Rob Ketterling

CHURCH PICNIC SUCCESS!

I know it sounds like a small town, small church kind of thing, but I love the church picnic at RVC! I love the food, (especially the corn on the cob!) I love the music, I love the fun for the kids and I love the worship time with the water baptism! It was so cool to see all of the people getting baptized and the testimonies. Speaking of testimonies, we just might have the next Chris Caine in Kaitlyn Kildahl! She was so passionate in her testimony I was ready to hand the mic to her and walk of the stage and let her go! I loved her passion!

If you missed it, I don't mean to over do it but it's almost as bad as missing Hillsong United sing in you happy birthday! (OK, it's not that bad, and yes, I'm still bumming about missing that for Connor!)

One last thing, our SOAP for the day goes along with my message this past weekend really well! (John 21) "Simon do you love me?" said Jesus, "Yes Lord," he said, "you know that I love you" Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." Remember he still says "You feed them."

VIDEO PREACHING

We did video preaching at all of our services at both campuses today and I thought it went great! I think there are a few technical things we need to work on, but the spirit of the message came through loud and clear. The only thing that was weird was sitting there on the front row and when I said something in the message that the people around me liked, they looked at me or tapped me on the back! Not used to that!

I just felt that Saturday night's message captured the spirit and emotion and that any attempt on Sunday would come up short so I showed the video. It just feels good knowing that the entire church got the same thing this week and you can join in if you missed it and see the sermon on our podcast. We're on the verge of going to four services at our Apple Valley campus and two services at our Faribault campus. If you are not working at either campus, we need you! Hear the message and realize that Jesus is saying, "You feed them!"

NOT THE DAD OF THE YEAR!

I feel really bad today as I blog this because last night Connor missed out on a really special opportunity. We were in Miami for a Pastor's Round Table event and at the end of the event many of us were going to the Hillsong United concert as guests of Hillsong. Pastor Brian Houston had said he would get Connor an opportunity to meet the band members and when we got there and asked around, no one knew about it so we didn't get to go back stage. No problem we thought, just enjoy the music and get back to the hotel to pack.

So after the music was over, many of the Pastors that had been in Miami in meetings for the past two days left a little early to get back to the hotel and beat the rush out of the arena and we were part of that group. Little did we know, that Pastor Brian was planning to call Connor up on the stage and have the band sing him Happy Birthday! So we were gone and he was asking if Connor was there and we were no where to be found! (Except by my friends texting me that we just missed it!) So no Happy Birthday to Connor from Hillsong United..... I am a terrible father for leaving early! (It was actually a two day conference and we left as the conference was going but stayed for all of the worship, but it still doesn't matter!)

So when we got back to the hotel I felt terrible and told Connor I would take him for any dessert he wanted, (I was feeling terrible, I would have bought him a PS3 if he wanted that for dessert!) and while we were on our way into the elevator we ran into Brian and Bobbie Houston and said we were sorry for leaving early and thank you for mentioning Connor. (I still felt terrible and embarrassed and now I see them face to face!) But then it got better.

We went to the lobby and ran right into Joel Houston, Marty Sampson, Phil Dooley and the entire team. We saw Brooke Frasier but we didn't get a picture with her, but we did with everyone else! So they all wished him a Happy Birthday and made his day. They also made it possible for me to sleep! Man, I still feel really bad and I know I'm not the dad of the year. Dino Rizzo said last night I was the worst dad in America and I'm still bumming from it, but don't tell Connor, he still might ask for that PS3!

LET'S TALK CHURCH

I get fired up every time I'm around other great leaders like I've been for the past two days, it's been an amazing group to hang out with! Tonight we're going to the Hillsong United Concert and then I'll be home to preach this weekend and of course, I'll be fired up!

If you're wondering who I've been hanging out with, I thought I'd make a list for you and if you desire, you can google them. (I thought about doing links for all of them and then I realized, no way, it would take too much time!) Brian Houston (Hillsong Church), Chris Hodges, Dino Rizzo, Rick Bezet, Steve Robinson, Stovall Weems, Benny Perez, Bill Scheer, Brad Lomenick, David Crank, Greg Surratt, Jacob Aranza, James Duvall, Jason Bolin, John Siebeling, Joel Hunter, Keith Craft, Kent Munsey, Matt Fry, Michael Fletcher, Perry Noble, Pete Wilson, Randy Bezet, Robert Morris, Steve Vaggalis, Toby Slough, Todd Mullins, Tony Brock and Troy Grambling.  See why I'm fired up!? It's a huge privilege to get to do life and ministry with these guys and it was a great mix of guys to talk church with and just get inspired.

