Chip Wheeler.com

Enjoy The Journey

Yesterday was incredible at River Hills Church. We announced that we have found property for our congregation!! This is an amazing opportunity for us to not only have a place of our own, but also to be more effective in “Bringing Truth And People Together.” In case you missed it here is the scoop….

Several months ago we were approached by a local church asking us if we would be willing to merge/provide leadership/provide financial compensation for their church. After months of discussing, praying, fasting, and seeking out expert help – our Elders finally concluded two things:

1) We need to pursue this open door until it closes

2) We need to begin a building campaign to raise $100,000.

This will enable us to put a down payment on this facility, or purchase property for relocation. We are not allowed to discuss which church we may merge with, but I can reveal that it would be a very, very nice location and large facility.

God is calling us to “Come Together” for such a time as this. Our church is four years old – which means we have crawled, toddled, walked – and now it is time to run. Over the next 5 months I want to challenge you to join me and my family to give over and beyond your normal tithe. This means that there will be sacrifices, but there is a blessing in all of this.

Pray with me, give with me, join me – and let’s come together to see God do great things.

Creating a culture of leadership is challenging. By simplifying and defining the process, River Hills Church (or any organization) can better empower their leaders to influence others. So far we’ve covered the first three “R’s” of leadership:

Recruit – share the vision, recruit other leaders, share Jesus.

Represent – model Jesus, our church and leadership

Replace – be willing to replace yourself. Never “own” too much that you can’t give it away.

The last two “R’s” of leadership not only call leaders to implement their gifts, but also to celebrate the wins.

Refine – leaders should be willing to make the organization better by asking challenging positive questions. I was once told that “you are your own worst critique.” The willingness to receive and give constructive criticism is paramount to an organizations growth.

Recognize – all leaders want to be appreciated. So many times (and I’ve been guilty of this) we ask others to serve without any plan to recognize and celebrate how God has used them. If we are to maintain a high level of morale in any leadership culture, recognizing and celebrating is critical.

Leadership is difficult, and perhaps even more difficult to establish a culture of leadership. This task is challenging, but not impossible. Are you ready to begin the leadership journey at River Hills Church?

We are building a culture of leadership at River Hills Church. Whether you’re a volunteer, elder, or staff member; leadership is paramount. Yesterday I introduced the first “R” of leadership at River Hills Church: Recruit. Leaders always seek to recruit others to serve. If a leader is passionate about “Bringing Truth And People Together” why wouldn’t he want to get as many people involved in implementing that mission?

Today I want to introduce you to the 2nd and 3rd “R” of leadership:

Represent: Modeling Jesus through your leadership. This is the most important “R” because it points to the reason we serve. Jesus was the ultimate servant leader. He chose what was best for others instead of Himself and found His greatest joy in glorifying God. Leaders at River Hills are expected to do their best in representing Christ through actions and attitudes. This doesn’t mean you will always be successful, but it does mean that there is a greater cause to your service.

Replace: Always look to replace yourself as a leaders. Leaders who do not multiply themselves aren’t really leaders at all. One of my favorite movies/books is “We Were Soldiers.” During this movie Colonel Hal Moore encourages his officers to teach those behind them their job and for those guys to teach the others their job. Why? Because you never know when your leader may go down – and the cause is far more important than the leader. Look to replace yourself – hand over leadership.

Recruit. Represent. Replace….

Over the last 15 years I’ve had the opportunity to work with and be mentored by some of the greatest leaders in the world. Leaders that aren’t known by the size of their company or 401k, but those who carry the influence to bring about change in the lives of people. I believe that everyone can be a leader, but it isn’t dependent upon whether they can draw a crowd, but upon the fruit that crowd produces.

We are beginning a  journey to define the “R” in leadership at River Hills Church. In fact, there isn’t just one “R”, but FIVE R’s. Over the next few blogs I want to share with you how we see leadership at River Hills Church.

The first “R” stands for Recruit.

Every church rises and falls on leadership, but it isn’t always the leadership provided but the pastor or Elders – but the volunteers. The old paradigm of “hiring” staff to do the job of volunteers has been destroyed by the current recession. Personally that is exciting to me because it puts leadership back into the hands of the average church member. The problem is that these members don’t always want to serve. There could be many reasons why, but the reality is this:

Leaders Recruit Leaders.

If there is a need for tech, children, student ministry or any other volunteer position, the best thing that anyone can do is go recruit more volunteers. Can you imagine what kind of volunteer organization we will have when everyone sees it as their responsibility to recruit others.

So our first lesson in leadership is simple: Be willing to recruit others to serve the thing you are passionate about.

The greatest opportunity to invite and reach new people is Easter. Over 80% of the time people, during the Easter season, will say yes to your invitation. Think about that for a moment? The spouse who refuses to join you in worship, the co-worker who politely says no to your invitations, the neighbor who sleeps in on Sunday, the friend who spots you during workouts – are 80% more likely to say YES! You could be a part of God’s plan to change lives. The question is simple: are you willing?

