffee, beer, Scotch, and a wife.
11) This may be a midlife crisis thing, but my next car will be one I really enjoy driving.
12) When you are tempted to think, “I’ll become a better parent/spouse/whatever tomorrow,” you are wrong. Start today instead.
13) Your only hope in becoming a better parent/spouse/whatever is Jesus – focus more on him today.
14) The longer you are married to the same person, the better the sex is.
15) The longer you are married to the same person, the more you see your own sin.
16) The longer you are married to the same person, the more you are tempted to focus on your spouse’s sin instead of your own.
17) Play catch with your boys today. You still “won’t have time” tomorrow.
18) Hold your daughter’s hand as long as she will let you get away with it.
19) Kiss your kids on the head no matter how old they are.
20) Spend the extra money for comfortable shoes…or insoles.
21) Be yourself in preaching, dressing, and all other style related stuff. Copycats are really only fakes.
22) Exercise even if you hate it.
23) Eat healthy even if you hate it.
24) Drink good beer. Bad beer is at best empty calories, at worst a sin.
25) Run like a kid sometimes, preferably with kids.
26) Read at least one Bible verse a day.
27) Travel.
28) Smile at strangers.
29) Hold doors for people, most of them will be shocked.
30) Really remember Jesus when you take communion.
31) Ask “why?”
32) Treat your wife like a daughter of the King.
33) Treat your daughter like a Princess.
34) Treat your sons like men.
35) Discipline your children because you love them.
36) Discipline your children like you love them.
37) Check your fly before you preach.
38) When possible, try not to offend nor be offended.
39) Even when trying to eat healthy, have some bacon now and then.
40) Beards are epic, but they make you look older.  Mine makes me look like I’m in my 40′s. Oh snap.

One of the great honors we have as a church is to work with the Lansing Area AIDS Network.  They are doing an invaluable service for those suffering with HIV/AIDS in our community.  The woman who coordinates our efforts with them wrote a great thank you note to those who helped this year and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Dear Friends,

You are part of a very special team – a team that provided celebration feasts for 130 LAAN families this Thanksgiving! Whether you donated groceries, organized a portion of the drive process, boxed up groceries in the Riv lobby, drove grocery-laden clients home from LAAN, made lunch for volunteers on distribution day, loaded boxes into a truck at 7:30 am, or did something else equally important – we needed you to make this happen! You all sacrificed money, time and energy, which God used to impact hundreds of people during this special holiday season!

In amazement, we watched the outpouring of love shown by our Riv family for this event. Not only did we meet our goals – we exceeded them! I met so many shining examples of cheerful givers in our body, who were a spiritual encouragement to me personally. And I know the LAAN staff and clients felt the same. Here’s a clip from a recent thank-you from LAAN:

“There are not many people or organizations that always go the extra mile to provide what you need, but that is exactly what the people at Riverview Church do for LAAN every day… (because of Riverview) LAAN has been able to provide turkeys and boxes of food for clients at Thanksgiving, backpacks full of school supplies for LAAN school children, warm coats, scarves and hats for our clients at wintertime, and many, many other types of supplies that are desperately needed. The love and caring behind every donated item is very evident to all of us at LAAN. Thank you so much…. everyone at Riverview for your compassion, your caring and the amazing generosity that you continue to give to LAAN every day.”

We are building bridges between the body of Christ and people who desperately need to experience the transforming power of His goodness. Praise God!

I pray He blesses you and your family with a beautiful Christmas season,

Ann Duchene

For more information on how you or your Life Group can serve at the Lansing Area Aids Network email Ann....@RivChurch.com

#LoveLansing

In the book of Titus, Paul throws down the gauntlet to a young pastor that he is to “teach what accords with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1) and then he tells him how this plays out with different groups within the church.  One of the challenges he is to give the church is this one:

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.  They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Titus 2:3-5)

A group of Riverview women have taken up the challenge to teach this stuff and the response has been off the charts.  This weekend, 100ish women jammed into a room to be challenged in a new class we are offering called “The Woman Class.”  Taught by mature women of great faith and character, this is the beginning of what will hopefully be a groundswell of women pouring their lives into other women.  I am so excited to see theology and practical life skills being taught in our church by women and for women.

This class is continuing for the next couple weeks, but it is way sold out!  If you are interested in taking it the next time it pops up, make sure you keep an eye on the screens and the Riv website.

Earlier this year, I heard about an event called The Elephant Room after it was all over.  This bummed me out because I missed the opportunity to hear 7 pastors from varying theological traditions and methodologies debate why they do what they do.

That’s why I was excited when Riverview was asked to host a simulcast of next year’s event.  I got my hands on the DVDs from the last round and my boys and I watched most of them in our living room (with my wife even joining us for a few).  It prompted great discussion about theology, as well as church practice.  I was stoked that I would be able to watch it live this time around.

And then the proverbial feces hit the fan.

The event coordinators invited a pastor to the event that at best has sloppy and bad theology and at worst espouses heresy.  Oh snap.  Now what?  The first time around, I was cool with the event because each of the participants was an orthodox follower of Jesus and this was a debate amongst brothers.  This time might be different.

It would be cool if we weren’t hosting it, but I became concerned because we are inviting people into our building to watch these guys and are therefore giving tacit approval to their understanding of the Gospel.  I waffled back and forth for a few weeks on this, talking to people I know and trust to get their opinions.

We finally decided to pull the trigger and announce that we are still going to host the event.  Here are the main reasons why I am OK with doing so:

I trust the moderators. This may be the single biggest reason I am OK with this event.  James MacDonald was a bulldog last year on non-essential issues and so I trust he will be even more so on essential ones this year.  I had the opportunity to meet with some of the coordinators of The Elephant Room (including MacDonald) last week and they assured me that the panelists hold to (and will espouse at the event) orthodox Christian beliefs.  Mark Driscoll is a personal friend and mentor and he is not one to back down when correct doctrine is at stake.  At the end of the day, I trust both of these men to call heresy what it is.

This gives us a chance to wrestle with what we put in our closed hand. Several times over the last year at Riv, we have talked about open and closed handed issues.  We place in our closed hand essentials of the faith and we fight to the death for them.  We hold loosely in our open hand issues that we can agree to disagree with others on.  I, for one, would not have invited everyone The Elephant Room has invited, but it doesn’t matter.  It is someone else’s event and they have a right to invite who they wish.  My job is to hold strongly onto closed handed issues and I plan to do so with the keenest eye I can during this year’s event.  I don’t know everything that will be said, but I suspect it will be a fun blogging week when it is all over.

I am not afraid of controversy. We have made our fair share of controversial moves as a church and I wish I could have a do-over on some of them.  I don’t ever want to do something for shock value, but sometimes it is worth doing something like this for the conversations it creates.

I am not afraid of disagreement. Over the years, I have grown as much or more from reading and listening to those I disagree with than from those I agree with.  When someone holds a different viewpoint and they express it in a way I have not considered it shakes my belief system in a good way that tests the solidity of my beliefs.  Each time this happens, I find myself heading back to Scripture to evaluate what I am learning.

The bottom line of all of this is that we are taking a calculated risk hosting The Elephant Room at Riv but I am OK with that.  If you want to join us, here are the pertinent details:

DATE: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM (EST)

WHERE: Riverview Church Holt Venue

COST:  Early Bird (until November 30) – $79 | Regular – $99 | Student Rate – $29 (Student ID is required at the door)

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER