Rob Ketterling

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!

KINGDOM BUILDERS ON THURSDAY

I just want to remind everyone that we have our Kingdom Builders meeting on Thursday night and if you're a Kingdom Builder or if you want to know more about Kingdom Builders, please make every effort to be here! We're getting our first look at the new space where we will build our Apple Valley youth center! So come and see what the future looks like with some artist's renderings and the ability to see the wide open space. This will be an exciting time of vision casting and also a time to celebrate with others in the church that are pumped to be Kingdom Builders! See you here!

GREAT FRIENDS

I have some great friends in this world, and I count it a priviledge to do life together with them because they make it a joy to celebrate victories and they give me strength to face trials during the hard times. One of those friends is Randy Bezet, the pastor of Bayside Church in Bradenton Florida. He's a great pastor a great friend and he and his wife are here with us for a few days to hang out with our staff and help me coach some pastors from Minnesota. (We might squeeze in a round of golf as well, he's a really good golfer! He's much better than his brother too!) 

 I love it when we get together because we laugh we srategize, we have fun and we solve problems and really enjoy our time together. I hope you have someone in your life that is like that for you, a friend you can just hang out with and have fun and yet, get stuff done in the process. I really do consider myself fortunate because I have a lot of friends like this and I wouldn't have it any other way.

A PASTORAL WEEKEND

Here's a glimpse atsome of the ministry that the pastors at RVC are involved in this weekend. I think it covers the whole gambit of ministry and although it may be a little more than usual, it should give you a glimpse of what we do on a regular basis. (All of the events I'm listing will happen in a 3 day period.)

We hada Church Planters Round table going on where I trained 20+ pastors that want to start new churches, our kids returned from a week of kids camp. We will have a wedding and we will also have 4 weekend services, several baby dedications and also a funeral. (Please pray for Pam Graham -Faribault Campus- as her husband Steve died unexpectedly.) In addition to this, we have a missions trip going on with several of our Junior High students and we will have a fundraiser for a Christian School that many of our families are involved in.

It's a busy weekend, but it's a weekend filled with opportunities to make a difference for God and I pray that all of the people we minister to will be blessed. There will be celebrating, crying, worship, teaching, praying, giving and a whole lot more as we do life together as a church family. And when the weekend is over, we'll gladly move forward into whatever the next week has in store for us.

SOME SOAP THOUGHTS

I just wanted to weigh in on some SOAP thoughts for those of you doing the SOAP daily reading through the Bible. So here goes!

I wonder how many people read Ecclesiastes 3 and thought, "Hey, I thought that was just song lyrics?!" It probably was a surprise to many that it's from the Bible that the lyrics for that song originated.

I was talking to my sons Connor and Logan about Proverbs 31 and what did they get out of it and they responded tat they didn't get much out of it because they're not getting married anytime soon! I pointed this out to them and I'll share it with you, you read the Bible for what you need now, and also for what you will need then. It's way better to be prepared for what's coming than to read it and say, "I wish I would have heard that sooner!" So read the Bible for what you need today and for what you will need tomorrow.

In Ecclesiastes 12:13 it says, "The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what He tells you." (Mssg) I want to explain what the term fear God means. It means to be in awe of Him, not run around afraid to be in relationship with Him and to serve Him. Fearing God doesn't mean that you walk around fearing your every move because He is a God that is mean. Rather it means as Rabbi Jefferey Wolfson Goldwassser says, "living life with a trembling awareness that life has meaning -that the choices you make have consequences of ultimate significance." Hope that helps!

ARC ROUND TABLE

I'm excited that we're hosting the ARC Round Table at RVC thisThursday and Friday. It should be a great time with Billy Hornsby as we meet with church planters and see if the ARC is a good fit for them. (We hope it's a match because we want to plant thousands of life giving churches across the USA.) I'm 100% committed to the ARC and believe it's the best church planting organization in America so I'm glad that RVC gives 2% of our budget to the ARC and that I have the privilege to serve on the board with some amazing pastors.