Are you coming? You don’t want to miss what is ahead for Revolution Church. Find out Thursday at 6:30 pm. Childcare is provided.
tucson
Last week was a crazy, exciting, tiring, exhilarating week in the life of our church. We had our first ever day camp and Jennifer and her team did an unbelievable job (if you’d like to see some pictures from day camp, you can see them on the city here). Personally, I have never seen a day camp done at a church, so I had no idea what to expect.
But, in Revolution style, our dreams and prayers were high and they were exceeded. We had a mission team from Texas come out to help us and they were a huge help, in fact, without their help and all the hours our church poured in, we would not have been able to do what we did last week. What we do is truly a team sport.
Here are some things that God did and is doing:
- 62 elementary kids attended our day camp. Half of them did not attend Revolution.
- Read that line again. That was the goal of day camp, to reach out beyond our walls. 50%!
- We had 52 adults and students who helped with Day Camp. I was blown away by this when I thought about people who took vacation time to help with Day Camp. Revolutionaries, you stepped up again and again in huge ways this past week. I can never say thank you enough or repay you for the hours you pour in to make Revolution happen. And you do it with a servant heart that is such a model for me.
- We passed out almost 1,000 door hangars and 300 invite cards to our new location and water bottles as an act of servant evangelism (all this when it was 108 degrees).
- Only 1 person got heat stroke, which was also a win.
- On Wednesday, after I presented the gospel (and I told Jennifer yesterday that after that experience I don’t envy her job in any way as presenting the gospel to a room full of kids is hard), all the kids filled out cards. 11 of them indicated they wanted to talk with someone about becoming a Christian. 3 of those 11 showed an understanding and prayed to become a Christian. Jennifer was able to follow up with the parents of not only those 3, but the other 8.
- Since then, I’ve heard reports of not only great conversations parents are having with their kids about the gospel, but of kids accepting Christ.
- After all of that, on Friday night almost half our church showed up to help unpack and set up for our first night in our new location.
- Saturday was our first night at our new location and we had our highest attendance ever, 170. In the middle of July which statistically is when churches have their lowest attendance of the year!
- Please read that again because that blows me away.
- We kicked off our new series The Perfect Kid on Saturday and I think it is going to be one of our best series ever.
- All of our first and second time guests on their connection cards checked the box that said, “I’ll be back next week.”
- Our next baptism is July 31st and right now it looks like it will be our largest baptism ever. If you want to sign up to be baptized, just email Christe LePeau.
I was telling a pastor friend of mine about what God did last week and is doing in our church and his response was telling. He said, “That doesn’t just happen.” It is easy to be in the mix of what God is doing, think you had something to do with it, get comfortable with it or even think this happens everywhere. It doesn’t. In fact, the pastor who led the mission team looked around on Friday night as almost half our church was at our new location getting everything ready (this was after a week of day camp and the move and many people were just hanging on) and he said, “Look at all these people. They are happy to be here, excited and bought in. This doesn’t just happen.”
As your pastor, let me start off by saying thank you. Without the hard work of every Revolutionary, this would not happen. Without your support of our vision, without your generosity and believing that no one in Tucson should go to hell, this would not happen. Every church does not experience that and sadly every pastor does not experience this. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
You make leading a joy.
So, let’s keep praying. Let’s keep believing the impossible can happen. Let’s keep asking God to stop the sun in Tucson. And, let’s get ready for what God is going to do the rest of this summer and into the fall. Because, I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.
BTW, who are you bringing on Saturday for week 2 of The Perfect Kid and week 2 in our new location? It is going to be an eye opening night.
- What a night
- What a week
- This week was our first ever day camp and it was a huge hit
- God did so many things this week
- One of the coolest things was almost 50% of the kids at day camp didn’t attend church
- Love that
- Jennifer and her team did an amazing job
- Once again, I am blown away by our volunteers and how hard everyone works to make things at Revolution great
- So many people put in so many hours to make day camp, the move and our first night come off without a hitch and it was done with excellence
- Way to go!