This Easter our our lead staff has personally taken this challenge to heart. We’ve committed to pray for and invite 10 different people to our Easter services. Our Elders have also chosen to carry this mantle by praying for and inviting two families to Easter as well. I want to encourage you to do two three things:

1) Pray for and invite one family this Easter. Have them sit with you at church, plan dinner afterward with them, and being to ask God to work in their lives.

2) Go to www.churchatriverhills.com/e-vite/ – and send a personal email invitation to your email contacts list. Also, you can post this to your facebook homepage. Please consider posting this 2-3 times a week until Easter.

3) Finally, we want to go viral. We will be showing a video this Sunday to publicize our Easter services. This video will be available on Monday morning. Please share this video with your Facebook friends – we want this to go viral.

I cannot wait to see all that God is going to do during our Easter worship experience. Begin to pray now as we seek to change our community.

Everything revolves around the Gospel. Everything. Not only is it the means to salvation, but it is also the purpose of life. So many times we lose sight of the power that can be drawn from the deep pools of living water found within the Gospel message. When forgotten, we begin to lose sight of hope and plunge into the darkness of anxiety and sin. We all face these troubles and must fight to revolve ourselves around the gospel.

As I observe trends throughout the American church I am disturbed that many followers of Christ find themselves revolving around a strategy, personality, method or style. Whether it is the godly elderly lady who sits in the same spot next to the stain glass window dedicated to her grandparents or the young Christian hipster who stands barefooted in the front row listening to the newest rendition of a top 40 worship song – if life does not constantly revolve around the Gospel then we are missing our purpose.

Psalms 119:9 says “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” The Psalmist is clear that to live righteously one must guard themselves with the precepts of Scripture. For the follower of Christ to live out purpose and experience the richness of God – we must revolve ourselves around the power of the Gospel.

The Gospel doesn’t just have the power to save us, but also the power to sustain us. The Gospel is EVERYTHING.

Below is an outline of the sermon from November 27, 2011. You can listen to the audio of the message at www.churchatriverhills.com.

2011 has been an incredible year!! God has moved at River Hills Church in ways that we’ve never experienced before. As we discuss the state of the church it is important to remember Mark 1:32-39. Jesus experienced a lot success, but that was accompanied with challenges. He responded to the increase of his popularity by spending time with God and being laser focused on his purpose. As we think about 2011 and dream about 2012, it is important that we acknowledge the areas where God has moved, the challenges that we face and our pathway into 2012.

Things to celebrate:

1) RHC has grown by 25% this year. Most growing churches average somewhere between 5-10%.

2) We’ve baptized 40+ people this year. This is my favorite thing to celebrate because those baptisms represent changed lives.

3) 65% of the available attenders in our church (not including kids and students) volunteer on a regular basis. This huge!!! Most churches have less that 20% of their folks volunteering on a regular basis.

4) We’ve launched Barrow Ministry Village. A partnership with other churches in the community that seeks to meet the felt needs of Barrow County.

5) We’ve launched the Multiply Network. A network committed to  planting 100 churches in the next 2 years.

6) River Hills now offers two services on Sunday mornings.

7) People from our church have gone on mission trips to Haiti, Peru, Africa and Mexico.

Through your generosity our giving has increased by 16%.

With these success there are some challenges.

1) Our nation’s current economic climate is challenging to say the least. This has severely impacted churches across the nation. One mistake that I have made is hiring too many people too soon. While our attendance matches the amount of staff that we have, our revenue does not. God has convicted me, the elders and our finance team to make difficult decisions so that our church thrives financially rather than survive. The decision was made to not fund the worship coordinator position. Currently Robert Williamson leads out in this area and does an outstanding job. He is a man of competence and character, but tough decisions had to be made. Starting January 1 our children’s coordinator, Elissa Ewald, will be transitioning to worship/production coordinator and oversee kid’s ministry. We have an unpaid intern (Anthony Welch) and many volunteers who will implementing our children’s ministry. Our budget need for 2012 is $4500 a week. This includes monies for operations, missions and reserves. Our operational budget is at the 2010 budget level. Again, cuts have been made so that our church can thrive, not just survive.

2) While we do have 65% of our church volunteering, our kid’s ministry has taken a hit. Due to pregnancies, life-changes, people moving – we have lost over a dozen kids ministry volunteers. We need help in this area. I’m asking for 15 new kid’s ministry volunteers. Please consider serving once every six weeks. God is truly moving in this area of our church – and we’re seeing kids come to Christ and offered hope all the time.

Those are our challenges, and I feel confident that they will overcome them and that Christ will continue to be preached. With that in mind – here is what I believe God is calling us to do in 2012:

1) Volunteer/Missions – we always need more volunteers, but we also are sending mission teams to: Haiti, Peru, and Romania. Not only that, there are opportunities to serve in the community, through small groups and in the church. Please consider being a missionary. Ultimately we wan to reduce the amount of people who do not know in Barrow County and beyond (currently 92% of our community does not know Christ).

2) Prayer – as Jesus knelt in prayer and nurtured his spiritual vitality in Mark 1, so must we. There will be more emphasis than ever on prayer and a call for each of us to join together in prayer.

