For as long as Riversgate has been a church we’ve known that people are the church and a church doesn’t need to own a building to carry out our Lord’s mission of reaching every person with God’s unfathomable healing love. We’ve never had a goal to own a building for the sake of having a place to meet or call our own.

Now, 9 years later, we believe the Lord has led us to purchase a building, which will serve only to leverage our love, gifts and sacrifices in the pursuit of his mission, and multiply the ways in which we can partner with Him to pour out His love on our community and world.

Much like Peter did in the midst of the storm, we said, “Lord, if it is you, tell us to step out and purchase this building by providing the funds we need.” And, we watched him prompt the sacrifice and generosity of our church family to offer $520,000 in just over 3 weeks! That’s Jesus saying get out of the boat! And we have and we are purchasing the building for cash.

Now we are asking the Lord again “Lord, if it is you, tell us to move forward with the renovation by providing $350,000 for a down payment on the cost of the renovation.” As at the purchase stage, we will wait for the green light from the Lord in the form of his provision. We must be full of wisdom as well as faith. In faith we are asking and trusting the Lord to provide $350,000. In wisdom we will wait until he does, so that the church will remain in a solid financial position.

So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, please join together as one to seek the Lord in the following way:

1. Between now and January 1 pray daily for every aspect of the life our church, including this project. Ask the Lord to move us to joyfully, generously and sacrificially give toward our goal of having $350,000 by January 1.

2. Fast and Pray. From sundown Friday, October 28 through sundown Saturday, October 29 set aside all or part of this day to fast from food or another earthly pleasure and enter into focused prayer for the entire life of Riversgate. We will break fast together Sunday morning October 30 by partaking of the Lord’s Supper together in our worship service.

That’s what Jesus’ disciples said to Him one day when He explained that because they had chosen Him as the Lord and Master of their lives He would not only teach them but empower them to live in a way that most people don’t live, a way that showers even our enemies with the grace and healing love of God, changing the world one encounter at a time.

What was it that prompted them to ask Jesus to increase their faith? They asked after He told them that if a person cheated, lied to, stole from, or spread vicious rumors against them and said, “Oh I’m so sorry. Will you forgive me? I promise this won’t happen again,” and did that 70 x 7 times, as His disciples filled with His spirit, their response must be, “I forgive you.”

That requires lots of faith. It requires a huge amount of trust in Jesus, that’s what faith is. It requires you to trust Him by doing what doesn’t come naturally—extending the kind of love and grace and forgiveness to others that God has extended to you. The forgiven person will not just see you as the grace giver, but they will see the real grace giver, their heavenly Father, and receive the grace and love and relationship He offers to every person.

“Lord, increase our faith” is my prayer for all of us who call Riversgate our church family. Forgiving those who willingly harm us again and again isn’t the only reason we need increased faith, we also need increased faith…

To follow Christ as Master wherever He leads, whatever He directs us to do

To have conversations with friends, family, and co-workers about Jesus

To offer Jesus to people as the answer to their questions and fears and hurts

To be proactive, looking for opportunities to pray with and for others

To tell the truth when it’s easier and more expedient to lie

To conduct our personal lives in purity and holiness before God

To spend less of our money and time on ourselves and more on spreading Christ’s love

To make greater investment in each other, the church family at Riversgate

The Lord has already begun to increase our faith. We have watched Him provide over $500,000 in 3 weeks and 1 day! This enables us to pay cash for a building that will anchor our presence in and facilitate greater outreach to the community of Multnomah Village. That is not something that could have happened without His Spirit speaking to our hearts to make us willing to say “no” to our human desires and “yes” to His mission of reaching our community with the saving message of His love and grace.

Now, having increased our faith, He wants us, no expects us, to use this increased faith to trust Him for all of the items on the list above…and more! We’ve trusted Him for the impossible and He did that. For what other “impossible” things is He directing you and me and our church to trust Him?

Pastor Rob Anthony

An exciting opportunity is currently before us, one that will require much faith, prayer, and sacrifice!!

The church council has prayerfully and diligently evaluated many facility alternatives for Riversgate over the past 4-5 years. This process has led us to take the step of making an offer to purchase the building located at 7630 SW Capitol Hwy. Our offer has been accepted!

Why own a building? Why now?

Our vision and prayer 9 years ago was that God would knit this church into the fabric of the community of Multnomah Village—and He is doing that through our relationships with the schools, businesses, and neighbors in and around this village. We know that God called us to this place at this time to take His love to people who might never think of coming to us. Our consistent presence in and service to this community in the name of Christ over the past 9 years has established a trust that we believe the Lord wants to continue to build upon and use to draw people into His love for many years to come.

By purchasing this building, we aim to secure our future presence here and remove the risk of needing to move out of the village in the event we cannot renew our present leases. It also provides space to expand our outreach ministries to the physical, emotional, and social needs of people in the community, most of whom do not attend Riversgate.

