Beginning with Relationship
Notes
Transcript
2025 in Review
2025 in Review
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2025 Ebenezer Banner
2025 Ebenezer Banner
Our theme for 2025 was: Our Journey in God’s Story
I’m calling this an Ebenezer Banner. At one point in his ministry the prophet Samuel set up a stone at Ebenezer and said, “‘The Lord has helped us to this point.”
This banner helps us track a few of the highlights of our year and reminds us that God has helped us so far, and He will help us in our future too. Here are a few of the things our 2025 Banner reminds us of:
Church Revitalization Journey — Increased the NCD score from 24 to 52
Started Connect Groups with both Spring and Fall sessions and several ongoing groups including a women of the bible study group, a Daniel study a Revelation study, a sewing group, a writing group, The Art of Marriage group, a scripture memory group, and the Deep Calling discipleship group.
Our Adventurers got 1st place in the conference-wide Bible game.
Pathfinders enjoyed several campouts
Speaking of campouts, we enjoyed a first-in-a-long-time church campout, which we hope to do again this year.
We worked on fundraising and planning for replacing the church parking lot, and the Lord blessed! We are in the final stretches of work to get a permit, and the project is fully funded!
We hosted a prayer breakfast for law enforcement with about 30 officers attending.
We hosted our first in a while full-scale VBS program in our church called True North, putting lessons of faith in Jesus in the context of an Alaskan Adventure. The leaders did a wonderful job and around 50 kids really enjoyed it.
We wrapped up a year-long men’s leadership course called Joshua’s men.
We completely funded the Community Event Center project and paid off all loans related to it.
We started the Riverview Conversations podcast and we even have a few people listening to it regularly. :-) BTW the point of the podcast is to connect our church with shared ideas, shared purpose, and shared stories. I’d love to see everyone listen to at least a few of the episodes. The most important are the stories because they deepen our understanding of the people in our church family.
We dedicated 8 children and their parents to the Lord.
We saw the Lord lead 10 people to commit their lives to Jesus in baptism.
And we had 8 families move to our church.
Every memory on this banner is a small window into the large grace of our God. Many of these events and pictures represent a story that only you know the details to. We’re going to mount this banner somewhere in the church, and I hope you go to it and remember those stories of God’s grace, and firmly plant your faith in the promise of His continual presence and leadership in your life and in our congregation.
Five Smooth Stones
Five Smooth Stones
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Now, let’s look forward to the year in front of us. We have a new Vision Document that we formed towards the end of last year, and it is filled with foundational beliefs that guide our thinking, values that give voice to the things we feel are important to embody as a congregation, and visions of how our church will live and interact with the world in the near future.
This document is an expression of who we believe we are and what we believe we are called to do.
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You can find a copy of this document on our website at riverviewadventist.org/about
This month we’re going to be looking through this document together and developing common language for understanding and communicating our mission, values, and vision.
Let’s launch into this document with a story that you can find in 1 Samuel chapter 17.
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The story begins with David, the youngest son of Jesse, a shepherd boy probably no older than 17 or 18. His dad sent David to provide food for his brothers who were in Saul’s army, camped on one side of the Elah valley. The Philistines were camped on the other side of the valley, and every day Goliath, a giant that was around 9 ft 9 inches tall, would come down from the battle line, into the valley and call up to the Israelites to send a man to fight him. He would mock their army, their king, and their God.
You probably know this story well. David heard the challenge and asked who was going to go fight. His brothers chided him for interfering and the others just pointed to the giant as a good enough reason to stay put.
Goliath had armor that weighed 125 pounds. His spear had a 15 pound point on its end when most spears of his day were closer to one pound.
His shield was roughly 40 pounds. Imagine getting hit by the force of a giant’s punch with and extra 40 pounds of metal in front of it.
With his armor and weapons, Goliath probably had 200 pounds of metal and wood supporting and protecting him. He was VERY well equipped. He was huge and intimidating. And everyone was afraid.
But David was incensed. How could they allow this man to defy the armies of the living God? How could they camp there and not go out to defend the name of their God?
When Saul heard about David, he called him into his tent and when he saw his passion, Saul decided to let him go out and fight. Saul was a big guy too. Certainly not 9 ft tall, but probably around 6’ 6’ or maybe even 7 ft. The Bible says that he was head and shoulders taller than most Israelites. David was not that big. So, when Saul had him put on his own armor, David didn’t fit, and he didn’t know how to use all that armor and weaponry anyway.
