Good morning!  Hope all is well and everyone is ready for the cold weather.  I heard snowflakes are possible in the North Georgia mountains this weekend.  Good news is I've already got my milk and bread. Good luck getting it now!  Some other good news is that we are having a bonfire to help keep warm!  See below for details

This Saturday we're getting together for some time around a fire, we'll also have a hay ride that may or may not end up a little scary.  It'll be perfect bonfire weather and we hope you'll come out. 

Many have signed up and there is still time to let us know if you're going to be there.  We're having hot dogs and some other finger food type things so we kind of need to know if you're coming.  If you can email Stacy Jackson and let her know you plan to come, if you haven't previously signed up.

The Address: (Home of Tony & Karen Padgett)  
383 Stoney Point Road, Bowdon, GA 30108.
This is only about 7 minutes from the Church.  
(From the church you will turn left and then right on Hwy 5, the redlight.  Go through the roundabout and continue straight on Hwy. 5 until a 4 way stop where you turn left, this is Stoney Point Road.  From here it's about a mile down on the right.  Look for the sign or for a person to direct you to the parking area.)


What do folks need to bring?

• Chair
• Flashlight
• whatever Stacy told you to bring in an email.
• WEAR A COSTUME or Donate $5 to our One Verse Campaign.
• It'll be cold, all the better for a bonfire night!  So dress warm.

Costume!  We made a last minute change and we're hoping it catches on.  But we're wanting everyone to wear a costume Saturday Night.  If you're not into that then feel free to make a $5 donation to our One Verse Campaign.  

If you have any questions please email me or Stacy and we'll get you hooked up with details.

We continued our Creed Series last night at the Rock by looking at The Church.  God has a plan for His people and many times we think it's simply a building we can gather in.  But we were not meant to sit still and wait but rather wait patiently on the Lord as we Actively serve Him.  The Church is God's design for the Gospel to be taken to the world.  
Last night we saw this through the Church at Antioch, the one in Acts not Bowdon.  Attached are the sermon notes and bulletin from last night.

Refuel will be here for before we know it.  If you are unsure what Refuel is all about please visit our Refuel Page under the Events Tab.  

I will say this...Refuel is quickly becoming my favorite trip.  We have seen an increase of students attending and the time together is priceless as we spend time with one another and quality time in the Word of God.

The greatest thing we could do for our students is to help them Know Jesus and Follow Jesus, this is our hope and purpose and this is done in a great way as we spend time teaching them how to read and study the Bible together, in groups, in the mountains, by a fire, with a cup of hot chocolate that will be spilled in an average of 6.5 minutes.

I so hope your students makes the trip with us to Gatlinburg this January!

How do you follow up a big Sunday?  Easy, you focus on the fact that we are gathering to honor the same HUGE GOD. Jesus is still alive, death is still defeated, forgiveness is still available, help is still needed, guidance is still offered, honor is still due His glorious name.  This past week we celebrated together the goodness of God.  I know you know this but we still have reason to celebrate to goodness of God.  We could gather all day, every day and never come to the point where we've praised Him enough.  

Sunday is still coming and thankfully Jesus is alive and worthy of our praise.  So please come back, gather with us as we seek to learn, grow, honor and celebrate together the fact that Jesus is in fact still alive!

We're having a bonfire, November 1st, at the home of Tony & Karen Padgett.  We'll have more details next week as far as exact time and address but for now we'd love for you to get signed up as we need to purchase some food and get some things organized.  We do know it will be around 6:30 and last a couple of hours.   It's hard to have a bonfire at high noon and really not that fun.  So do us a favor and let us know if you are coming.  We do have many signed up but it helps for all the stragglers to make it official.  We don't want to show up with too much food or not enough food. 

