Riverside has begun compiling the 2011 Pictorial Directory and is looking for updated photos and contact information for all who call Riverside home. Please be sure to contact [email protected] with your contact information if you have never been in the directory or if your info has changed. Deadline for receiving contact information and photos is Wednesday, March 9th.
You can also email the office with your pictures or drop them off to have scanned. For those who would like to have an updated photo taken, you can do so this Sunday, March 6th. A “studio” will be temporarily set up downstairs in the “nursing mom” nursery. Directories will be available on Sunday, March 13th. Don’t miss out being a part!
Archives for January 2011
Justice Retreat
I’m not quite sure why I ever have doubts about how and why God does things the way He does. I’m constantly reminded that His ways aren’t my ways, they’re BETTER! We took the whole youth group up to Timber Wolf Lake YL camp last weekend for our yearly winter retreat-but this year we planned to do things a little different. Normally we go skiing, play tons of crazy games, and talk about a certain topic in the evenings that the kids might be struggling with. The highlight in the past has been the last night where we lay hands on the kids and pray for them-super tear-jerker. This year God has been continually telling me that we need to look past the end of our noses-to the hurting, the oppressed, the lonely, the orphans. So last weekend we embarked on our first ever Justice Retreat. Timber Wolf is considerably closer than Covenant Point where we went last year, but with the CRAZY amount of snow dumped on Michigan it still took us forever to get
Plan for 2011
A few months ago I shared the following in my sermon, “What Do You Keep?”
“God’s blessings are abundant, but they are meant to be shared.
Here is where it gets tough for us. Many of us are not sharing our financial blessings as well as we could be. Only 5% of Americans give at least 10% of their incomes to churches or charitable groups. And this is declining. It has never been great, but in 1968 church-attenders gave an average of 3.11 percent of their income to their church. Now congregants give an average of 2.58%. We are going the wrong way.