You can help change countless lives in 2013!

There are many great organizations who ask for a donation this time of year. When you choose to give to Ridge Church, it enables us to create irresistible environments where people are inspired to take steps in their spiritual journey and to bless those in need. Recently as part of our “Be Rich Campaign” Ridge Church provided an entire red carpet Christmas experience for 10 families in need. We bought gifts for all family members, paid water & electric bills, bought groceries & gas, took care of basic needs, and so much more. But most importantly we were able to inspire hope! Listen to a few heart felt thank you’s and know that you can help us change countless lives in the upcoming year by choosing to partner with us through your year-end gifts!

Year end giving made easy-Two ways to give: 

1. Egive (December 27th is last 2012 posting day for EGive!) Give HERE! 
2. Mail Giving (2012 donations Must be posmarked by December 31st                                                                                                                             Ridge Church P.O. Box 1292 Matthews, NC 28106

When is our Grand Opening?

We are in the home stretch on the up fit for our new facility. This week volunteers are showing up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 5-8:30 and Saturday 8:30-4:30 to paint and do small construction projects. Our project has been a cash project to date which means two things:

1. We are debt free in this construction effort to date
2. When our funds run out we will push the PAUSE button on construction

The million dollar question that people ask me every week is "When are we getting into the facility?...When's the grand opening?" At this point our Grand Opening has about 5% to do with construction time lines and about 95% to do with funding. We have two things between us and the finish line and you can help

• We have 250 remaining chairs to sell. Each chair represents a person we hope will sit in the seat one day as well as a portion of the renovation. We've sold over 200 already!
• We need to increase our monthly budget by $5,000 more per month to absorb construction & facility related costs. We've already increased by $5,000 since we began the campaign so we are halfway there! (see chart for details)

You can give online HERE and help us get to the Finish Line

Concert in the Commons

We have an exciting night planned for October 5th. We are doing a concert in the commons (Sycamore Commons) from 6-8:30pm. We are also doing a pumpkin patch that night and all proceeds will go to support Piney Grove Elementary School, the title one school that we partner with. In one great night we get to combine great fun in our community and serving our community. Admission is FREE but we do have tickets so you can invite friends. Pick up tickets from guest services on Sunday and start inviting!

You never know

Be on the look out for opportunities to invite people to experience Ridge Church with you. One of the four things that we ask every core person at Ridge Church to embrace is what we call invest & invite. The premise is: as you develop relationships in the circles that you travel in look for appropriate opportunities to invite them to experience Ridge Church "with you". My kids are all on new sports teams this year and we've already had opportunities to meet several new families and invite them to our church. Trust me--our environments and volunteers will be ready for your "invest & invite". You never know when a simple invitation could result in someone's life being changed forever!! So be bold.

When God "Chat room God" video

From beginning to end Sunday's service was one of the most moving and challenging services that any person could imagine. I witnessed and experienced extreme emotion on every level. We started the morning with a video called "Chat Room" God. Our creative team, lead by Karen Clark, began dreaming about the idea long ago and with the help of Ed Williams creative writing and Chris Lee's editing the final product was...well it was the thing people have been talking about and asking me about all week long. It's not just hype when I say you really MUST to be at Ridge Church right now or you will simply miss out on some amazing things that God is up to! Our messages are always posted online but their is no comparison to being in the room while Christopher Kincaid and the Ridge Band are leading. It was absolutely unbelievable this past Sunday...ask anyone who was there and they'll confirm! Here's "Chat Room God" which was followed up by a "Nickel Creek" opener.

Partnering with Parents

One of our desires as a church is to do what we call "Partnering with Parents". We want to leverage the small percentage of time that we have with children on any given Sunday to partner with parents to build bridges and create conversations between parents and their kids in the huge amounts of time that they spend with their children. Most parents will spend more time with their children in the car this month than we, as the church, will spend with them in the entire year! Fortunately for Elijah his parents understand this partnership from both sides. They are both investing in their children at home as well as investing in others at Ridge Church as volunteers. Experiencing a child putting their faith in Jesus as Savior and letting the world know through baptism never gets old!

She picked a great super power!

