God has not called Relevant to be an institution.  He has called on a mission to become a transforming church that is a part of transforming the world by advancing His Kingdom.  I am extremely excited as I write this blog, because after many months of hard work, God has taken us one step closer toward that mission.

We believe that to function as a transforming church, the following three initiatives should happen simultaneously: culture investment, nation engagement, and church multiplication.  Over the past nine months, we have been working hard to launch our “Culture Investment Ministry.”  This ministry is focused on what we together as a church to help transform our local culture/city (Elkhorn).  The first step in launching this ministry was to discover the biggest need in Elkhorn that is not being met, so we can adequately love and serve the people in our city like Jesus, and in turn have spiritual influence in our city.  To discover the need we have talked to city officials, the school board, teachers, principals, business owners, people living in the area, etc.  Finally, after nine long months, God has blessed our efforts.  We have identified the biggest need, and have put the foundational pieces in place for how we will begin to meet that need. 

The greatest need in Elkhorn is the reestablishment of healthy family units.  Families in Elkhorn are under attack: substance abuse going through roof with minors and adults, foreclosures and unemployment rates are increasing, more students are demonstrating behavioral issues, people contracting STD’s are continuing to increase…to name a few.  When these crisis hit, families are not strong enough to endure them; therefore, divorce rates are climbing, families are spending less time together, and verbal and physical abuse in homes in skyrocketing.  Families are in desperate need of resources, support, encouragement, counseling, and mentoring.  

In August, we launched the Relevant Family Response Ministry.  This ministries mission is to be a support system that helps wholly transform every family member to reestablish healthy family units.  We will achieve this mission of becoming a support system for families in Elkhorn by (1) building relationships with people and families in Elkhorn, (2) providing training and resources to foster healthy family relationships before the onset of a crisis, (3) helping and supporting families navigate through crisis, and (4) coming along side of and supporting local schools. 

When I presented the mission and initial strategy of this ministry to the people of Relevant in August, they were moved to action even though achieving this mission is not going to be quick or easy: sixteen people signed up to mentor and tutor a student in the Elkhorn Public Schools, seventeen people signed up to be on the Culture Investment leadership team, and eleven people signed up to go through an intense training in how to respond to crisis so we can fully respond to people going through crisis in our city. 

Going through this process and getting to the place we are ready to invest into our city in a healthy way has been one of the most rewarded things I have been a part of as the pastor of Relevant.  I know that God is going to bless our efforts, and that He is going to work through us to transform people’s lives, and ultimately transform our city.  

If you are interested in becoming a mentor/tutor in the Elkhorn School District, or joining the Culture Investment Leadership Team, go to the serving page on the website, and fill out the team player questionnaire…indicating you are interested in the Culture Investment Ministry.  The leader of this ministry, Jerry Rainey, will be in contact with you. 

Pastor Ronnie

Yesterday at the worship service I spoke about living the greatest adventure.  My main point was that you will never live a great adventure until you choose to live the greatest adventure of advancing the Kingdom of God.  If you are a follower of Christ and missed the service, I really encourage you to get the podcast. 

In my closing remarks I said that to live adventurously we must take risks everyday.  Everything in our lives is an opportunity to take a risk to love like Jesus, serve like Jesus, and proclaim Jesus.  If you start every morning focused on taking risks to do these three things, you will start to live an adventurous life, because this is the riskiest thing you will ever do.  In order to live the greatest adventure we must head into the unknown with God.  This is a vital part of our journey and if we balk here, the adventure ends. 

I judge whether or not my day was a waste or if i lived purposefully by asking myself one question: “Today, did i intentionally love someone like Jesus would love them, serve them like Jesus would serve them, and proclaim Jesus clearly?”  If I didn’t do these things with someone who doesn’t know Jesus, then what did I really accomplish? 

My prayer and my hope is that you will live with this same intentionality.  I know you are searching for a great adventure.  You will not find it anywhere else.

Pastor Ronnie

It is so exciting that God has called three of Relevant’s college gals to engage a nation this summer to help spiritually transform people.  Jamie Gosch and Alicia Brown will be spending six weeks in South Africa, and Hannah Gegenbach will be spending six weeks in Uganda. 

It has been so fun to see God working in the lives of these three ladies; watching Him spiritually transform them, and giving them a heart to help spiritually transform other people.  They have all worked so hard to raise enough money to spend a large chunk of their summer in Africa working in orphanages, doing vacation bible school programs with kids who don’t know Jesus, and serving people in need.  Furthermore, it has been a blessing to financially “send” these girls and cover them in prayer as a church. 

