Rob Ketterling

IN THE PAPER AGAIN!!! AND IT WAS REALLY GOOD!

The St. Paul Pioneer Press did another story about our church and three churches we started! It was such a good article, I hope you will read it if you haven't already done so!

A FEW REALLY GOOD THINGS

There are so many good ministries that we want to support with Kingdom Builders and I'm asking that you will do your part and bring your best gift this weekend so we can reach our goal of 1 million dollars. It's possible if we ALL do our part! Last year, we had 550 families give $226,751 in the miracle offering and now our church is bigger and stronger this year so I'm believing for even bigger things!

We need to raise the money - $50,000 for Convoy of Hope as they bring needed supplies to people suffering from natural disasters, $100,000 for an Urban Outreach with North Central University as they reach out to the neighborhoods surrounding NCU and share the love of Jesus, $100,000 for a 5th campus for RIver Valley. Someone gave to the campus you go to, long before you attended, why not pay for the next one! Also, we need to raise $80,000 to purchase much needed vehicles for our missionaries all over the world. There are so many other needs but I wanted you to see a few of them!

These are great things and we're a great church serving a great God, let's do our best this weekend to do good all around the world so people can see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven!

MIRACLE OFFERING THIS WEEKEND!

This weekend at all of our campuses, we're all going to particiapte in the Miracle Offering as part of our Kingdom Builders ministry. If you want more info on Kingdom Builders, go here, but let me give you a quick snapshot in case you need it.

Every year, we set financial goals as a church to raise money for ministries that we want to support to advance the kingdom of God. It varies from building projects, to missions, to investments in our children and youth and many other wonderful ministries. This year, we set a goal of 1 million dollars and we are planning to send this money out to over a dozen ministries! (For a complete list go here.) I'm so excited because so far this year we've raised over $630,000 and I know that if we all do our part and people with the gift of giving step up, we will make it over a million for the very first time!

Becca and I prayed, sat down and discussed it and we're ready to do our part! I pray that you will do the same and see what God asks you to give as we look forward to the Miracle Offering this weekend!

I LOVE OUR MUSIC!!!

This past weekend the Pioneer Press did a story about our church and our music, so god to see them write such good stuff about us! I love our music and I love where our church is going! Here's the link! http://www.twincities.com/ci_19267312?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

MY NEW WORD

I have a new word today that I really want to use to guide me and no I didn't make it up, it's actually a pretty common word. It's the word prioritize. Not an amazing word but maybe it actually is, here's what I mean. I'm a goal setter, I have a "100 places to see before I die" list, (saw two of them this year!) a list (3 pages long) of goals for every area of my life, things I pray for, things to do every day, books to write etc. and if I do the math, I'm going to run out of time. Unless of course I live to 200, which is highly unlikely! With that being said, I need to prioritize what I'm going to do so my new word is going to have to be prioritize. Prioritze my time, my relationships, my travel, even my goals list. Its going to be a huge battle for me because up until now, it's been add to the list, add to the list and now it's cut down the list, cut it down some more or better yet, stick to the list and cut out other stuff! (Can you see why this is going to be hard!) My plan will be to prioritize every day and then, make it happen. Easy right?! My biggest challenges will be when good opportunities crowd out great opportunities and when rest doesn't look like the highest priority even when it is. You're only given one life to live and then you face judgment, wouldn't it be great to hear a "well done" rather than a "why didn't you?". My goal is to get to heaven and hear, "well done, you overachieved!". I better get working on my priority list!

NCU MAGAZINE

You can imagine my surprise when I opened up the NCU Magazine and saw two full pages talking about our church and our team! Wow, two full pages and on another page, there was another picture so it looked like we had some very special help in being featured in the magazine!

We love NCU (North Central University) and all the hard work they do to train ministers and young people to go into their career as a sold out follower of Jesus. All of our worship leaders are from NCU and as you can see, so is a lot of our staff! I'm thrilled that we get so many good pastors and staff from NCU. We're also thrilled because our partnership has gone to another level as I now serve on the Board of Regents. This is a strategic partnership and one that will help us to start a school of ministry and other things we've been dreaming up. I keep hearing from prominent Christian leaders how strong NCU is and I agree, they're strong, we're strong and together, who knows what we can do!

ANOTHER GREAT WEEKEND!

What a great weekend at River Valley Church! I loved preaching on the idiom "Holier than Thou" and felt that God really spoke to all of us in the church. I sincerely want anyone to know that if a holier than thou person has kept you away from God, please, please, please give God another try. The Church was never meant to be that way, we were meant to be holy, but never holier than thou. If you missed the sermon, be sure to listen on-line!

It also was great to have baby/children dedications at all of our services and all of our campuses. I love the time that we get to stop the regular church service and dedicate the children and also for the parents to say they will raise their children in the ways of the Lord. I was so thankful for technology and the way it enabled us to include family members that couldn't make it to church. They were able to watch it with live streaming video all around the world. It was especially enjoyable to have Pastor Justin give a shout out to his parents in Arizona. I love technology and that it allows us to do multi-site church, on-line training and live streaming services.

$1,000,000 ON HIS HEAD

I met a man tonight that has a $1,000,000 price tag on his head for preaching the gospel because the country he is from (Let's just say it's in the Middle East.) can't stand that he's preaching and training leaders in his country. I was humbled, and honored to hear his story, pray for him and dream of ministry opportunities we could do together. He has been jailed twice, threatened daily and just radiates the joy of the Lord! Humbling and challenging as I look at my own life and ask the Lord to help me do more to spread the good news of Jesus.

I'm so glad that John Maxwell had him speak to us as leaders and I will never forget this experience. I hope we all can stand as strong and as joyful as this man with a million dollar price on his head for sharing the gospel and count the cost of serving Jesus.  

5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP

Once again, I have the privilege of spending some time with John Maxwell for 3 days and it's already been great! He shared with us an overview teaching of his new book, 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP and it was so challenging. I've actually been looking for this book to come out for a while now and I was so glad he gave us a copy of it at this event. There are only about 100 of us here so it's very personal, intimate and informative as we hear lessons, ask questions and just get to hang out. Every time I'm around him, I get challenged to do more, think better and take my life and ministry to another level!

I'm glad that this year, not only do Becca and I get to spend time with John, but so do Darin and Jayne! Good stuff, good times and we still have two more days to go!

ELIM ONE CONFERENCE

It's the last day of the Elim One Conference and I can't believe we're almost done! Time flys when you're having fun! I have loved every minute of the conference and believe that good things will result from this trip. The ministry time has been wonderful and I have loved the daytime of teaching and the night time of preaching. In addition to that, I'm bringing back some good things we can do at River Valley, in The ARC (Association of Related Churches) and in other networks. Thanks for your prayers, I feel blessed to be sent here and to minister to these wonderful pastors and leaders! I'll be home for the Men's event at our Apple Valley campus this Friday as we get ready to hear from Rick Bezet! If you're a guy in Minnesota, don't miss it!!!! See you there!