I'm often amazed at how much children understand when it comes to God. At times their capacity to believe seems to out pace those of us who are "adults". I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus said we should approach him with "faith like a child". This is another great example of how big of a difference the investment of your time, abilities, and resources are making. Thanks to all of you who continually invest your life in something that will outlast it!

You never know who is watching!

As Lily shared her story I couldn't help but go back a few months in my mind to the moment I had the privilege of baptizing her grandmother. Forgiveness is powerful and it spans generations. Every person, every generation, every race, every socioeconomic group longs for forgiveness and acceptance. AND through Jesus that forgiveness is available to every person, every generation, every race, and every socioeconomic group! I hope the dispensing of and receiving of forgiveness becomes an epidemic in our city! Enjoy Lily's video:



FBC - Lily Williams from Ridge Church on Vimeo.

Life is different for this family!

I had the privilege of baptizing Claira recently and I absolutely love her story for many reasons but one of those reasons is the fact that her mom was the first person that we ever baptized at Ridge Church. What a privilege to be able to see every person in her family put their faith in Jesus. Thanks to all of you that have helped create and fund environments where this type of life change happens! Enjoy Claira's video:


FBC - Claira Seighman from Ridge Church on Vimeo.

Last Chance: Demolition Work Days!

Last chance to knock things down and in the process move our mission forward! We found a way to open up more space in Waumba (babies-preschool) and Upstreet (elementary age) environments so we need to demo about four more walls and demo the remaining electrical wiring. We need people to take down walls and we need a highly motivated clean up crew. We will likely fill an entire dumpster. This will require at least 20 people per night in order to complete it in two nights. If your community group normally meets on Wednesday or Thursday night maybe your entire group could join us. We'll have gloves, safety glasses, dust masks, dinner and drinks on site. If you have any of these items bring them: hammers, sledge hammers, saws all's, drills, brooms, shovels, wheel barrels, crow bars, and magnets for nail pick up. ADULTS ONLY on this one please!!

Wednesday, May 9th and Thursday May 10th  from 5-8:30 PM

RSVP Let us know if you think you will be able to help by emailing Melissa at melissar@ridgechurch.net

Now that's what I signed up for!

Monday night 80+ people gathered together for what will definitely go down as a historic night for Ridge Church. We spent time begging God for the miraculous in something we called "Advance 30". It was an incredible time of prayer, worship, and communion but it was just the kick off. For the month of May we have invited the leaders of Ridge Church to devote themselves to a very strategic season of prayer and fasting. The night got it's name from Matthew 11:12 "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." Now that's what I signed up for! Not a desk job or church job... I want to be a part of a powerful (not passive) advance of God's kingdom and God's purposes here on earth. I get pumped about that. I want my kids to experience that. I want our church to find it's rhythm within that type of movement. So for the next 30 days we are fasting and praying together for three things specifically. And we would love for you to join with us. I'll blog more about fasting in the days ahead for the sake of those that are new to that concept. Don't miss out!

Advance 30

As a church we are looking through the windshield at our greatest opportunity to date which also happens to be our greatest obstacle to date! The good news is as we peruse the Scriptures we quickly see that this was often the formula for a miracle...an opportunity for God to do what only he could do! We are entering a chapter unlike any in our existence and I believe it calls for us to take action like never before. Join us Monday, April 30, 6:15-7:00pm at our future home as I share our vision for a 30 day journey of prayer and fasting called "Advance 30". No childcare (but families are welcome), no lights, no sound systems. Just a church coming together to beg for God's supernatural activity among us! This will absolutely be a night to remember.

125 hours=Practically Loving Our Neighbors!

"Do for one what we wish we could do for all"--We say this often because strategically partnering with and blessing groups within our city is part of our dream and plans at Ridge Church. 45 Ridge volunteers joined together on Saturday giving roughly 125 hours collectively to doing MAJOR clean up and landscaping improvements to Piney Grove Elementary School. Piney Grove is the "first" title one school that we have adopted and we really want to make a difference. For those of you that give generously to Ridge Church every week you are part of this too! We couldn't afford to provide these type of events for Piney Grove without your generosity. Here are a few pictures from the day:

He's making Beautiful Things out of us!