All three of them leave this week, and need our continued prayers. I can’t wait for them to get back to hear what God did in and through them!  Please be praying for all three of them over the next 6 weeks.  Pray for God to use them in powerful ways.  Pray for needs to be met.  Pray that God spiritually transforms people through them.  Pray that God protects them!

Pastor Ronnie

If I have said it once, I have said it 1000 times.  We are not trying to build the biggest church in the city.  We are trying to lead people toward living a transformed life so that we can transform the city.  Therefore, I do not believe what is going to transform our culture is trying to get as many butts in the seats as we can.  However, I do believe that there will come a time in some people’s lives where coming to Relevant is the exact thing they will need to take a step toward Jesus on their spiritual journey. 

Most new people come to Relevant from a personal invite, but there are some people who may need to step into Relevant who don’t know anyone who goes here.  How will they hear about it?  That is why we do  “Culture Marketing.”  We don’t think any of the marketing that we do will make someone who is unchurched all of a sudden want to go to church.  The purpose of our culture marketing is to infuse Relevant into the minds of the people in our culture, so if and when they ever feel like they need some help on their spiritual journey, Relevant is the 1st place they think about. 

We have tried a lot of different things with culture marketing: invite cards, invite emails, yard signs, billboards, etc.  One of the things we have never tried is radio advertising.  Not anymore.  Starting in June for the next three months Relevant will have a commercial on Q98.5 (www.q985fm.com).

Here is what the commercial sounds like (q98-relevant-commerical2).  Please pray that people who God wants to spiritually transform will hear this and respond.  Also…I know I sound like a complete dork.  DON’T MAKE FUN OF ME!

Pastor Ronnie

Our mission is to spiritually transform people who transform their cultures.  How can we measure if we are being successful and taking steps toward that mission?  This question is the reason we divide the calendar year at Relevant into three trimesters (4 months each): Spring, Summer, and Fall.  At the end of every trimester we focus on what God wants to do in and through us over the next four months to take steps toward achieving the mission He has called us to.  Then, at the end of every trimester we take a look back to see if we actually took steps forward.

May 1^st starts the beginning of the summer trimester.  I know we are yet to be the transforming church God wants us to be; however, looking back at the Spring trimester, I see that we have definitely taken steps in the right direction.  Below is a “Progress Report” chart that explains how we have taken steps forward in some different areas up to this point.  As you read over this, my prayer is that you become as excited as I am about how God has worked thus far.

* = (1) Supported a missionary to Austria, (2) Haitian earthquake relief

One of Relevant’s bass players, Kayla Williams, has been in Haiti doing work with children for the past week, and is there for at least another week.  As you can imagine, she needs our prayers!  Here is a link to her blog that she is trying to keep as updated as possible while she is down there.  Please stay caught up on Kayla, and more importantly, please be praying for her!

www.kwilli00.blogspot.com

Last week I had a really good friend of mine named Dan Thompson who is the pastor of Crossroads Church in Lincoln, NE tragically pass away after a bad accident on the interstate.  I have known Dan since I was a teenager (my parents attend Crossroads), but over the last 5 years he has really become a great friend of mine.  Dan was more than just a friend, he was a HUGE encouragement and blessing to me. 

When I was in the preparation phase to launch Relevant I met with over 40 pastors to ask them if they would be willing to financially support Relevant as we worked to start it.  Every church and pastor told me NO, except 2…Dan and Crossroads being one of them.  Dan and Crossroads church have been an enormous blessing to me and Relevant.  He was one of the few pastors who was always there for me, giving me guidance, wisdom, encouragement, and feedback.  I love this man…and I am going to miss my friend deeply. 

Dan loved Jesus with all of himself, so I know He is loving life today.  However, I ask that you pray with me for Crossroads Church.  They just unexpectedly lost their pastor of 25 years…without any warning.  Crossroads has spent many hours in prayer for me and Relevant, so I am asking you to please pray for them today.  Pray that God gives them peace, that He unites them, that people come to know Jesus through this, that leaders emerge to lead them forward.  Please pray!

