Bobby Williams Live

From time to time I like to give those of you reading here a little update on Ridge Church, the church that I have the honor of pastoring.  Here’s a few random thoughts on what’s been happening and what’s to come…

• Since the beginning of January, we have broken our 2nd highest attendance mark (non holiday) 4 times now.  We were 1 away from breaking the all time mark yesterday.
• Also in January we challenged our people to give more generously, sacrificially, and regularly.  We even offered them a money back offer if they want it back.  So far, no one has wanted their money back and they’ve responded incredibly to the giving challenge.
• Also with giving, we have pushed hard the digital giving method (giving online).  We started the year at around 10% coming in online. We are now pushing the 30% mark online.  Great improvement in just 2 months.
• God has done an incredible work here at Ridge Church and has nearly doubled us in size, just in the last 6 months.  That’s ALL GOD.  So Sunday we announced to make room for all this growth, we are opening up a second service beginning April 8th.
• The Real Marriage series we are currently in (3 weeks left) has been one of the most powerful series to date.  God is moving in the lives of so many people.
• In a few weeks, our city is gonna be blitzed by love and impact.  I can’t wait to see what happens…
• Easter is in a few short weeks and I love seeing all the ministries and ministry leaders working like mad to get ready.  People are expectant and it’s starting to catch on to EVERYONE
• I tweeted this earlier today, but I truly believe we are the edge of something very, very BIG.

Monday and Tuesday, my wife and I (@Denira) had a chance to spend a few days at the Churchplanters.com Velocity conference. We had a great time seeing old and new friends, learning and being stretched and getting charged up.

I won’t do a full review but just give a quick overview of our take aways from the conference.  For a much deeper ( and better) check out Patrick Moore’s review (mountainpastor.com). If you visit churchplanters.com you can listen to all the sessions and breakouts for free (they really DO have a heart for church planters!).

MAIN SESSIONS

The main sessions were a bit different and unique. Each speaker had about 20-25 minutes and most sessions included either 2 or 3 speakers. At first I wasn’t a fan of the format but it grew on me. More conferences should adopt this. I only wish that I could had heard from a few more speakers a bit longer.

BREAKOUTS

I thought the breakouts were spot on for church planers. My favorite that I attended was on creating buzz by Matt Keller. I only wish there had been one more breakout session over a main session. The wives track was top notch according to my wife who really loved that aspect of the conference. A big win in my opinion to include this for pastor wives.

OVERALL

I really have no complaints about the conference. If I changed anything it would be to start earlier the first day to get two full days in vs 1 and a half. If you’re planting or have recently planted a church, I highly recommend the churchplanters.com Velocity conference.

1000!

Oddly, I’ve been waiting for this day for some time now. Its been 4 years in the making. Im just in shock that I actually had 1000 things to write about. But here we are; we made it.

This blog has evolved over the years. It started out called Confessions of a Worshipper where the focus was on student ministry & a life of worship. A few years later, I switched from Blogger to WordPress & Bobby Williams Live was born. Now it’s a buffet of topics, but mostly on pastoring & church planting.

Why stop evolving now? In a few weeks, I’ll unveil a new venture with a more stream lined focus on church planting, a planters life/family/struggles as well as a look into the life of church planting wives. Myself & my wife will be primary contributors, but you will also hear from other planters & their wives from around the country. It’s gonna be rad & I can’t wait to get started blogging with my wife!

As for this blog? It’s not going anywhere….more news to come!

Critics.  If you’re a pastor or church doing anything significant, you’ve got them.  We had one brought to our attention today concerning our sermon series based on the book Real Marriage by Mark Driscoll.  But let’s not talk about the critic…they don’t deserve the air time.

Some Objections/Questions You May Have Concerning Real Marriage

Why Do A Sermon Series Based on Real Marriage?

This one is simple.  I believe that the American culture has a broken view of relationships and marriage.  The church needs to step up and take this on, giving a biblical view of marriage, friendship, sex and relationships.  After reading Real Marriage and many reviews (both good and bad), I believe that this book offers a non-candy coated view on all these topics and is straight biblical.  That’s the most important thing.  So why Real Marriage?  Because…it’s a good book based the biblical view of marriage with real, gritty real-life situations.

Does Ridge Church Agree With Mark Driscoll?

No….not on everything.  But we don’t agree with everyone on anything any way.  YES, we do agree on a lot of things, but again, NOT EVERYTHING.  I believe pastor Mark is a man of God doing what God has called him to do.  But that doesn’t mean we will do those things, say all those things or mimic all those things.  Some things God called pastor Mark to, some things God calls myself and Ridge Church to.  They won’t match up.  Just like they won’t match up to Billy Graham, pastor Steven Furtick, or pastor Perry Noble.  We say it like this, we’ll eat the fish and leave the bones.

Real Marriage Is Kind of Racy…

Yes it is.  It’s gritty, but it’s real life.  Particularly chapter 10.  But here’s what I say…culture is talking about sex ALL THE TIME, on every channel and in many songs your kids hear and see on the daily.  Would you rather a pastor talk about these thing to people or do you want MTV and The Real World to continue to teaching generations about sex?  I’ll take the pastor every time.

I Disagree with Mark Driscoll and This Book….

That’s ok.  You don’t have to read it.  But, if you’ll listen to the sermons being preached in this series, they’re not following the book 100%.  There are some references to things mentioned in the book, yes.  Most weeks we are taking a passage of scripture on the topic of a chapter in the book and simply looking at what the Bible has to say about it.  We’ve done this with many books…Crazy Love by Francis Chan, Plan B by Pete Wilson, Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick and In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson.

I Don’t Want My Kids Exposed To This

If you’re child is in Ridge Kids on Sunday, they won’t be.  But if you choose to have them in the service on Sunday mornings, they will be.  That’s not a bad thing, you just need to be prepared to answer some tough questions.  Bottom line is, they don’t have to be if you don’t want them to be.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is YES, we are doing this series and YES you can order a copy of the book at our resource table.  However, positionally as a church that does not mean we 100% agree with everything in the book.  We want you to eat the fish, and leave the bones.  Take an honest look at it and let God speak to you in it.  Listen to the messages each week that we guarantee will be Biblicaly based, accurate and Gospel heavy.