It’s that time again. Riverside will be hosting its second blood drive for the Indiana Blood Center on Sunday, May 30 from 2:30 p.m. – 5 p.m. The Bloodmobile will be in the parking lot. Don’t miss this chance to be a part of the life-saving network in our community. You can sign up at the worship service on Sunday or you can sign up online HERE.

Indiana Blood Center is a vital link in Indiana’s health care infrastructure, supplying more than 550 units of blood to more than 60 Indiana hospitals every day. The nonprofit community service organization was founded in 1952 to provide a continuous, safe and adequate supply of blood products and testing services. For more information about the blood donation process visit www.indianablood.org.

More than a year ago, the Riverside Leadership Team assembled a Development Committee to evaluate Riverside’s current facility usage and future needs.

Last summer Riverside voted to acquire the white house next to our property upon the recommendation of the Development Committee and the Leadership Team. The Riverside offices and Senior High and Junior High youth have now moved into the house freeing up badly needed children’s space in our main facility.

Lesson from Sunday, May 8th, 2010

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The set of passages this week made it very hard to choose which of the passages to focus on.  Nearly all five of the passages seemed to be ripe for discussion but of course we can’t do that.  As such, I whittled it down to two.

I Thessalonians focuses on the return of Christ and what is typically referred to as the rapture, though there is no single word for this event in scripture.  This passage is one of the most extensive treatments we have on the second coming of Christ.  There are differing views on when this event will take place.  Pre-millennialists believe Christ will return prior to the inauguration of the thousand year reign spoken of in Revelation 20.  They tend to see the world as growing more and more wicked, leading to the tribulation, and the return of Christ to establish his reign.  Post-millennialists believe Christ will not return until the end of the thousand year reign and so tend to see the world as becoming more and more Christian, with the tribulation at the end.  This leads to a more optimistic view of human society and, some would say, historically the push for the social gospel as the sooner Christ’s kingdom is ushered in here on this earth the sooner he will return. 

Lesson from Sunday, May 2nd , 2010

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In three of the passages this week we get descriptions of the significant role played by the Holy Spirit in the Christian life.  We also have Paul highlighting the spiritual realm and the influence of Satan.  This is the case in the Romans 8.  Different perspectives on these matters have given rise to a range of perspectives, and ultimately denominations, in the history of the church and they raise several questions for us to discuss this week.