The Weekend of May 25, 2025
 The church office will be closed Monday, May 26 in honor of Memorial Day. The National Archives has a nice page on the Holiday, with a ton of resources and videos with background on, and meaning, of this annual day of remembrance honoring those who died in service of our country here: https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/memorial-day. ENCOURAGING AND EQUIPPING WOMEN We started something a little bit different as a group! We are reading the book called "The Emotionally Healthy Woman." We will discuss the assigned chapters each month. Anyone who would like to participate should pick up a copy. (Even if you cannot complete the reading, you are encouraged to attend. There is always plenty to glean!) The format for our meetings will stay the same and include plenty of time for connection and socializing during breakfast, and a get-to-know-you mixer followed by a time of discussion. May 24: Chapters 3, 4, 5 June 28: Chapters 6, 7, 8 This is an opportunity for all the women of RVCC to meet together, enjoy breakfast, and connect with one another in a significant way outside of a Sunday morning. Through enriching discussion, encouragement, and personal testimony, the goal is to walk out Titus 2:3-5 with older women teaching what is good, and training younger women in a variety of roles. Our focus is encouragement for the current challenges we face, and open discussion and sharing. ALL women are encouraged to attend; singles, young married women, young mothers, seasoned mothers, empty nesters, and older women are all encouraged to come! We need the full spectrum, or we'll forfeit the Titus 2 purpose. This is a "Mom's Only" event, but nursing babies are always welcome. This group will meet at Renae J's home north of Stillwater. Breakfast will be served promptly at 9:30am. Contact the church office for address/directions, or more information. ANOTHER RACE SEASON IS HERE! Another schedule of running races in and around our area starts this weeeknd! For several years our church has helped marshalling these events. Basically we position volunteers at each turn and intersection of the race route to guide the runners thru the course, and help out with traffic control in certain areas. The really busy intersections usually have police directing the traffic to give the racers safe right-of-way. We're cheerleaders, encouragers, and many of the runners make it a point to thank everyone for being there. It is also a fundraising opportunity. The church gets paid a certain amount per volunteer, so we pass that along to anyone who participates. We can't give you the cash, but we set the funds aside, in your name, in the church accounts and you can use those funds for upcoming youth and children's events, summer camps, or pretty much any activity we do that requires you to pay a registration fee. The funds earned can also be applied to missions, building fund, donated on to RVFM, or any ministry we are affiliated with. It's really easy, and just requires a bit of time on a Saturday. Pastor Peter will have sign-up sheets and details for the each race as they approach. The whole schedule looks like this:
MINISTRY TRAINING CENTER IS BACK This summer, we're excited to host our Ministry Training Center (MTC), designed to equip and empower the next generation of leaders. Open to all interns and available to congregants from any RVFM church, MTC offers hands-on training and practical teaching across several ministry tracks. Participants can choose from the following focus areas:
 Contact the church office with questions. BAPTISMS SCHEDULED We've had a request for another baptism on Pentecost Sunday, June 8! Sounds like a great time to be baptized if you haven't already. If you would like to be baptized that morning, we encourage you to contact the church office and let us know...or we'll take care of things in the spur of the moment if that's when the decision is made! If you don't quite know what this whole thing is about, CLICK HERE for a message that Pastor Jon taught on the subject. And as always, contact the church office if you have more questions. GREG MOHR MINISTERING IN JULY More details will be available as the visit gets closer, but Pastor Greg Mohr will be here at RVCC, ministering multiple times over the course of the weekend July 11-13. All the RVFM churches, and anyone you know who would be interested, are invited to the meetings. Greg speaks all over the world encouraging believers in their faith and helping them grow in wisdom, maturity, and grace. PASTOR JON'S "AUTHORITY" SERIES We've put a link to the YouTube playlist of the series on the front page of the website, and included a Study Guide/Devotional for the series. CLICK HERE to be taken to that page. If you would like one of the Study Guides for the series printed please see Pastor Greg. He'll take care of