Oh yes, and one last shout out, a huge thank you to Marc Cleary for putting this all together and making it happen. He's one amazing guy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNOR

We're all celebrating Connor's 16th birthday today and he's in for a big celebration as he and I head to Miami today for a Pastor's Round-table with Brian Houston. I cashed in some frequent flyer miles and got him a ticket to come along with me so he's going to help serve at the Round-table event. His big reward after helping is to go to the Hillsong United concert and have a backstage pass on Friday night in Miami as we celebrate him turning 16!

Happy Birthday Connor, you're an amazing son!

A HOLE IN ONE!!!!!

I've always had golf goals in my life and some of them were to play certain courses (Pebble Beach, Hazeltine etc.) and some were goals that I just needed to accomplish as I played. Well today, I completed one of my goals, I got a hole in one! I was playing at Brackett's Crossing with Larry Bach and Jeff Kerr and today was my day. (Or should I say, it was my moment, I followed my hole in one with a triple bogey and two double bogey's!) Here's how it all happened.

We were playing hole #4 (We had started on the back nine.) and Pastor Jeff got a call that his daugther had an emergency and he had to go immediately. So he sped off in his cart and Larry and I continued to finish our round. On the very next hole, #5, I hit a 3 iron 190yds to the green and it landed on the left side of the green, I knew I hit it pure and I thought it would end up close to the hole. Well, not only did it get close, it rolled over a hump in the green and went in! We didn't see it go in the hole becausee it was up hill and behind this hump on the green. When we arrived at the green, I thought it went long and I was disappointed that it wasn't on the green. I started looking in the rough and Larry said, "Rob, you hit it too well, it's in the hole go check." After a few seconds I went up and looked but honestly, I had lowered my expectations because I've looked before and it's never been in the hole. But this time was different, there it was, a number 4 Titleist Pro-V 1 in the hole! Unbelievable, I got my hole in one!!!!

It was men's league night and all the other golfers were playing a scramble and weren't going to be in for a while so I bought Larry his dinner and drinks and celebrated my brief moment in golf history. I called a few friends put it on Twitter and now I'm blogging about it. It will be in the local paper on Tuesday and now I just have to figure out how to incorporate it in a sermon!

(By the way, Pastor Jeff's daughter is fine, and he missed the best shot I've ever made, but he did the more important thing, he was a great dad!)

WERE YOU AWARE OF THIS?

I wasn't aware of this until yesterday and it just bothers me that something like this goes largely unnoticed by people. Maybe I was just too busy this past weekend but now that I know about this I had to blog about it.

A teenage girl, Rifqa Bary,converted from Islam to Christianity and fears that her family will kill her. She has fled to Florida and the government is getting involved because she's from Ohio and I'm praying for her safety. It's so sad that people call Islam a religion of peace when they condone killing those that leave their beliefs. Let's continue to pray for Rifqa and all of the Christians in the world that are in danger because of their beliefs.

A WEEKEND WORTH MORE THAN 140 CHARACTERS

I just did a Twitter Post (Tweet) to summarize my weekend and it was hard to get it all in with only 140 characters! I love weekends like that and I hope that you get the opportunity to live those as well! (I know some of you think that would be a nightmare but trust me, they're fun!)

Here's what I did that took up all of 140 characters and more! A wedding for our Jr.High Pastor, a funeral, 4 services with over 40 decisions from 2230 people in attendance, my 25th High School reunion (See picture) dinner with a former Elder, golf, a movie and now a leadership meeting tonight! (I know the leadership meeting actually starts this week!) 

Looking forward to our all church Leadership training tonight at 7:00PM, it's a great day to be alive!

TERRY ESAU

I just got off the phone with Terry Esau and I'm pumped to be doing the Surprise Me 30 day experiment at RVC this September! It's going to be a lot of fun and an amazing series as we ask God to show us how He wants to be more involved in our daily lives. I believe this, I truly believe that God wants to be involved in our daily lives more than we can imagine and if we will have eyes to see and ears to hear, we will be blown away by God! The series starts September 12th and 13th, you don't want to miss it!

As for this weekend, we're finishing the Deadliest Seven series and at the risk of over hyping it, you do not want to miss this weekend! That's all I'm gonna say!!!

BRETT FAVRE AND RVC

Brett Favre signed with the Vikings today and he just announced, he's going to attend RVC! After months of holding out, he's decided to come out of retirement and join the team making us the favorite in the NFC.

As far as the RVC status goes, he's just retired from church and is no longer planning to attend RVC, sorry about that but you should attend! Please do not let his signing keep you from church, the 9:00AM Sunday service is a great option and for those of you that own DVR's, come to the 12:00PM service and then catch up later! See you here this Sunday! (New service times start Labor Day weekend.)