Imagine watching David walk into the valley to face Goliath with his shepherd’s tunic, a staff, a sling, and a conviction that the God who saved him from the lions and bears would save him from this giant of a soldier.
As he walked into the valley David stooped down and chose five, smooth stones that were perfectly sized to fit in his sling.
Goliath saw this kid walking towards him. An unremarkable kid dressed as a shepherd. It was astonishing and ridiculous to him.
“Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled.
Goliath had been intimidating the faithless Israelites who ran away in fear, but when David heard his bad language and his intimidation and his defiance of the God of Israel, he was even more determined. The key to this whole story is in verses 45-47:
David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!
And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
Can you feel the conviction in David’s voice?
“I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s armies!”
I want that conviction in my life. How about you?
Not just to live. Not just to be comfortable. But to live life with a calling. And when someone mocks me, or when they curse my God. Or even if they threaten me with violence, I can say, “I come in the name of the Lord of heaven’s armies!”
Notice the part where David tells us about his confidence. He never once says that his weapons are better than Goliath’s. In fact, he points out the superiority of Goliath’s weapons when he said “you come to me with a spear and sword and shield…” Goliath had the military advantage in every way. But David’s confidence wasn’t in his staff or in his sling and rocks. David’s confidence was in God.
“Today the Lord will conquer you…. and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel… This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
Our Mission
Our Mission
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I bring up this story, not because we face a giant like Goliath or are in a battle with enemies. Yes, there is a spiritual battle, but our vision isn’t really about conquering Satan—Jesus already did that. The reason I bring up this story is because I want to frame our mission and vision statements as though they are our smooth stones that we bring into God’s agenda.
God has a plan for His church. He has given us the Great commission:
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
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.” Amen.
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This is God’s work, which he has commanded us to go do. Much like David saw the battle as the Lord’s and yet he strode out onto the battle field, reached his hand into his pouch to grab a stone and swung it with all his might. The Lord doesn’t win the world to Him with our strength or our mission statements or our strategies or our preaching. And yet He chooses to use our strength and mission statements and strategies and preaching to accomplish his work of making disciples. It is absolutely God’s power and the Holy Spirit’s work that accomplishes God’s plan, but we can’t sit on the top of the hill like those Israelite soldiers did. We need to be Davids who pick up the stones close at hand and charge into the Lord’s work with all the faith and confidence that God will bring salvation.
I really appreciated the message that Phil shared last week. He highlighted our motto: I Follow Jesus.
When we follow Jesus we recognize that He is the source of all power. Like David, we trust that Jesus is the Lord of Heaven’s armies and we trust that He will win the spiritual battle. We recognize that He is present with Us, empowering and motivating and directing us.
And when we follow Jesus we necessarily “go into all the world” with the gospel message.
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As a church we believe that Jesus is our origin.
We believe we exist because Jesus loves us, redeemed us, called us, and is coming soon to bring us to live with Him.
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And we believe that Jesus is our identity. We are His body. We are Christ’s hands, feet, and heart in Tri-Cities.
Like David and the Israelites, we are God’s people.
Like David, we are God’s instruments to accomplish His will.
Because He has called us we have nothing to fear. We will succeed in His mission because the battle is the Lord’s.
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With this in mind, here is the way we have chosen to represent our mission:
We exist to be disciples of Jesus who develop new relationships, share Christ’s love, and celebrate transformed lives.
Jesus told his disciples to go into the world and make disciples, but that statement was couched in 3 1/2 years of mentorship. The disciples knew what Jesus was asking of them because He had spent the last several years discipling them.
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Our mission begins with the statement that we exist to be disciples of Jesus. To be devoted to Him. To learn from Him. To join Him in His work and surrender to His Spirit. To follow him.
This is where our Motto comes from: I Follow Jesus.
If you’ve been here for a while, you might recognize how similar this is to the first part of our previous mission statement which starting out, “Knowing God, and making him known.” We have reworded this to state that we exist to be disciples of Jesus because we want to convey the intimacy of knowing Him, the stability of abiding with him, and the action of following Him. It’s not just a passive or intellectual “knowing,” we are to be His disciples.
Beginning with Relationship
Beginning with Relationship
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The second part of our mission statement says that we are disciples who “develop new relationships…”
Our mission statement is influenced by the Christ’s Method Alone statement from the book “Ministry of Healing.”