Last night we continued our look at the Apostle's Creed by focusing in on The Holy Spirit.  It was a great night as we learned that without the work of the Holy Spirit we are hopeless.  We often forget about Him even though it's because of Him we can see and hear all that God is, does and promises to do in this world.  Faith in Christ is revealed to us by Him.  Needless to say, it is crucial we need to have a good grasp of The Holy Spirit, His role and purpose, if we are to live a life that brings glory to God.

This was our hope last night as we focused in our Reaching deeper down & further in.

You may not make it down this far by if you do I challenge you to tell your kids, family that you love them.  Something we have said a lot at The Rock lately is the need to preach the Gospel to yourself and others.  By this we don't necessarily mean to go down the Romans Road every 5 minutes but rather exemplify the qualities that are found in the Gospel.  "Show mercy, love kindness, walk humbly with your God" as Micah 6:8 says.  Extend the same grace that has been extended to you through Jesus Christ.  Above all, love others as God has loved you.  People are more willing to listen to a person that has previously given them a reason to listen.  Do our kids have our heart or just our orders?  Do they see in us a desire for the things of God? Have you given them, or people in general, a reason to stop and listen?   

Do your kids see the love you have for them?  Do they hear the words "I love you" early and often?  The greatest thing we could do for our children, our family, is to love them with the love that God has given in Christ Jesus. Sometimes the only thing we can say is "I Love you."  Don't be afraid to let this be all you say...until the next morning.  I'm a talker, I'll say the same thing 20 different ways in an attempt to make sure they/someone understands. I need to learn to say more by saying less.  A challenge for me has been to be patient, let "I love you" be enough until another time.  

On top of this......be steady, have a high standard, pursue excellence, forgive and press on towards righteousness, lead them well by living before them the standard you expect them to live by, but in all of these things verbally tell them you love them.  

The fear is this....a child lives his/her whole life and never knows the love of a parent.  Please be careful lest you confuse "love" for giving them what they want.  Think back to what you wanted at 14 and then quickly remember what you got.  Aren't you thankful you didn't always received what you wanted?

Looking back we remember those times where dad came in and plopped down on the bed and made us laugh. "I don't want to pull your finger!" you may have said...but in the end you were smart enough to realize what he was doing.  He could have gone into a lengthy discourse that fully explained how we should respond to the latest drama, but he didn't.  He just made us pull his finger and if we didn't he give us the result either way.  We'd laugh, complain and then he'd leave by simply saying....I Love You.  That was all that needed to be said.  

For the last few years we've all been excited about what God is doing and planned to do here at RRBC.  After patiently waiting we enter our new sanctuary this Sunday.  God has used the faithfulness of His people to provide space for even more people. So really the challenge of waiting only gives way to the challenge of reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I pray we, RRBC, will be obedient to go and share all that God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

Last night we continued our look at the Apostle's Creed.  What a great collection of belief statements.  I've attached the notes from last night but would quickly like to point out that while it's hard to point to one statement that is most crucial I still cling to the fact that Jesus did come, he did die, he was buried and he did rise again.  Without this hope and promise we, of all people, are most miserable.  Enjoy the notes and continue the conversation at home.

Expect many details regarding our bonfire in next weeks blog.  For now mark down that the bonfire is going down November 1st around 7ish.  We'd even like to see you, the parents, come out and join us!

This is officially the shortest blog I've ever written, Merry Christmas!

Good morning!  Hope you're all doing good and for some, ready for a long weekend. We have a lot going on around here so this may be short and sweet but short and sweet for me is still probably too long.  Bear with me! (edited warning:  it actually ended up longer than normal, forgive me!)