you. DIAPER DONATIONS We are always accepting diaper and wipes donations for Options for Women-St. Croix Valley. As a church we're not anti-abortion but PRO-LIFE, and try to back that up by helping out mothers who choose life for their child. This is an easy way to do that. Organizationally we support Options with a monthly monetary donation, but diapers are one item they always need to help support the mothers relying on their services. Whenever you are shopping and pick some up, drop them off with Pastor Greg the next time you come to RVCC and he will make sure they get to OFW. According to their website, the most needed supplies right now are size 5 & 6 diapers, wipes, diaper ointment, and baby lotion and wash. ELDERS MINISTRY If you would like to connect with one of our Elders for any reason during the week, contact the church office and we'll get you in touch! SOCIAL CALENDAR If you are doing something, or going somewhere, and would like to offer an open invitation for RVCC family to join you, send details to the church no later than noon Thursdays, and PG will get it listed here. It won't be "official" church functions, but a fun way to get info out to others at RVCC that there is something fun going to that they could join. So...what are YOU getting ready to do that would be fun to have others there, too? Let us know. Engage Church - Prescott: Worship Culture Outdoors  Engage Church in Prescott, WI is planning a series of worship evenings in parks around town this summer! The first one is coming up May 30 @6:30pm in the parking lot at their location, 716 St. Croix Street, Prescott, WI. Bring a chair, and a heart for the Lord! Contact Engage Church with questions, or our church office and PG will try to get you answers. TAKE US WITH YOU Podcast listeners can listen to audio from our Sunday morning services on several platforms. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Audible. Search for, "River Valley Christian Church Lake Elmo MN" on your preferred podcast app, then subscribe and listen anywhere, any time, however you like to listen! We also have a RVFM Podcast gathering messages from our affiliated churches in one spot. Find it on your favorite podcast app by searching for "Light Up The Valley." If you have trouble with any of these contact Pastor Greg in the church office and he'll try to help you sort it out. 2025 DAILY BIBLE READING PROGRAM!One of our top goals as a church is always to help you keep up on (or get into) a daily Bible reading habit.  As a church body on January 1, 2025 we started a 1-year Bible reading plan! The plan we are following this year is "The Bible in a Year", with readings from OT and NT everyday, and a chapter from Psalms or Proverbs every second day. Connect with us and access the plan in the YouVersion Bible App to get notifications for the day's reading directly from the app. It's pretty easy and slick. Get into the daily habit now, even if it's not this particular program! We want you to get the WORD in YOU! Contact Pastor Greg in the church office if you have questions.  Here is a summary of groups and classes we have going on currently during the week. Most of these are included on the Church Calendar.  CREW YOUNG ADULT GROUP Our CREW Young Adult group gets together on Mondays at the Molnar's at 6:30pm. Contact the church office or talk to Pastor Peter for more information. FREEDOM GROUP Our Freedom Group meets on Monday evenings at 7pm. It is a Bible-based chemical dependency group coordinated by our Elders Wayne & Patrice B. Click Here, or contact the church office for more information.  WOMEN'S GROUP/CLASS Healing Hearts meets first and third Tuesdays at 6pm at Cathy D's home office in River Falls, WI. It is a confidential group for ladies 18+ who have been betrayed in a relationship. You are welcome at any time to jump in and join. Know it's the enemy who would want to keep you isolated. This group is here to listen, love, pray, and stand with you. If you have questions about the group please contact the church office, or Cathy directly! TUESDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY Tuesday night Bible Study will not be meeting May 13 or 20. Back again on May 27, Tuesdays at 6pm Linda B teaches a study on the Gospel of John. If you have questions about the group please contact the church office.  WEDNESDAY MORNING PRAYER If you've got time during the week you can always join us for prayer! We have a group that prays Wednesday mornings starting at 10am in room W2. It goes for about an hour. We also have a group that meets in W1 before service on Sunday mornings. Everyone is welcome to come in and pray! WEDNESDAY NIGHT CLASSESOur regular Wednesday night classes are winding down for the summer season break. We'll start up another slate of midweek offerings again in September. GETTING TO KNOW YOU Okay, ONE MORE final session here at RVCC for this group! It's been amazing!! We can't get them to stop, for cryin' out loud!  