River of Life Blog
  • Pastor Todd Weston's Blog

RLA Pastor's blog

Bash

6/2/2014

 
The fifth annual Bash outreach last week was a smashing success!  It was a record-breaking event.  The Thursday morning session broke all previous attendance records with 156 children attending.  That record proved to be short lived when 181 children showed up the very next day!  On Friday evening the church was packed with children and their families for the closing rally.  Many boys and girls accepted Christ as personal Lord and Savior, and over 70 Bibles were given away to children who had never before owned a copy of God’s Word.

Ministry doesn’t just happen.  The Bash outreach involved a team of 90 servant-leaders from River of Life.  This team was made up of all age groups serving in various capacities.  Some worked in registration; others served in crafts and snacks.  Several were coaches who led teams of children throughout the Bash weekend.  And then there were those who served with sports, games, security, media, and the list goes on.

As beneficial as Bash was for the children who attended, it was equally beneficial for those serving.  We learned once again that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Obviously, there was a blessing in watching God work in the lives of these precious children.  But there was also the blessing that comes with teamwork and the establishing and strengthening of relationships within the Body of Christ.

In football many members of the team stand on the sidelines while others are on the field playing the game.  And of course, there are the spectators in the stands.  But when it comes to ministry, everyone is needed on the field.  As ministry opportunities continue to present themselves at RLA, I encourage you to get on the field and get involved.  No matter who you are, you have something to offer.

So thanks to all those who worked hard to make this year’s Bash such a successful outreach to our community.  Our community is better, our church is stronger, and heaven is richer for it!

Pastor Todd Weston










A Great Light

2/4/2013

 
Have you ever stopped to consider the many benefits of light?  The benefits are too numerous to name in this short article, but here are a few just to get you thinking about it.  Light –

·         Clarifies
·         Illuminates
·         Inspires
·         Reveals
·         Heals
·         Is life giving
·         Warns of danger
·         Provides safety

This world is a dark place.  Like the people described in Matthew 4:16, a lot of people today are in a state of spiritual darkness.  They are lost.  Others find themselves in dark and foreboding circumstances.  They are scared.  Maybe you can identify.

If so, listen up because there’s good news!  As Mike Young reminded the men at our monthly breakfast last Saturday, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned” (Matt. 4:16).  This verse is talking about Jesus – the Light of the world.  When Jesus comes in, darkness leaves!

There are billions of people today sitting in spiritual darkness.  Many have never received an adequate presentation of the gospel.  They need light.  This is why we dedicate an entire month to missions.  I encourage you to attend each service and catch the spirit of world missions.  I especially want to invite you to the Missions Café on Friday, February 22nd.  This beautiful evening will include a special mission’s presentation by our Creative Arts team, along with an inspiring message from Assemblies of God missionary Ken Belbin (India).

When you stop and think about it from eternity’s perspective, there is nothing more important than reaching the world for Jesus Christ.  Most people today are in darkness.  If something isn’t done, they will spend eternity in darkness.  Come on River of Life!  Let’s turn on the light!

Pastor Todd Weston

Missions

6/5/2012

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Last week we conducted our third annual Summer Vacation Bash.  This was an all-church outreach event at Stoneybrook to children in our community.  An incredible multigenerational team of servant-leaders from RLA ministered the love of Jesus to over 120 children.  It was like doing a missions trip in our own backyard.  Actually, it was a missions trip in our own backyard!

Speaking of missions trips, in less than two weeks another multigenerational team of twenty from RLA will be traveling to the Dominican Republic to work with Hope International Ministries.  While there we will be doing medical missions, evangelism, humanitarian outreach, ministry in local churches, a conference for area pastors, and more.  The youngest team member from RLA going to the DR is six.  The oldest team member is….several decades older than six!

The Great Commission starts at home and goes out from there.  Jerusalem.  Judea. Samaria.  To the ends of the earth.  It also involves the whole church.  Everyone can do missions.  At the Summer Vacation Bash it might be working security, or helping with crafts, or coaching a team of kids.  In the DR it might be helping someone through the clinic, or participating in street evangelism to kids, or giving a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name.

Another thing we can all do for missions is give.  You (the RLA family) are doing such a great job giving to missions that RLA is now within the top 500 missions giving churches in the Assemblies of God nationwide!  Out of 9,000 A/G churches that support missions, RLA is #457.  How cool is that?! 

Here’s the deal.  Whatever we do at RLA we will do together, we will do it with all our might, and we will do it for God’s glory!

Pastor Todd

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Missions Convention

2/27/2012

 
Another great mission’s convention has come and gone.  To date we are only $3,300 away from reaching our goal of $100,000 in faith promises.  I believe we will easily surpass that figure in the next few weeks.  This amount sets a new record for missions faith promises received at RLA! 

Our theme this year was: COMMITTED – to Pray, Give, and Go.  Everyone is committed to something.  The big question is: Am I committed to the right things?  Am I committed to the things that really matter?  I think we all have to ask ourselves if we are committed to the same things God Himself is committed to.

There seems to be a lot of misdirected commitment in the world today.  Last week I listened to Chip Ingram as he addressed a crowd of one thousand gathered at the Bonita Prayer Breakfast.  It got pretty quiet when he suggested there might be a higher purpose in life than striving to put a little white ball in a four-inch hole in the ground in fewer strokes.  Isn’t it amazing watching people knock themselves out over things that have little if any eternal value?

I think it was Leonard Ravenhill who asked the searching question, “Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?”  While recreation certainly has its place, and vacations are nice, there is a higher cause worth living for.  It’s called the Great Commission.  There is no higher cause.

Last Sunday our guest missionary, Jason Frenn, made a statement that resonated deep in my heart and brought out an instant “YES!”  He said, “A mission’s convention is the transference of God’s burden for the lost to our hearts.”  It’s not just about raising money so we can send missionaries, although that is an important part of it (Romans 10:14-15).  But it goes deeper than that.  It’s about our hearts getting in alignment with God’s heart.  It’s about our commitments and priorities lining up with His.

Financially, this year’s mission’s convention was a success.  But the true success will be measured by the ongoing commitment level of our hearts to the Great Commission.  That’s the deal.

Pastor Todd Weston

The Great Commission

2/14/2012

 
Here is a number for you to consider - 6,889.  No, it’s not the total of ceiling tiles in our building or my cumulative golf score from 2011.  It’s the number of unreached people groups in the world.  Think of it!  Nearly seven-thousand people groups have yet to receive an adequate presentation of the gospel.

Wow.  That seems kind of overwhelming.  There ought to be a plan on how to reach all of those people.  There is.  It’s called the Great Commission.  It appears first in Matthew’s gospel, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The Great Commission appears in one form or another in each of the four gospels.  And just in case we still don’t get it, it appears again in Acts, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). 

The Great Commission is the greatest undertaking, “Go into all the world,” to deliver the greatest message, “and preach the gospel,” to the greatest audience, “to every creature” (Mark 16:15). 

Our response to this call is echoed in our mission’s convention theme – COMMIT, to PRAY, to GIVE, to GO! 

·        Pray – for our missionaries, and for God to give you a heart for missions.
·        Give – make a faith promise on Feb. 26th and give faithfully to missions.
·        Go – make yourself available to God and start others about Jesus.

God has determined that the gospel will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (Matthew 24:14), and we are the ones He intends to us.  So let’s do it!  And here is what we will find:

A great commitment
To the Great Commission
Will build a great church!

 
Pastor Todd Weston

    Pastor Todd

    Lead Pastor
    River of Life
    Assembly of God

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