Pastor Ronnie

We are focused on being a transforming church that is part of transforming the world.   We do this corporately together by being focused on our three T-CHURCH initiatives: Culture Investment, Nation Engagement, and Church Multiplication.  One of the ways that we stay focused on this is by giving 25% of all of the offering received within Relevant to these three initiatives…which is one of the reason I am raising my entire salary this year.  We have not yet developed how we pursue all these initiatives, but are working hard at it.

Until we identify a nation of an unreached people group that we are called to engage in long term, we have asked God to show us where to invest.  A few weeks ago a young lady named Tera Sharp (who is a good friend with our Worship Leader, Mike Rhoades) contacted me and told me that she was a missionary in Austria w/ the EFCA.  She has been back in the states raising support so that she can go back there and carry on the work God has called her to.  After talking to her for quite a while and hearing what God had called her to, we chose to financially and prayerfully support her as a church.  This is so cool, b/c she is the first missionary that we are part of “sending” oversees to a people group that truly needs Jesus.  Here is her story!

Who I Am: For a year and a half I was in Innsbruck, Austria working as a missionary with the Evangelical Free Churches of America (EFCA).  I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and rejoice with the opportunity to continue serving.  I am originally from Nebraska, where I graduated from high school and college.  Now I am dedicated to serving where God leads me.  And the next stage is to return to Austria to continue my work there.

Innsbruck: Innsbruck, Austria is a city of 135,000 people.  It is situated in a valley with the Alps mountain range towering above it.  It is a beautiful place, but terribly dark spiritually.  The state religion is Roman Catholic, but the churches are poorly attended.  The younger generations have given up on God and religion.  Only about 0.5% of Austrians are Christian.

What I Do: supporting and helping lead both the middle school and high school youth groups, programming and leading the summer English Camps, mentoring individuals from youth group, beginning a new rock-climbing sports outreach, supporting the church by participating on the worship team and operating the technical duties, tutoring in English as an outreach tool, learning German by attending intensive German classes

Please be in prayer for Tera Sharp as she gets ready to head back to Austria in the next couple of weeks. 

Pastor Ronnie

At Relevant, we give 25% of offerings received away – 8% specifically going to Nation Engagement Initiatives.  Due to the devastation that has taken place in Haiti the past couple of weeks, we believe that we need to financially engage that nation…so we have.  Through of our affiliation with the Christian and Mission Alliance, God has provided us with an excellent way to help Haiti financially through Compassion and Mercy Associates (CAMA). 

CAMA, the Christian and Missionary Alliance relief and development arm, is gearing up to assist survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that destroyed Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, on January 12. According to a CNN report, the death toll may top 100,000. The hospitals are gone, and medical supplies are desperately needed. About 3 million people-one-third of Haiti’s population -were impacted by the quake.    

In partnership with parachurch organizations already on the ground, CAMA will provide immediate assistance-including clean water, emergency shelter, medical aid, and other necessities-as well as long-term help in rebuilding efforts, integrating Jesus’ message of redemption with practical acts of compassion.   “A compassionate response during a disaster tangibly expresses Christ’s love and opens doors for other ministries,” says Phil Skellie, CAMA’s president.

Everyone who has given at Relevant is part of engaging Haiti.  However, if you would like to donate more to the Haitian Earthquake Relief Fund, please go to this link, scroll down, and click on the red “Give Now” box- http://www.cmalliance.org/give/relief/

Thank you for being a part of helping transform our world!

Pastor Ronnie

We don’t believe God works powerfully when we are bored, comfortable, or complacent.  Therefore, at Relevant, we are focused on never becoming these things.  One of the primary ways we stay focused on living adventurously as a church is by “RE-launching” three times a year.  At our RE-launch services we look back at the last trimester to celebrate what God did, and look forward to what we believe He is calling us to in the next trimester.  This Sunday will be our Spring 2010 RE-launch Service.  At this service, we get reenergized to take another step forward in becoming a transforming church.

In preparation for our Spring 2010 RE-launch, I wanted to share our progress thus far. 

This just gives you a glimpse of what God has done in and through us so far.  Hopefully seeing this excites you for how God has worked, and will continue to work.

Pastor Ronnie

Our mission at Relevant is to spiritually transform people who transform their cultures.  Basically, our mission is to be a transforming church.