MINISTRY TRAINING CENTER IS BACKAs mentioned above, our Ministry Training Center is back on Wednesday evenings starting June 4, and running through the summer months. Ask questions, pray about it, and see if MTC is something you should look into. If so, a registration link is included with the details listed above.  MAHTOMEDI/WHITE BEAR LAKE AREA SMALL GROUP Our White Bear Lake/Mahtomedi area small group meets on Thursday evenings from 6:30-8pm. Please contact the church office to get connected for more information!  THE BRIDGE SMALL GROUP The Bridge is all about connecting people and building community by bridging life stages and interest groups within the church. We're a fun and active group that loves spending time together through outdoor games, shared meals, and meaningful fellowship. Whether you're new to the church or have been around for a while, Bridge offers a welcoming space, hosted by Jeremy and Joy S at their beautiful home in River Falls. Meeting every first and third Fridays of the month 5:30-8:30pm. Questions about directions can be directed towards Jeremy or Joy, or contact the church office. WALKING IN YOUR AUTHORITY "Walking in Your Authority" meets from 6-8pm on the second Fridays of each month at our elders Dennis and Cathy D's home in River Falls, WI. Knowing your authority allows you to fulfill the call God has on your life to do great exploits! Talk to Dennis, Cathy, or the church office for directions and details.  OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE All sorts of ministries around the church are looking for volunteers. Our Hospitality Ministry, which includes the Greeter, Usher, Info Table, and Cookie Ministries is looking to include more volunteers. If you are interested, talk to Pastor Peter, or contact the church office.  DURING service our Children's Ministry is looking for some volunteers, too. What an incredible opportunity to advance the Kingdom by helping bring them up in the "nurture and admonition of the Lord." Talk to Shiloh G or contact the church office about this, too! A background check is required to work with our Children's Ministry. We talk about it in what we call the "Next Thing", but we don't really have official "membership" here at RVCC. Our view is if you're family jump in and help out around the "house!" Here's some opportunities to do just that. Most of our other ministries could use some more volunteers, too. That's the price of growing, planting churches, and wanting to do things well to represent Him with excellence. If you're interested in a particular area please contact the office and we'll get you connected with whoever is over that ministry.  Speaking of the Next Thing, we have information available on a thumb drive about the history of RVCC and how you fit into all this. It's a couple of classes we used to do in person, but getting everyone into a room together at the same time was always a scheduling issue, so we compiled it all into a simple little take-home USB drive. It contains videos of Pastor Jon presenting the information, audio files of the classes if you prefer to just listen, and a .pdf of the booklet that contains some of that same info. If you are fairly new and would like to know more about how RVCC got started, where we are going as a church and as River Valley Fellowship of Ministries, and how you fit into that vision ask an usher, elder, any of the staff -or a random congregation member- and we'll fix you up with one of these drives. If you happen to accidently ask another newbie...keep asking and we'll set you BOTH up!   If you would like to donate to RVCC and it's ministries, etc. you can mail or drop off a check at the church office, or give online. We've JUST started using new online giving platform. Try it now from right here on this page: If that doesn't work for you please contact the church office and let us know! You may still donate with your bank debit card at www.rvcc.info/donate just like previously.  RVCC guests who are hard of hearing can now amplify our service audio through their personal Assistive Listening Device (ALD), or tune in to 87.9FM.THE FAST TALK AT THE END OF THE COMMERCIAL:OBLIGATORY LEGAL NOTICE OF RELEASE OF RVCC, ITS SUCCESSORS, ASSIGNS AND LICENSEES FROM ANY LIABILITY WHATSOEVER OF ANY NATURE! We live-stream and record our service, so your presence here constitutes your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded, and for RVCC to use the recording without compensation in any and all media for as long as it exists. No, we're not anticipating making a boatload of money off of an image of the back of your head, or you worshipping with your hands in the air...but we figured it would be a good idea to let you know you could end up on our livestream, social media, etc. |