I guess I always remember the teenagers of the church sitting together.  I remember my old pastor communicating the need for this back when I was in 8th grade.  Before this time I would sit with my parents and a couple of friends or I'd go sit with my friend and his parents.  I really don't have a strong opinion on this really.  I think it is good for students to sit with each other, if they can still concentrate on the sermon, respect those around them and honor God in the process. I guess I do miss the opportunity to sit as a family too.  I love that our children's church ends at 4th grade to enable to the 5th graders to be with parents in "big church" to learn how to act in church.  Of course it always helps if the adults lead well in this area.  I would also get upset when I was a student and the same person that got onto me would do the same thing I did, as if 40 years of life made it "ok."  I also remember my parents being in the choir, I couldn't sit with them there, but mom was also part eagle/hawk.  There wasn't a place in that church building I couldn't be to where her watchful eye was not on me.  If I stepped out of line and took it to far I'd see that caring yet scary glare and then looking over her head, in the bass section, I'd see dad.  Even thinking about it now I hear the Walker Texas Ranger song...."the eyes of the ranger are upon you."  We need more of this today.  I needed help in learning how to honor God in His house.  This is a learned behavior.  It helps if the person/student is a follower of Christ and has a respect and knowledge of who God is and what He desires/deserves from us.  Trust your student to make the right decision but be ever close to help them when they don't.....because none of us are perfect and all of us need this guidance.  Our students do not automatically begin this....they learn from us.

For this reason I have mixed emotions.  I think the majority of our students are able to sit together, in a youth section, while fully concentrating on honoring God (listening to the sermon, singing the hymns, respecting the house of God and those around them.)  I think they need the opportunity to try, with us, parents, their to help lead them in actions and instruction.  Some of our students probably need to still be in the shelter of their parents wings as they still have not learned how to respect the house of God (putting gum on other students, constantly goofing off, disrupting those around them.)  

While I understand that all of us have moments of not being connected with the service we do have some that are seemingly never connected with the service, this alarms me.  We've lost a fear for God and a respect for His house.  We respect the presence of mere man moreso than the presence of God. Of course I think it will help when we're not using the same place for church that we use for dodgeball!

So it scares me a bit to have a youth section because then I seem very responsible for the actions of that section. Each Sunday night during our chair breakdown I am discouraged and even sometimes have people approach me with concerns regarding all the trash that's left in the youth section. This has nothing to do with dodgeball and everything to do with respect. If a student is disruptive, they come to me, this too is a respect issue.  It's a respect for God issue and a respect for others issue. We all know that ultimately the parent is responsible, at all times, for their student's welfare, behavior, spiritual walk, and even behavior in Church but as the youth pastor, they typically come to me. I accept this responsibility and am pleading for your help in this area.  The last thing I want is for our student ministry to be a burden but I also try to help our church body, and those with issues, understand that are students are growing, learning, and need help, guidance. I'm sure even that complainer has taken their focus off the sermon to ask about something...."Want to get a frosty after church?"  I typically always challenge the person with the issue to go to the student and help them....fulfill Titus 2 and take them under their wing.  I could also challenge them with Matthew 18 or even encourage them to encourage the "speck in the eye" verse.  The struggle is real and as parents and leaders we embrace the struggle and continually pour into our students with the hope that they know Jesus and follow Jesus.  This will influence greater than anything!

So as we move into our new sanctuary we do hope our students sit with each other and I pray our parents help them in this regard but also continue to "keep an eye on" your student to ensure that everyone that is present has the ability to hear clearly the gospel of Jesus Christ, this is the ultimate goal, hear the Gospel.

With that said, our students actually voted last night as their favorite section.  So look at the picture above and find section 6.   This is the section our students would like to sit in. It will not be marked as a student section and over time our students may migrate to another section.  Either way we'll encourage they sit together and see the benefit of having a youth section but understand and fully support if you'd rather have your student with you during the service.    

October 13, this Monday, we are moving a ton of stuff, rooms, chairs over to the new building.  We have many people signed up but could always use more folks.  If you are interested in helping please send me an email.  We have task sheets that are printed and will be encouraging folks to get a task, complete and get another one until we're all done.  If "free lunch" helps motivate you then I'll shoot out that we're providing lunch.  But we do need to know if you're coming preferably to best prepare.  