I truly believe that the essence of the church by God's design is to be a giver not a taker. Our vision as a church is to bless and serve our city in ways that bring undeniable Glory to our example and our Savior Jesus. In alignment with that, our mission is to usher people into a relationship with that same Jesus. Go HERE to hear "The winds of change". "When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near". God is making beautiful things out of us. We would love for you to be part of it! Check out this video for a glimpse (thanks to Catalyst for video inspiration!)

Redefining what is essential (one chair at a time)

One of the epic challenges of life is to suspend our own personal conveniences for the sake of others. The problem with our lives of convenience is that we have become accustomed to them--so much so that often times the conveniences we enjoy have come to feel like ESSENTIALS and the line gets blurred. In fact we have convinced ourselves that these conveniences are essential to our lives to the point that we feel very real anxiety when one of these conveniences is tampered with...[cable, our second car (or first car), our house, our x box, our iphone, our starbucks habit, our hair coloring appointment, our vacation etc]

I want to extend a challenge, Ridge Church...let's step up and allow ourselves to be inconvenienced for the sake of people whose lives will be changed! We have made a decision not to take out a loan in order to complete our current up fit project. Simply stated--when we run out of funds we'll will stop building until we can raise the rest. You have been generous and we have been fantastic stewards of resources and time and as a result now we can literally see the finish line! We need to sell 450 chairs ($199 each) that symbolically represent the people we are praying for. So PRAY for a person--PAY for a seat. For some of you, buying one chair will be a stretch. For others of you buying 100 chairs would be very doable. So do what YOU can. Allow yourselves to be inconvenienced for the sake of this mission! USE EGIVE HERE.

"I left the church when I was 17"

When we were still doing interest meetings for Ridge Church I remember quoting this alarming statistic that 85-90% of high school seniors that grew up in church would leave the church as soon as they graduated and most would never return. The number one reason why?--"the church and her message was judgmental and not relevant to life". That bothered me so much that it literally shaped much of how our church functions. We are passionate about creating environments that would capture the hearts of a generation teaching them how to apply God's word to every day life and equipping them to pursue Jesus even beyond high school or college. We also wanted to work hard to create environments where the "85-90%" would one day, maybe even as adults, come back and find the church and message of Jesus to be more relevant than they ever knew it could be. I share this because Nicole's baptism story is evidence that IT IS WORKING! This is our mission in action!:

This never gets old!

We had the privilege of baptizing two more adults this weekend at Ridge Church. When we started this church our dream was simple "To create a church where 'church people' would love bringing their un-churched friends...and a church where those un-churched friends would love attending". Along the way we've had people of all ages realize their need for a personal relationship with Jesus. Every person has a story--they are all powerful! This is just one of them.

I'll post the other video later this week. This never gets old. Grateful to have a front row seat to life change!

Ridge UPDATE: Demo has begun!

DEMOLITION BEGINS
I'm long overdue on an update of the happenings around Ridge Church. The demo permit is here and we are starting demo on our future home. Demo should take 2-3 weeks then construction will begin. Our capital campaign called "1 twelve" has been wrapped around the idea that every chair represents a person that matters to us and even more importantly matters to God. We have received just over half of the funds necessary to renovate our future home. We are in our final push to the finish line. Our new facility will have 450 total seats and we are inviting people to symbolically purchase a chair for $199--for a family member, friend, or co-worker. If all 450 chairs are spoken for that should enable us to finish the interior. Go HERE to give through e-give or you our 1 twelve ipad kiosks on Sundays.

NEW STUDENT ENVIRONMENT OPENS THIS SUNDAY
Our middle school and high school students get to start in their new environment before the adults will arrive in theirs. We we make the audio/visual installs this week in their new permanent environment. I heard rumors of a DJ and free XBOX drawing--9AM at this address: 1031 Matthews-Mint Hill Road, Matthews, N.C.

NEW SERIES BEGINS
Last but not least we begin a fantastic new teaching series this week called "Recovery Road". Can our nation be saved from economic crisis and political turmoil? Come see what Jesus had to say about it. 9:30A.M. and 11:00A.M.