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Christ’s method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Savior mingled with people as one who desired their good. He showed sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He invited them, “Follow Me.” (Ministry of Healing, p 143)
As a church we want to develop a culture of CMA—to have Christ’s mindset and methods pervade every aspect of our lives, both as a church organization, and as individual followers of Jesus.
In CMA—Christ’s Method Alone—we find that Jesus’ method began with mingling.
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The title of my message today is “Beginning with Relationship.” Our tendency is to read Jesus’ command to “go into all the world” and interpret that to be, “tell everyone that Jesus is coming again soon!” That’s a good message, but the method, disconnected from relationship, is deficient. Tell someone Jesus is coming again with his reward for the righteous and judgment for sinners and they may believe you, but most likely they’ll dismiss you as a conspiracy theorist. They’ll doubt that you care about people and assume that you just want to make converts to your religion.
Before people care what you say, they need to know how much you care. They need to see your love.
Making disciples and teaching and preaching come from the foundation of relationship. The way Jesus made disciples begin with hanging out with people—mingling.
Zacchaeus
Zacchaeus
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Turn in your Bible to the story of Zachaeus in Luke 19.
The story begins long before Jesus came to Jericho. Jesus had a reputation. In Matthew 9:10-12 Jesus was at Matthew’s house at a dinner party and many other “tax collectors and disreputable sinners” came to the party with Him.
This was a normal thing for Jesus to do. He hung out with the sick. He touched the lepers. He enjoyed wedding parties and ate meals with all kinds of people. He lived in the context of the people.
Theologians like to call this “incarnational ministry” because it is based on the model of Jesus. The God of the universe became a human—that’s called the incarnation. When Jesus lived among us—mingled with us—He modeled how we should live our lives as well. We are not called to be monks or hermits, we are called to be “in the world” so that we can develop new relationships that point towards Jesus.
Because of Jesus’ reputation it is no surprise that Zachaeus, a tax collector, was interested in at least catching a glimpse of Him. To see over the crowd packing the streets of Jericho, Zachaeus had to climb a tree.
Don’t miss this point.
As Jesus walked nearby, he looked up into the tree.
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This is the first principle of mingling. Jesus deliberately entered people’s everyday spaces. Their homes. Their towns. And, even their trees!
Jesus wasn’t opposed to being friends with community leaders or people with great reputations, but he was intentional about seeking out the people who were eager to be with Him. The people who longed to be in His presence were the children, the sick, the sinners, the lonely, and the ones who had been watching and waiting for the coming of the Messiah. He was scanning the crowds, and apparently looking in the bushes, to see who was eager to meet him. Not just the ones that were attracted by his celebrity, but the ones who longed for his love.
Jesus loved hanging out with wealthy people and poor people; Israelites and Romans. Nobody was beneath Him and nobody was above Him.
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The second principle of mingling is that we need to treat people as equals with dignity. We need to be in their space in a way that affirms their worth. Not as superiors, but as fellow travelers on this journey through life. It’s easy for “church people” to look down on “sinners.” But the reality is that all have sinned. We are as much in need of Jesus’ grace as the person with the worst reputation, the greediest heart, the most distasteful morals, or the worst addictions. The Bible records that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The God of the universe became a human and treated us with dignity, even while we were still sinning. If God can do that, then certainly his followers should treat all people with dignity.
Back to the story where Jesus was looking up into the tree…
When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”
I love how Jesus inserted himself into Zacchaeus’ life. He didn’t say, “come follow me.” He said, “I’m going home with you.”
Imagine if Jesus lived in Jericho. He could have invited Zacchaeus to come to His house. Or he could have invited him to a restaurant. Or to go to Laser Tag. Or to go shooting at the range. Or to go to a twelve step program with him. You get the idea: Mingling with people means joining them in normal life, and it means inviting them into your normal life.
Going into all the world to make disciples first looks like developing new relationships because Christ’s Method begins with relationship.
Keep reading in the story and you’ll find that Zacchaeus climbed down from the tree and was excited to have Jesus come over. In fact, the phrase that the New Living Translation uses is “in great excitement and joy.”
Not everyone is going to be excited to be your friend. And that’s Ok. God has not called you to be friends with everyone.