These are exciting times for our church and this is a great way for you to get involved and help.  We do this each summer for our local schools and call it missions so I really don't think it's a stretch to say come be involved in a free mission trip this Monday, August 13.

OK, we are having a fire, a big one, on November 1st.  We so want you to come and be apart of this as it's an awesome time ti simply hang out.  We're hoping to do something like this each month to get the students together in a casual setting and just let them be kids again!  We tend to guard our Wednesdays to grow in our faith, through the Word and many times the crazy things get left out.  These gatherings serve as a way for us to simply have fun, but to do so in a God honoring way.  December gathering....tacky sweater dodgeball/capture the flag!  Details coming soon!

See, short doesn't always mean short in my world for some reason.  I get carried away!
Thankfully I can simply post our sermon notes up in this section and you can read for yourself what we discussed last night at the Rock.  I've attached both the sermon notes and the bulletin/outline. 

It's a great way for you to discuss what we discussed in order to continue the conversation.  Our students have a lot going on and sometimes miss.  This is a way for them to miss the Rock without missing the Rock.  We have many athletes and band folks that can't attend so this is a way for them, and you, to make sure the most important relationship or thing they've got going on is healthy and growing. 

I pray we are making this walk with God priority #1.  If we do not, and send mixed signals as to what is most important we may not like the result of what we're raising.  May God continue to lead us and grant to us wisdom and knowledge as we take on the responsibility of raising children!  Lord help!

Busy times here at Roopville Road & The Rock SM.  We are in the final stages of moving into our new space as a faith family.  October 19th is very close and the excitement is building.  A huge hope and prayer of mine as we move closer is not necessarily that we get in on time and everything is completed, though that is a prayer and hope.  I would say my biggest hope and prayer is that God be glorified, honored, remembered during this transition and completion of this structure.  This new church building does not make us any more a church or any more important or special.  It is a huge deal, something to be attributed to God's provision. But we are His church, He has already declared this. Our church is not to be grounded on buildings and grounds but on the name of Jesus.  My hope and prayer is that, as our choir so greatly sings, "We will remember."  Sure we will sing it in a much bigger, nicer and newer place but the fact remains that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Let's not forget but instead remember that Christ is King, our great hope.  In Him we place our trust and hope.  As we get closer to this end may we rest in the promises of God and look intently to the cross of Christ which has the power to free us and make us new, daily. If we do we will see clearly the purpose of this new building and will in turn give praise to the One who deserves every breath of praise.  This has been the heart of the project and my hope and prayer is that we remain set on this end as we ourselves reach the end.

Due to me helping to lead our video portion of the new building Andrew will be leading us through the next portion of the Apostle's Creed, Jesus Christ.  As we move through this teaching we are very careful to instruct students and adults that the creed is not the final authority but merely a great teaching tool that points us to the very founding truths of our faith.  These concrete, Biblical doctrines are what lies at the very foundation of our spiritual lives.  These are the pillars of our faith.  We, as followers, must be grounded in these truths.

Previously we've started with the term "I Believe."  To say you believe is to say you have the faith to put your whole self into something.  Think of a stool or chair, think of an airplane or riding in a car with someone.  You "believe" they will deliver you safely.  To say I Believe in God you are saying that you are fully trusting in Him.  It is over and above believing certain truths about God.  To believe  is to be absolutely convinced of something.  

This week at the Rock SM we turn our focus to Jesus Christ.  The next few weeks we will look at Jesus and all the Bible teaches about He and His life.

Below are the notes from our sermon as well as the questions we ask the students.  YOu'll notice there are many questions.  Our life groups are all different and some will be able to get to each question while others may not.  For this reason we give them to you, the parent, in order for you to continue the conversation at home.  In the midst of homework, practice, and rehearsals we must ensure our students are being fed truth from God's Word.  This blog is a way to help you know what we are teaching and then offer the opportunity to continue down this path.  We pray you take advantage of it and also value each moment with your student as a means to teach, encourage, and lead them to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of Jesus Christ.