Rob Ketterling

WE ALL BOW

I only watched the final 15 minutes of Michael Jackson's funeral but what I heard at the end was a sobering reality for all of us. Michael Jackson was known as the King of Pop music and his fame was world wide but as it is true for everyone, it's also true for the King of Pop, we all die one day and have to give account for our life. It was in this reality that the minister at the end prayed, "The King of Pop now bows before the King of Kings." how true, how true. Philippians 2:10 says that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, including the King of Pop.

COMING BACK FOR CHURCH

I've been out for two days celebrating an early 4th of July on the lake with my in-laws but I'll be back this weekend for church to kick off our new series, "The Deadliest Se7en". I hope to see you here! It's going to be a great series and a lot of fun as we continue through the seven deadly sins this summer. These seven deadly sins may seem pleasant for a season but make no mistake about it, they bring death! So let's rid ourselves of any form of the deadliest seven and fill ourselves with the Godly virtues that stand opposite of those vices.

One other thing about this weekend, I was serious about tailgating at church Saturday night. Our church parking lot fills up with people watching the Apple Valley fireworks so if  you want to beat the rush, come to church and tailgate afterward until it all starts. How much better can it get, Church, tailgating and fireworks! Hope to see you here this weekend!

HURRAY FOR HELEN!

In a previous post I was critical of our American press and so in light of the recent developments with the press, I have to give them a shout out of appreciation. In my opinion, it's a little late, but as they say, better late than never!

White House reporter Helen Thomas was upset with the blatant management of the news by the current White House and came out and openly criticized them. (This is a huge problem for America if our President can manipulate the media.) And I say, good for her that she had the courage to stand up and say ""I'm not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences. It's blatant." She went on to say that the White House doesn't even care if we know they're doing this stuff and said "They ought to be hanging their heads in shame."

That's strong stuff from Helen and something all of us better be aware of as we get ready to celebrate our freedoms this weekend on the 4th of July. We love our freedom to live as God has created us and the freedom to worship and I'm thankful for a free press that can work to keep our leaders honest. Thank you Helen for your boldness.

 

APPLE VALLEY ROTARY

I was at the President's Dinner for the Apple Valley Rotary and enjoyed hanging out with the movers and shakers of Apple Valley as we celebrated our past president and welcomed our new one. Francois Paradeise has been a great president and our club is in fine shape as he hands it off to John Dusek and I know he'll do a great job leading us now.

I didn't know much about Rotary before I joined but I knew that I wanted to be more involved in the life of the community I pastor in and Rotary looked great. I loved their involvement in eliminating Polio in the world and also the Clean Water initiative and it looked like the place to make a difference and be involved in the community and it has been. I think it's important to be active in your church, your neighborhood and also in your  community and I hope you've found ways to make this world better place because you care.

Thanks Francois for serving and thank you John for taking the lead now as the Apple Valley Rotary continues to make a difference.

STILL A GREAT MOMENT

We had some great moments this past weekend in church and I'm still enjoying them today and thanking God for them. It was just so meaningful that we had people praying for each other and for some people in the church it was the very first time that it had happened in their life. I didn't plan for the service to end that way but I just felt lead to do it and it turned out to be a God thing.

One person stopped me and said that after four weeks of attending they felt part of the church, now that someone prayed for them. Another person told me that they cried when the people around them prayed for them because they felt the presence of God while we prayed. And the stories keep coming in one after another, that it truly was a God moment at church. Thank you to all of you that got out of your seats and prayed for someone, you were used by God to make a difference in people's lives.

VISION 2009

After posting the Vision from 1999 I thought I'd post a little glimpse of the Kingdom Builders Vision for 2009. Here's a picture to let you see the space where we want to build our Apple Valley youth center and hopefully you can catch some vision! Our goal is to finish this 16,000 square feet and turn it into a youth center, a second lobby/cafe, a half court gym, a TV studio and several classrooms as well as another set of bathrooms. This is only one small piece of the vision because ultimately it's just a tool to reach people and bring them into an authentic life changing relationship with God but it's still a piece for you to see. I'm believing for our miracle and 1.5 million to come in to finish this space and build the other two remaining youth centers!

VISION 1999

I just had one of my Deacons give me a card that they found in their house and it was our vision and goals card from 1999. I couldn't believe it because it seems so small as I look back 10 years later but at the time I'm sure it was a stretch! Here's what I was believing for back in 1999.

* Give $25,000 to missions for the year.

* Get 180 people to go through our discipleship course.

* Have everyone invite at least one friend to church. (That would be 350 people visiting.)

* Have 2 Friend's Days with 100 visitors each.

*Launch a Celebrate Recovery ministry. (We've had it going for 10 years now!)

* Raise all levels of leadership.

* Launch Marriage Ministry.

Funny how the issues still are pretty similar, it's just that the numbers get bigger! we still need leaders, we still want to reach out to people and we still have a huge missions emphasis with Global Project. It was great to get a look back at past goals and then look ahead to the future!  

FUN WITH A SMALL GROUP

I had a great time this morning with one of our small groups at River Valley. It was our golf small group and what could be more fun than golfing and spending time with people you like. We had about 15 people show up at 6AM and we played a 9 hole scramble. Our team won the low score with a -6 and that's not any indication of how well we played. Let's just say it was a scramble and at least one of us had a good shot every time!

Small groups are a great way to get to know people in our church, have fun and make a difference so I might have to pop in on a few more this summer. Maybe I'll become a regular in the golf group!

KINGDOM BUILDERS IN A FEW HOURS!

We have our Kingdom Builders meeting in a few hours and Ican't wait! This is the fuel for the vision of RVC and I love hanging out with the people that want to move forward and make a difference! I hope to see you here!

A MESSY DESK

I've been spending a lot of time lately training pastors and today I looked at my desk and it's getting a bit messy. I usually like an organized clean desk but when I get too busy, it starts to pile up on the left hand side. (Is there a psychological profile if your pile is on the left or right? Probably!) I'll have to tackle it soon but today it's probably not going to happen.

I love the training time with pastors, the mentoring and even just the brainstorming that I get to do with other pastors. I count it a privilege to share what we've done right and what we've done wrong so they can learn from it all.

We hosted the ARC Roundtable here last week, I had lunch with a few pastors that want to grow their churches and yesterday I started a group for pastors of growing churches in our state. (Randy Bezet helped me out with the last group and we had a blast, that group is going to be a lot of fun.) No matter how busy I get, I have to carve out time for pastors, even if it means I have a messy desk!