Heroes

I'm pretty fired up about the new series beginning on May 31st. It's called "Heroes". We'll take a look at some regular people in the bible who did exceptional, even heroic, things with their lives! I think we'll see that the things that made them so exceptional are things that are available to every one of us today.

Another thing that has me fired up is that I will be joined by 4 other teachers for this series. We'll be team teaching the series which will be very cool. I look forward to hearing what the Lord is going to say to us!

See the Impossible!

River City Community Church is a “Church for Real Life.” We have seen many thousand of lives impacted within our fellowship and around the world by what God has done through this church family. God has always birthed miraculous things in and through us; and we passionately believe that He is not done with this fellowship! In fact, we’re just getting started! We believe that God wants to multiply the impact of our ministries many times over.

For the last few years, our elders have prayed about our obvious space constraints, looking for the Lords provision and direction. In giving us the opportunity to purchase the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, we believe that God has provided us with an opportunity like we’ve never seen before! The time to respond is now!

Our campaign is called See the Impossible and it is about far more than providing much needed facilities! It is about creating a ministry center for the entire region! Can you see thousands of lives changed as people discover the miraculous power of the gospel? Can you see those thousands of disciples reaching their neighborhoods, feeding the poor, declaring the hope of the gospel to our city and around the world? God’s vision is a lot bigger than a property, but it takes property to launch that kind of work and He has provided a place beyond our wildest dreams 8 minutes down the road!

See the Impossible is about our response. God want us to step out in faith and see Him provide! It will take focus, obedience, and sacrifice on all of our parts. The good new is that See the Impossible is not just an invitation to the church corporately, but individually as well! I believe that some of the best testimonies will be the stories of what God does for individuals and families as we sacrificially step out in faith!

What we are about to do is much bigger than any one of us. In fact, it’s actually much bigger than all of us. This is a God sized vision! We have the opportunity to do something that will change the world! Please, join me in prayer and partnership as we line up to See the Impossible!

The Great Adventure!

The other day, my son, Ryan, and I were talking about the emptiness of self-indulgence. What got us on the topic was our common love of good adventure stories and his comment that real life doesn’t seem to afford the opportunity for great adventures. I told him that’s because great adventures are always about pursuing something greater than self and most of us never go beyond that point. There’s no adventure really in meeting your own needs. And there is certainly no faith required in serving yourself.

One of the great ways to stretch our “faith wings” is to find a way to serve a need bigger than our own. You can start small by finding someone around you who has a need and meeting it. The less their ability to pay you back, the better! As you begin to serve outside yourself don’t be surprised if God doesn’t begin to give you a vision…maybe even a big one! A big vision and the faith to pursue it are all that’s required for a life of adventure!

We’re not talking about faith just to hear ourselves talk! We want to change our world! There is so much need around us and God wants to use us to make a difference! Let us know what God shows you as you step out in faith and begin to serve. We’d love to hear your stories.

Vision

A few questions as we near the end of one year and get ready to begin another:

Where does vision come from? Why do some people seem to have it while others don’t? What takes vision beyond dreaming to action?

While I don’t claim to have the definitive answer these questions, I do think I have a clue. One thing, which always seems to accompany true vision, is desire…a strong desire to see things change for the better; a desire so compelling that those who possess it can’t help but do something to make a difference!

As the Pastor of River City Community Church, I have a question. What do we desire to see God do through RCCC this next year? An even bigger question might be “What are we willing to do to see God accomplish His vision through us…what are we willing to change?” That’s right. I said “change,” because vision is all about changing from what is to what can be. This is where we lose quite a few people. Many of us have learned to be comfortable where we are, and we’re afraid of change.

I hate to burst your bubble, but God is not done with River City Community Church! His vision is not for us to coast comfortably into eternity! There are hundreds of thousands of people within a 30-minute drive who desperately need the love of God in their lives, and He wants us to go after them. That’s exciting! But, one look around will illustrate that making room for hundreds, even thousands, of new, transformed lives will require serious change! Are we willing? Is our desire to see real life change in the people of our community great enough to drive us to change?

This is the question that we’ll have to wrestle with in the upcoming months. Please, join me in praying that God’s vision capture us all! May we be willing to do whatever it takes to follow Him.

Pray and vote!

Let's be sure to pray for God's will to be accomplished this coming Tuesday. Let's pray for leaders with a biblical worldview that will uphold Godly values.

Then vote your convictions!

God Bless

Sean

Monday morning

Sunday was great! I am a bit "wrung out" though. I'm off on Mondays and I usually start the day dragging but it gets better as the day goes on.

My family and I are planning on serving this Saturday in "Ike devastated" San Leon. Willy Mayfield found, what seems to be, a great church for us to partner with in this town that has very little support and is extremely poor. They were hit hard and there's a lot to do. We have groups going down for the next three Saturdays.

I've been thinking a lot about our upcoming series called, "Let's talk about sex." Honestly, I'm a little nervous about this one. I mean, I'm usually the one snickering saying, "Ha, he said sex" when the subject is brought up. Not to mention the fact that my wife looked at me kind of funny and said, "You're going to teach about sex...really?" So...pray for me.

On a different note, My fantasy football team beat Aaron's...that's always good!

Wow! What a month July was!

River City Community Church had an amazing VBS! We saw God work in the lives of hundreds of kids as well as all those who served. It is always a great opportunity to serve our community as well as meet many new friends.

Leaders from RCCC led a couple of missions teams from sister churches into Mexico as well as on an inner-city, San Antonio trip. We also sent out a team of our youth who went to the valley to serve. Short term missions is always a double blessing as both giver and recipient of ministry see God's grace and experience His presence in new ways!

Our first Royal Family Kid’s Camp was an incredible success! 36 amazing foster children were shown the love of Jesus by more than 40 servants from River City Community church. I can’t tell you how impacted we all were. I truly believe that this will serve as a springboard to all kinds of other ministries to those in need.

Jody Bayless and Tom Villa were two of our outstanding volunteers!

After Royal family, Lauri and I went to pick up our kids who were staying with my brother and his family in Santa Barbara, CA. Tough duty…but someone had to do it. Santa Barbara happens to be one of my favorite places in the country. With the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other it is a truly beautiful place. We had a great time before heading home.


We serve a truly awesome God! I look forward to what He has in store for August!