We believe we have identified what it looks like for Relevant to live as a transforming church.  When we are fulfilling our mission, the following three Glocal (global + local) Transformation initiatives will happen simultaneously

• Culture Investment: Serving within our local culture, meeting the biggest needs
• Nation Engagement: Engaging Un-reached People Groups (UPG) globally; leveraging natural infrastructures for maximum transformation opportunities
• Church Multiplication: Equipping leaders to start new churches with similar DNA

Becoming a transforming church will not happen by accident; therefore, in order to stay focused on living as a transforming church, we have made the decision to give away 25% of all tithes and offerings given within Relevant toward these three initiatives from this point forward. 

When I felt God calling me to start Relevant, I met with over 30 pastors and church leaders from across the country to ask them to prayerfully and financially partner with us until we could get Relevant launched successfully.  After months of appointments, I was so discouraged because only two churches made the commitment to help us.  The reason that almost every church gave for why they couldn’t financially partner with us was – “We just don’t have any money right now with the economy in the state that it is in.” 

I believe the local church is the hope of the world, and that every local church needs to do everything in their power to help launch new local churches.  The world cannot be transformed without a church multiplication movement.  This movement will not come from the head office of a denomination.  This movement will be born from local churches. 

While in the process of launching Relevant, we made the decision that we were going to be part of church multiplication from day 1!  We are officially only 2 months into the existence of Relevant Community Church, but we have already started engaging in Church Multiplication.  We have partnered with Pastor Kevin Pringle who is planting a church in the inner-city of Lincoln, NE, called One 80.  Within a 10 block radius of where they are planting the church, 10 different languages are spoken.  One 80 needs an enormous amount of financially support, because most of the people whom they reach are living in poverty. 

Yesterday, we had Kevin Pringle share his story with the people at Relevant, and we were able to hand him a check.  It was amazing to walk out of our Worship Service yesterday and have a local church be excited about advancing God’s Kingdom when it does nothing to benefit themselves.  This is what we are all about at Relevant!!!

Pastor Ronnie

Throughout the “Remedy for a Religious Life” series we talked specifically about what Relevant’s focus is going to be on.  To sum it up in a world…TRANSFORMATION!  Our mission is to spiritually transform people who transform their cultures.  This will not happen by accident.  It will only happen as we ALL stay focused on our T-WORLD Focus.  Here is what that means…

Transformation: 1) To change markedly the appearance or form of – 2) To change the nature, function, or condition of; convert – 3) To undergo a transformation.  At Relevant, our primary focus is to continue Jesus’ mission of transforming the world.  The Church is the hope of the world, and that is why T-WORLD (Transformed World) only happens as the Church – Relevant and every other local church around the world – becomes a T-CHURCH (Transforming Church).  As we grow in a relationship with Jesus, He begins a process within us causing transformation in our lives, in our cultures, and throughout the world.  At Relevant we call this T-LIFE (Transformed Life).     

T-LIFE: Living a T-LIFE has three core elements…
1. Interactive Relationship with Jesus: Jesus desires to transform us to walk like, talk like, act like, and be like Him.  This transformation is a result of a constant, growing, interactive relationship with Jesus; where we hear His voice, and respond to Him in obedience.    �
2. Authentic Relationships within the church: Our lives cannot be transformed in isolation, because God did not create us to live this life alone.  Continual transformation is a result of being connected in authentic relationships where we encourage, challenge, and support each other as a living community. �
3. Influence in Glocal Culture: Transformed people transform people.  Spiritual Transformation in our lives should always result in a glocal (global + local) transformation as we serve others.  At Relevant, we are not focused on building the biggest church, but spiritually transforming people to BE the church everyday as we live in a world that desperately needs transformed with the love of Jesus.  Actions speak louder than words when it comes to glocal transformation.  That’s why we’re committed not only to meeting the needs in our local cultures, but also around the world. 

T-CHURCH: Transformed people make up transforming churches.  T-CHURCH is what the local church looks like when it is producing transformed Christ-followers who are responding to glocal transformation opportunities (GT-Opps) using their skills, talents, passions, and giftings.  When we are fulfilling our mission, the following three components of T-CHURCH will happen simultaneously…�
1. Culture Investment: Serving within our local culture, meeting the biggest needs
2. Nation Engagement: Engaging Unreached People Groups (UPG) globally; leveraging natural infrastructures for maximum transformation opportunities
3. Church Multiplication: Equipping leaders to start new churches with similar DNA

We will not achieve our mission of advancing God’s Kingdom without staying focused!  If you feel that Relevant is the place for you, I challenge you NOT to keep doing church as you know it.  The time is now to break away from the religious life so many of us have lived!

Pastor Ronnie

(***Bob Roberts Jr.)