The second big reason for having our own building is so we can offer the children safer, more engaging and dynamic spaces in which to learn about and encounter Jesus each Sunday. Our children deserve the best we can offer! At the Multnomah Center, we are not allowed to tailor the rooms to our children’s needs.

A third compelling reason to purchase this building is that it gives us the opportunity to become even better stewards of the tithes and offerings we give to God. Our estimated budget shows that by purchasing the building for cash and financing the substantive alterations needed, we could reduce our currently monthly facility expenses by as much as $1,000/month.

We need God’s approval in the form of miraculous provision!

The church council believes that the entire purchase price of $575,000 must be paid in cash to place the church in a sustainable financial position to perform the necessary alterations. This requires that we trust God to provide donations to the building project of approximately $500,000 by June 28 (the balance paid from the existing building fund.) If the funds have not been provided by June 29, we will not be able to proceed with the purchase. This would truly be a total God thing, and it’s why we want to ask Him to do it. When it happens, people will say, “God did that!”

The church council and I are asking everyone who calls Riversgate his or her church home to pray, fast, and seek God’s direction concerning this opportunity. We trust His will to be revealed through the provision of the cash needed in such a short time frame.

Please, take the time to read Nehemiah chapters 1-2 and Ezra 7-8. God’s people had the vision but not the resources to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and the walls of the city that had been broken down while they were in captivity for 70 years in Babylonia. They prayed and God provided. But amazingly, He even led the kings of foreign nations to give to the rebuilding projects!

If we seek the Lord together with all of our hearts, I believe we too will be amazed and rejoice at how the Lord will lead our church family to sacrifice and how He will encourage others who share our vision to contribute as well.

Pastor Rob Anthony

Location of building: click here!

Do you want to be encouraged to apply God’s principles to your work life and/or be a Kingdom builder where he has placed in you the marketplace?  Please consider joining Carolyn Quatier, Marley Brown and Victor Armendariz at the 3^rd Annual  Marketplace Summit Friday, May 6^th from 7am – 2pm at the Double Tree Hotel – Lloyd Center.  The marketplace summit is sponsored by a coalition of marketplace ministries and attracts hundreds of business and ministry leaders.  Carolyn Quatier is one of the speakers at this year’s event addressing “Women in Leadership”.

For more information contact Marley Brown mjb5@pdx.edu 503.293.9361 or use the following link to the event on the Christian Chamber of Commerce web site: http://memberservices.christianchambernorthwest.com/Events/details/3rd-annual-marketplace-summit-all-day-registrations

March madness. Opening Day. The Masters. Spring Break. NBA Playoffs. April Fools Day. April 15^th. Easter.

The tragedy of Easter is how minimal it has become. Case in point: Do you know (without peaking at a calendar) what day Easter is on this year? Even more to the point: have you prepared for Easter? Millions prepared for March Madness by filling out brackets. We all prepared for Spring Break! Oh and yes, must I remind you time is running out to prepare your tax return?

Easter is about the most consequential event in the history of mankind. It’s what reversed the out of control downward spiral of the human race. It’s what put the brakes on the hopelessness of man. It was the dawning of a whole new age where all people obtain access to the overwhelming grace of God. And how do we prepare for Easter? Filling baskets with chocolate bunnies? Painting hard boiled eggs and hiding them in the grass? Call me crazy but what are we thinking?

Celebrating the victory Christ won over sin, death and hell for all mankind calls for more than this! Consider  this: Jesus couldn’t enjoy the power of the resurrection without first suffering the humiliation of  the cross. And neither can we! If we rush past Good Friday on the way to Easter Sunday, we will miss the impact of both. And Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, should trigger our week long observance of the events Jesus endured on the way to the cross, events that fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy that he would be “despised and rejected of men.”

So here’s my Easter appeal to Riversgate Church: Prepare for Easter, make it a season, not a couple hours on Sunday. Here’s some ways to do that:

Read and re-read the Easter narrative in Matthew chapters 26-28; Mark chapters 11, 14-16; Luke chapters 19-24.

Mark your calendar now for Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Minimize other activities so you can take in the magnitude of these days. Infuse those days with worship, God’s Word, prayer and conversation with family and friends about the meaning of Easter.

Participate in our Good Friday “Carry the Cross” experience at Gabriel Park at 6:00-7:00pm. Take a turn carrying a cross like Jesus carried, along a path up the hill with stations to stop at and meditate on scripture and pray. Special stations will be set up for children. At the top we will worship together at the foot of the cross and partake of the Lord’s supper while we embrace the suffering of Christ on our behalf. See today’s bulletin and church website for details!

The promise of God is this: “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him.” (Romans 6:8)

Plan right now to embrace the suffering and death of Jesus so that you will be embraced by His resurrection as well!

