Hey guys!! Check out this quick update from @Joel_Dryden & @kstewartcp:

Update from NCC Visit from Ken Stewart on Vimeo.

Here’s a quick video that will introduce you to our East Campus staff. Will take you less than two minutes – take a look! So glad to have these two on board.

East Campus Staff Intro – #richwoodseast from Ken Stewart on Vimeo.

It has been a little while since our last formal East Campus Update communication. (As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the last was the one that officially dubbed us “East Campus”…) It’s a good thing we have trickle channels in place – but more on that later. First, to the big hitters:

- Brad Crumrine and I had an amazing weekend visiting The Chapel – a multi-site church in the Chicagoland area. If you get a chance, ask Brad about his impressions of the experience and the affirmations we received. It was great to actually see it in action. We can do this, folks!

- Joel Dryden and I will be visiting another multi-site church at the end of August. National Community Church, a.k.a. the “theater church”, meets primarily in theaters along the metro line in Washington D.C. – if you can get to the train, you can get to the church! Please pray for our journey as we hope to gain additional insights that will help us navigate the next few months of our East Campus launch.

- Group Life is beginning to gain momentum. As we discussed at our last launch team picnic, it is the heartbeat of the church. I am praying that we will all acknowledge the value of community and actively seek out relationships that will help us to grow in our walk with Christ. Be it Home2Home, Men2Men, Women2Women, or some combination of the above, please be praying about your involvement in the Group Life ministry. It will take patience and perseverance as we move forward, but it will be oh, so worth it as a foundation for spiritual health in the East Campus.

- The question I receive the most right now is this: “Where are East Campus services going to be held?” The two top candidates are still the high school and the junior high, but they’re kinda busy right now with the start of school and all. Planning to meet with both of them in early September to get this decision behind us. Please continue to pray for this situation.

- Our biggest news right now, without a doubt, is that our staff selection process is complete! Marie Osborne is joining us as our Children’s Ministry Director, and Daniel Crumrine is joining us as our Worship Ministry Director. I so thankful for what God has provided here and could not be more pleased with this team. Stay tuned for more info on these two in the very near future!

- We need to meet in person again soon! Come one, come all to our next East Campus launch gathering happening in September. The actual date and time for this event will be determined and communicated soon, but I wanted to put it out there now so you would at least know it was coming. Meet the staff, join the conversation, and add to the momentum as we take another step forward toward the launch of the East Campus of Richwoods Christian Church!

Whew! Did you get through it all? The labor of reading so many words. It’s tough in today’s world, isn’t it? Which leads me to my final point of this communication. If you want to know the absolute latest…if you want to get to know our staff better – even beyond what we do for the church…if you want bite-size communications rather than long letters like this one…then grasp the value of 140 characters or less and join us on Twitter and/or Facebook!

Far from the impersonal, techno-centric, fad-ish reputation some have perpetuated, Twitter really is an amazing communication tool. By design, Twitter users are forced to communicate in a very concise, real-time manner. And it connects seamlessly with facebook, so even non-Twitter facebook users can benefit from our broadcast messages.

So, if you want the absolute latest on what’s going on in bite-sized increments, try following the church and our staff members on Twitter and facebook. Fad or not, believe it or not, it’s real communication.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to send me an email. I would love to hear from you. God bless y’all!

Do you love “firsts” as much as I do? There’s just something about ‘em.

Nothing too deep here other than my desire to share Vimeo with you. It’s a very intuitive video sharing site that isn’t nearly as cluttered as the more popular one. Great quality, and if you look for it, great content, too – check out this one posted recently by our Lead Pastor Jim Powell.

My first one is simply a practical communication; an informational piece related to our new Financial Peace University session that is set to begin September 7. For more information you can…yep, check out the video!

I look forward to sharing more via video as time progresses. The tools are getting so much easier to use on both the upload and the download side.

To borrow a phrase, I’m lovin’ it!

4:30a alarm…ugh.

As I walked around my kitchen early this morning, I noticed how cautious I was to not wake the others in the house – being very aware of any potential light and sound exposure. If I woke anyone, it would likely startle them, and they don’t need to be up for another four hours. The scenario made me think – nobody wants to be woken up too abruptly or without purpose. It puts them in a really bad mood.

I’m new to this blogging thing, but it has changed the way I view even ho-hum morning routines…

How do you like to be awakened from a slumber? Are you a snooze alarm kinda person? Do you set the alarm ringer on your phone to “foghorn” or “harp”? Here’s a wild guess – I bet you don’t ask your kids to throw ice water on your face every morning. I would put money down that your spouse doesn’t pull out the air horn and blow it in your ear every day at 6:00a.

But why not? That would work, wouldn’t it? That would wake you up, right? Ahh, but what kind of “special place” would be reserved for the receiver of your morning-breath wrath?

The story changes a little if there’s a good enough reason. If there’s a fire in the building…if someone is hurt…if the police are at the door – do whatever it takes to get me “alert and oriented times four”! Purpose changes things.

This is a dilemma for the church. You see, we recognize the purpose. To be literal, we see the “fire”. So the temptation is to sound the alarm, throw cold water, and, in a sense, shock people to their senses. Ultimately, we could justify that approach. John the Baptist did it. The disciples did it. Even Jesus did it once in awhile.

But what I think some people miss is that it wasn’t his default MO. And if it becomes our default – if all we know how to do is run up to people and yell “FIRE” – then all we’re really accomplishing is becoming experts at ticking people off.

Jesus calls us to proclaim the good news of his salvation. He prompts us to listen to the still, small voice. He cries out for us to love our neighbor day-in and day-out in a way most people cannot comprehend. He never did shy away from Truth, but his compassion for the lives and hearts of the people was beyond measure.

There is surely a time and a place to boldly proclaim the reality of man’s future without God. But, as we work, play, and live daily among our neighbors and friends, I am learning that God is more often calling me to use my “inside voice” – to stir people’s hearts in a way that causes them to want to seek him because of what they see in me.

The life I live in Christ could not be more amazing. It is my prayer that this reality will not only shine through to others, but that it will stir those slumbering around me as if it were sunlight gently lighting the room on the first full day of a beach vacation. Wake up, sleepyhead! A glorious day is dawning before you.