3) Small Groups – life happens in small groups. It is not a perfect place, but it is a place to learn, develop relationships and serve others. If our spiritual growth is based solely on Sunday morning worship – that would be the equivalent of trying to drive from Atlanta to Dallas with a half a tank of gas. Get involved in a small group starting in January.

4) Property – the YMCA has been gracious to us in allowing us to meet in their facility for free, but it is time that we stepped into our own place. This is not something that will happen overnight, but it is something we’re going to begin to work toward. My heart in moving our church is not so that we can say that “we have our own place” but to provide a larger and permanent venue so that we can reach more people. We’re going to begin working toward this by doing three things: 1) Prayer – please pray that God would provide a place and the resources; 2) Save – we have a line item in our budget for opportunities and obstacles; 3) Prepare – we are currently developing a team to help guide our efforts and determine what we can and cannot afford. They will be made up of me, a few Elders and other people in our church.

God has done great things – he is doing great things. As we read in Joshua 3:14-17, the people of Israel were facing a great barrier: the swollen Jordan river. They had experienced success, they were facing a challenge, and their purpose was before them (across in the Jordan was the promised land). They brought down the ark and the water parted, but here is what is most important: the water didn’t part until they put their feet in the river. I’m asking you to put your feet in the river with me – and watch do BIG things.

Soli Deo Gloria

??Welcome to Day 1 of the Prayer Challenge. For many of us prayer is not something that comes naturally – we simply may not know how to pray. Today we’re going to focus on a simple acronym that will assist you in prayer: ACTS

Each letter stands for a different aspect of prayer:

A – adoration: time that we spend worshiping God.
C – confession: confessing our sins to God.
T – thanksgiving.
S – supplication. Asking him for specific requests.

Try to focus your prayer time around these four components. Today – spend a few minutes concentrating on adoring God. Tell Him how good He is, how big He is and some of the great things He has done. When I think of adoring God Psalm 8 comes to mind – you may want to read it.

Our www.youversion.com passage of Scripture today is Matthew 6:5-13. Take a moment and read through the passage and maybe even pray the prayer.

Finally, please take a few moments and pray for the Barrow Ministry Village. Pray that God would bless this ministry, provide the resources, give the leaders wisdom and use this ministry to meet the needs of scores of people – and that they might come to Christ.

As always if you have a specific request, email me at chip@churchatriverhills.com and I will pray for you. Have an incredible day.

Chip

I have been extremely proud of our kids ministry. Over the last few months we’ve launched our new family worship experience called FX. If you haven’t participated in this – you’re missing out. Each month during FX parents and kids are introduced to key virtue that is the theme of our Kid’s Connection ministry during that particular month. The theme for November was gratitude (obviously). Knowing that my kids are learning about the virtues of gratitude, the importance of the gospel and the priority of Scripture memory is truly encouraging. We’ve been memorizing I Thessalonians 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for your life in Christ Jesus.” Being able to ask me kids their memory verse and what they’re thankful for on our morning rides to school has been awesome.Kid’s ministry is not what the kids can learn at church, but the spiritual concepts we plant in their lives at home.

I’ve noticed on Facebook and Twitter posts that many people are participating 24 days of thankfulness: thinking of something that they are thankful for. As the month closes and Thanksgiving passes themes in Kid’s Connection will change and Christmas shopping will become the current trend in social media – yet – Paul reminds in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances.” Don’t forget that gratitude is a lifelong perspective that needs to be refreshed in the truth of Jesus’ great mercies.

One thing that I am thankful for is River Hills Church. God has blessed our socks off in the last year. We’ve baptized 40 people, grown by 1/3, overcome many challenges, started a new service – and the list goes on and on. This Sunday I will be doing a first in my ministry – I will be delivering a “state of the church” sermon. We’ll celebrate the distance we’ve covered and look forward to specific challenges and vision for 2012. DO NOT MISS THIS! I’m so excited about all that God is doing – has done – and will do.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! May the grace of God through his son Jesus along with the indwelling spirit produce an overwhelming heart of thankfulness in you and yours. Sola fide. Sola Scriptura. Sola gratia. Solo Christo. Soli Deo Gloria.

Prayer Challenge

One of the most important activities that a Christ follower and a church can be involved in is prayer. Starting Monday November 28 I’m challenging each person in our church to join me in a 21 day journey of prayer. Here is how it works:

1) Starting November 28 you will receive an email each morning with a short thought on prayer and a prayer focus for the day.
2) This will coincide with a prayer Bible study via youversion.com (will give details about that later).
3) We will end this 21 day celebration with a “concert of prayer” on Sunday December 11 (evening) with all those who participated in the challenge.

My heart for this challenge is that we individually go deeper in our walk with Christ, experience new depths in prayer and pray more as a church.

You will only get the email if you subscribe to the challenge. Once you subscribe you will get an email explaining the challenge in detail – this email will be sent out by November 27. You can subscribe in two ways:
1) On a connect card on Sunday morning.
2) Emailing me personally at chip@churchatriverhills.com

I hope you join me in this 21 day prayer experience. Excited about our journey together.

Chip