- Tonight was our first night at our new location and it was buzzing
- I realized something about an hour before the service: we had more people setting up tonight than we had total at a preview service 2 years ago on this same weekend
- Crazy how God has worked in the last 2 years
- Blown away this week by how much Satan tried to stop us and prevent this week from happening
- Everything that could have gone wrong seemed to go wrong and then right when the service was starting the wind picked up and our first major monsoon storm started
- I was reminded again and again this week that God is more powerful and that when Satan is working his hardest, you are on the right path
- We kicked off our brand new series The Perfect Kid
- We did our first (and we’ll see if it is the last) cover country song
- I will admit, it fit the night really well and people seemed to like it
- But…it is country music and we know where that came from
- I talked about our view of parenting, goals and priorities and how that affects us as parents
- Whether we realize it or not, we parent with goals (even if we have never articulated them)
- What most parents don’t realize is how much impact they have on their kids and how much their choices as parents have on their kids
- I think this series is going to be eye opening for a lot of people
- I know the prep I’ve done over the last few months has changed a lot of mine and Katie’s thinking about parenting
- If you missed tonight, you can listen to it here
- When we walked out of church there was a huge rainbow in the sky
- What a cool reminder
- Don’t forget, Rev uP starts back up this Friday
- If you have a junior high or high school student, let them know
- After a crazy week, I’m ready for a normal week this week
- Oh wait, Ava starts school this week
- What?
- I can’t believe that Ava starts school on Monday, how do we have a 5 year old?
- We went to see her school, meet her teacher (who attends our church), and I think I am more nervous than Ava or Katie
- I will be a wreck on Monday
- We are having our next baptism on July 31st, you would like to get baptized just email Christe LePeau
- If you have some questions read this
- One thing that excites me is the Steelers training camp is right around the corner
- Football season cannot come soon enough
- Right now, I am more and more excited about Revolution and our future
- Can’t wait to see what God has in store for us
In Transformational Church, Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer make this point, “The worship gather or service is the most common activity of the vast majority of churches. Worship services are held by growing, plateaued, and declining churches. Worship services are held by growing, plateaued, and declining churches. Churches of every denomination, type, and theological perspective have worship services. And all of them hold to the underlying idea that God deserves to be worshiped. But churches that qualify as a Transformational Church are those where merely scheduling and holding a worship service are not enough. They have a high confidence that lives will be impacted through worship because their worship expressions consistently present the truth of who Jesus is and what He desires for the lives of people. Their services are alive with anticipation. A sense of anticipation permeates Transformational Churches. In mission work they expect lives to be changed. In community they expect people to connect. In evangelism they expect disciples to be made. The same sense of anticipation charges their worship services with an enthusiasm that differentiates them from other churches.“
When you show up at church on the weekend, do you expect anything to happen? Do you expect to encounter God? Do you expect God to rescue people? Do you expect the gospel to breakthrough hard hearts?
One of the things I love about Revolution is that on Saturday nights, in small groups, at Planet Rev and Rev Up, and when we serve our city, there is an expectation that God will show up and move. There is an expectation that God will use us to touch someone’s life. There is an excitement in the air.
Don’t miss the point. This is a theological and faith issue. If we don’t believe that God will move, if we don’t believe that lives will be changed, what are we saying about God? What does that say about us?
I pray that we never lose this. I pray that we always show up, praying, asking God and expecting God to move.
Saturday is going to be one of the most exciting nights in the short history of Revolution. Our day camp has been in full swing this week and God has done some incredible things.
This Saturday is our first night in our new location. Still the same time (5 pm) on the same day (Saturday), just a new spot.
We are kicking off a brand new series called The Perfect Kid. For the next 5 weeks we will be looking at what Scripture says about parenting, family, and also what those things mean to us as children of God. The Bible has plenty to say about the roles of parents, children, and what it means for God to be our Father. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this series and what God is going to do over the next 5 weeks. I am praying that God will make the sun stand still in our lives over the next 5 weeks and we will see God move in families, make some eternal changes, as well as taking us to the next level in terms of our relationship with God.
When I say that the next 5 weeks are going to take Revolution to a whole new level, I am not kidding!
Saturday we will look at our view of parenting, life and children. This view and how we see our roles affect everything about our parenting and families. Many of us have goals for ourselves and our kids that we will never reach because of the way we parent and live life.
You won’t want to miss it!
So, do whatever you have to do to get to Revolution this Saturday night (and don’t forget to bring a friend with you)! This is a great week to bring a friend, every parent wants help and advice when it comes to parenting, so this is an easy series to invite them to. To use an e-vite, just go here. And come expecting to see God move and do something huge in our lives.
Remember, we meet at 5pm at 6620 E 22nd St.
See you then.
Dear God, I pray that you would do something so big, so fast at Revolution Church and through Revolution Church in the city of Tucson that our whole city would notice and they would know it was you. Amen.
