FORWARD

According to Barna, Americans pray for their family, for guidance, for health and wellness, and even to express thanks. But one thing they don’t pray for – boldness.

Maybe it’s because we are already bold. But more likely, we don’t pray for boldness because we like our lives safe and comfortable.

But if Riverwood is going to be a church after God’s heart, we need to take a page out of the early church’s book and pray for boldness. If you are curious about what this looks like, or how one even begins to pray a “bold” prayer like this, listen in as Pastor Erin Bird walks us through a story found in Acts chapters 3 & 4.

Money. (Yep, we went there!) Why do churches seem to always talk about money?

Well, we can’t tell you why other churches talk about money so much. But at Riverwood, we don’t talk about it as much as we probably should, but when we do, we look at not what we can get FROM you as much as what God wants FOR you. And we believe  God wants you to be generous like Him.

So listen in as Pastor Erin Bird teaches from the book of Acts about the joy that can be found through generosity.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” There definitely are times in life a person needs to move fast. But for a church to go far, they MUST go together.

But that proves to be especially difficult here in America, because Americans are extremely individualistic (plus, they prefer fast!). So how is a church in the midwest of the U.S. in 2019 supposed to move forward together? We let the early church as seen in Acts 2:42-47 give us some clues. If you want to learn what these clues are, listen in as Pastor Erin continues the Forward sermon series.

Having faith in something brings confidence and peace. For instance, when you place your “faith” in a chair, you have peace that it will hold you when you put your full weight upon it. When your faith is in your team before a big game, you have confidence they will emerge victoriously.

But what do you do when the person or object of your faith has let you down?

In this first message in the “Forward” sermon series, Pastor Erin Bird shows us from Acts 2:42-47 what the first church did to build their faith and how the steps they took can help the faith of any follower of Jesus as well as help the faith of an entire church family.