Community Festival

Plan now to help us with this community festival.  This is going to be an exciting collaboration of many different community organizations coming together to bring out the neighbors for some food, some fun and some access to helpful resources.  We need all kinds of volunteers for this event from set up folks, to bi-lingual greeters, to assessment team participants.  It’s all right here at this link.  Just click on it, fill out your personal info and then you will see a list of each role and time slot that needs to be filled. Thanks in advance for your help!

One-Time Volunteer Need

One of the behind the scenes teams that have been working diligently and volunteering over 25 hours so far is our Community Needs & Assets Assessment team.  The Community Needs Assessment (CNA) team was created to reach out to North Richmond to acquire an accurate, thorough understanding of the direct needs of the community. Once the data is received, it will be compiled and analyzed in comparison to the five core areas we as church have identified as areas of need.

What is a community needs assessment? A community needs assessment is a process for determining and addressing needs, or “gaps” between current conditions and desired conditions, often used for improvement projects in education/training, organizations, or communities. It involves identifying material problems/deficits/weaknesses and advantages/opportunities/strengths, and evaluating possible solutions that take those qualities into consideration.

The CNA Team is currently interviewing and surveying the key stakeholders of the community and we will be conducting similar Q & A sessions at the North Richmond Community Festival on February 20th. Join our team to find out how you can help today! To join this team or to just help out with the festival  February 20th sign up HERE.

It’s Official!

Today the Friends of North Richmond initiative was publicly launched!  We announced the results of the offering, unveiled the new construction trailer and registered many new amazing volunteers.  Here’s a few pictures:

“Friends” Launches Sunday!

Don’t miss the official launch of the Friends of North Richmond this Sunday! One of the big things will be the announcement of the results of the Christmas offering. We also will have booths set up for each of the 5 initiatives out on the Plaza by the Baptistry, so you and your friends will be able to stop by and meet each of the volunteer leaders, hear stories and learn more about how you can plug in. This will be a perfect morning to sign up for a spot to be involved! See ya Sunday!

Director for Friends of North Richmond

We are excited to announce the addition of a staff member to the Friends of North Richmond initiative. Becky Watts started at the first of the year as our Friends of North Richmond Director. Becky had been helping our missions pastor, Richard Logan with various aspects of this initiative over the past several months. Richard is grateful to have Becky join him in this work and to now be giving it her full-time attention. Becky brings a love for our local community, and expertise in volunteer coordination among many other skills that will help this initiative maintain it’s momentum, and continue to grow. Richard will continue to oversee the big picture and vision of Friends of North Richmond, and Becky will work closely with the day to day operations.

It's Official!

Friends of North Richmond will be officially launched Sunday, January 24th! Make plans now to attend the 9:30am or 11:15am service at River Pointe Church to participate in the awesome occasion! If you have been wanting to join a team this will be a great morning to do that! We will have tables representing each of the areas of ministry where you can ask questions and sign-up. See you on the 24th!

130 Days Old!

As the end of this year the Friends of North Richmond initiative will be 130 days old. Here is a by the numbers look back on what has taken place so far.

4 construction projects completed
26 families have been adopted for Christmas
130 days have been invested into this community
455 different volunteers have served in North Richmond
1483 hours have been volunteered
7000+ items of food and toiletries have been donated

More important than these numbers are what they represent of the live and families that have been touched as a result! We can’t wait to see what happens when we officially launch Friends of North Richmond on January 24, 2010!

Book Recommendation

This summer I finished this great book titled The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns the president of World Vision. You can pick up a copy in the River Pointe Bookstore.

This book is personal as it follows Richard’s journey from the epitome of worldly success as the CEO of Lenox to answer the call to become the president of World Vision. I loved his honesty as he openly shares his lengthy struggle and resistance to the idea.

This book is informational but not in a mere fact-stating kind of way. Richard puts out vital information about what is going in on in the world in a way that is current and thought provoking. For me chapter 11 was worth the price of the book, in it Richard unpacks the complexities of poverty juxtaposed against the typical American views on the subject. This is a chapter I will be going back and re-reading. Here is an excerpt from that chapter:

“Perhaps the greatest mistake commonly made by those who strive to help the poor is the failure to see the assets and strengths that are always present in people and their communities no matter how poor they are. Seeing their glasses as half full rather than half empty can completely change our approach to helping.”

This book is challenging and incredibly inspiring. I highly recommend it. In this book you will find compelling stories of the revolutionary power of the gospel and I believe you will find yourself inspired to do your part in demonstrating the whole gospel of loving God and loving your neighbors and our friends of North Richmond.

Why Help The Poor?

I was recently faced with this question, “Why should the church help the poor?” This is a great question. I could answer with my own opinions but the Bible has numerous Scriptures about helping the poor. Isaiah 58 is one of my favorites, especially in the context of what we are trying to do in North Richmond.

Isaiah 58:6-12

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.”