Preparing with you,

Pastor Rob

The Sherwood’s Beach House

May 13-15, 2011

$50/person

All students 8th and up are welcome to come! Sign ups and waiver forms can be downloaded in the righthand column in the black box!

See you there!

I.  Nehemiah Project International Ministries, Inc. (NPIM) is a business training organization that works in partnership with the Regent Center for Entrepreneurship to provide high quality comprehensive and transformational biblical based entrepreneurship training and support for small to medium size businesses around the world.  http://nehemiahproject.org.

Most graduates of the program operate small to medium-sized kingdom companies. The program is offered online and live and is currently available in the United States, Ukraine, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Mexico and Guatemala. The program is endorsed by:

• The National Association of Christian Financial Counselors
• The International Christian Chamber of Commerce
• Market Place Leaders
• International Christian WealthBuilders Foundation
• FCCI (Christ @ Work).

Mission: To build kingdom businesses.

Their Vision: To transform the marketplace with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, one entrepreneur at a time with the ultimate goal to create a community of kingdom business stewards who provide God-honoring services and products in a God-honoring way and are contributing to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

II.  Christian Chamber of Commerce of the Northwest (CCC of NW): A chamber of commerce for Christians business people which encourages businesses to grow using biblical principles. The CCCof the NW is like any other chamber of commerce, with the distinguishing characteristic of a shared faith in God and no need to suprres our faith. We believe the principles of God should be integrated into every aspect of our lives, including our businesses and careers. Visit the web site to learn about local weekly meetings, the monthly regional luncheon, events, members, membership and find a multitued of Kingdom resources related to buisness.http://www.christianchambernorthwest.com/

III.  FCCI or Christ @ Work – FCCI, the Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, is a membership organization with a vision to transform the world through Christ, one business leader at a time. FCCI pursues this vision in Business Leader Groups where business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and professionals meet to receive counsel from like-minded peers, build relationships and acquire tools and resources they need to succeed in business God’s way. Their God-honoring success opens the door to share Christ with their peers, co-workers and others in the workplace.  There are 19 weekly groups in the Portland-Vancouver area.  Marley Brown co-leads the women’s group which meets Wednesdays from noon to 1:15 at Family Wealth Institutues SW Portland office.  For times and locations of other mixed gender groups or to find out more about this organization:   http://www.fcci.org/

IV.  “Serving our Neighbors” (SON) SON is a Coalition of Church, Marketplace & Community Leaders Working Together to Mobilize Strategic Transformation of the Seven Major Spheres of Influence that Shape & Control our Society & Culture (Family, Religion, Business, Government, Education, Media & Entertainment).  SON also Helps You Connect, Educate & Engage with other Believers for Prayer & Service in your local Neighborhood, School or Workplace & with many Strategic City-Wide Prayer & Service Initiatives.    You can review their Vision, Purpose, Mission & Goals, learn about Partnering with SON at their web site:  http://www.servingourneighbors.org/

Come join Pastor Jeff in a new class starting next Sunday from 9:15-10:15am in Room 34.

We will be using the C.S. Lewis classic Mere Christianity to:

1. help people learn what the core beliefs of a Christian should be, and
2. share our experiences, struggles, and blessings in living these beliefs out in a world that wants us to be tolerant of anything and everything.

If you are seeking to learn more about what faith really looks like and how the Bible shows this, please come!  If you’ve been walking with the Lord and want to come back to the basics or share your experiences with others who may come to places you have already crossed in your journey with Christ…Please come!”  Don’t worry if you can’t make every class…each will be designed to be a self-contained topic!

This class will run from 2/13 to 4/17 and will not meet on February 27.

AJ Brooks, Ken Kupelian, Sara Reamy, Jenni Walker and Bethany Winstead

“KUZA” is the Swahili word meaning to grow and flourish, like a healthy, strong flower or tree. It represents our passion to see the needy children of Uganda, East Africa grow into vibrant men and women who glorify God by serving those around them. We are a Christian, nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon providing educational sponsorships for qualified students.

Founded in 2001, KUZA works with existing nonprofit organizations in Uganda to select needy students for sponsorship. Our program is comprehensive, providing clothing, books, supplies, medical care, tuition, room & board and mentoring from caring adults. By placing children in boarding schools, we remove them from dangerous, unhealthy living conditions. Several times a year the students come together for retreats & conferences. These are times of encouragement and support as the students share ideas, learn about health and safety, and hear from caring, Christian mentors about how to be men and women of outstanding character. Older students in the program nurture and reach out to the younger students, and together we are working to create the “KUZA family”.

The KUZA January Team will be taking part in media collection, a documentary feature, office organization, student mentoring, spiritual discipleship and other various projects that will be invaluable to the KUZA vision. Visit kuzaprogram.org for more information!