Some people can have dozens of close friends and love them all and spend time with them all and have parties and plan events… And then there are those of us here that need our space in order to stay sane. Some people have only a couple close friends. And that’s OK. God made each of us different. He needs the gregarious, outgoing, people person who never met a stranger, and He needs the people who get overwhelmed when there are more than three people in the room.
Some of you may read the mission statement and think, I don’t have capacity to “develop new relationships.” I’m tapped out with the relationships I have.
Keep in mind that the mission statement is for us as a collective church family. It refines our priorities to focus on relationship developing, not just the preaching. We are recognizing that we need to start where Jesus did, mingling with our neighbors. So, collectively, we need to align our ministries and focus around the goal of develop new relationships.
This mission statement is also for each of us individually. We each need to have a heart that is open for God to bring someone into our lives. Whether you’re a people person or someone who prefers not to be in a crowd, you should live your life with an open-hearted posture towards others. Jesus won’t give us more than we can handle, and He knows us so He knows the capacity of our hearts and our lives right now. There is no risk in turning your relationships over to Him and asking Him to show you when there is someone we can minister to who is looking for a friend.
The Bible doesn’t say what they did at Zachaeus’ house. It jumps right to the end of the story, but I want to linger here for a moment. To just sit in the relationship part.
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In the Desire of Ages, page 150 Ellen White said,
“Jesus sat as an honored guest at the table of the publicans, by His sympathy and social kindness showing that He recognized the dignity of humanity.”
We recognize human dignity when we pay attention to people. Mingling means listening to understand, not just listening so that you can make your point. People know they are valued when you spend time with them and are genuinely interested in them.
As a pastor I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the Bible, and it is sooo easy to get into arguments with people over what is true from God’s Word. But mingling isn’t about proving a doctrinal point from the Bible—that can come later if the Holy Spirit inspires a spiritual conversation. Beginning with relationship means that you pay attention to the other person, listening to understand them, and showing sympathy for them as a person of great value.
Zacchaeus’ story continues with some tongue wagging by the crowd that Jesus would be the guest of such a notorious sinner. But notice the transformation that happened just because he was in the presence of Jesus.
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
Jesus came as a guest—eating a meal with a new friend. But before long that new friend said, “I follow Jesus!” and Jesus response was beautiful:
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
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Conclusion
Conclusion
Mingling is the first step in building relationship, but when relationship has a chance to form over minutes or months, people are transformed. Someone sees your honesty and feels drawn to live a better life. They see your sobriety and feel drawn to experience it too. They see your generosity and desire to have a heart like yours. They see your Jesus and they want to know Him too.
Jesus’ example shows us that we must build trust through unselfish love—mingle first—and then lead when trust has been established.
I’d like to ask you to join me this year in making new friends. Maybe you form one new friendship this year, or maybe you start a yearly block party and unite your whole neighborhood. Maybe you stay in the background and pray for our church to make new friends in the community, or maybe you lead a whole Sabbath School class to start a friend-making ministry.
You don’t need to know the particulars now, but will you say, “yes,” to allowing Jesus to use you to mingle with a heart filled with Jesus’ love?
2026 Banner
2026 Banner
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This year we’re making a new banner to memorialize all the ways that God has led us through 2026. Since we’re beginning with relationship in our mission, let’s put that intentionally on our 2026 banner:
2026
Our Year of Friendship
This banner is to identify the God-moments in our church. The answered prayers. The changed lives. The people who have impacted us, and the events and classes and ministries that have changed us. The new friendships we have formed.
If something happens this year that you want to put on the banner, send me a picture and tell me the story. We need to tell these stories in our church life time and memorialize them on our banner so that we don’t easily forget how God is leading.
And lets establish right her at he beginning of this year, that a new friendship that develops is a God-moment worthy of a story.
By the way, starting next week we’re going to have a QR code in the bulletin for uploading church-related pictures. If it happens at the church or as part of a social activity, or in connection with a connect group, or as part of a ministry that our members are part of, we want to remember it. So, take pictures. Take lots of pictures and videos. And every week when you come to church, scan the barcode and upload them to our shared photo album. I’d like to start adding a few pictures to our digital signs out in the lobby every week, and creating little video reals after big activities. We need to tell stories of what God has done. It ties us together as a family, and it reminds us that God is at work right here, right now. It is his battle. And He will be victorious.
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Please stand with me and if you are all-in on following Jesus and His method of sharing the gospel, then join me in singing our theme song: The Jesus Way
