School News in the Summer

Pastor Rick
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Hey Sports Fans!!
Hope everybody is enjoying the summer weather. If you note carefully in the photo of yours truly and my first wife you will see I am wearing a T-shirt representing my home-town team, the first-place Cincinnati Reds. Just sayin'.
Anyway, I want to talk to you about school. Not summer school! I served one sentence of summer school while growing up and said, 'Never again!' Summer was not made for school, but for things like baseball, the shore (note picture with yours truly wearing Cincinnati Reds T-shirt beside my beautiful wife), hot dogs and the like.
OK, back to the topic of school. It was amazing to have over 80 people come out on a lovely summer evening to an initial Information Night regarding the Wellspring School of Leadership. That's right--80-some people. WOW!
For those of you who were at the beach or watching baseball or grilling hot dogs, let me catch you up on the Wellspring School of Leadership. This school will launch this coming August 31 (technically still summer, but hey--whatever) with the first class in its inaugural year. The school will offer six consecutive six-week classes over the coming school year, covering topics like Spiritual Formation, Old Testament Survey, Hearing God, Christian World View, Dynamics of the Kingdom, and The Art of Leadership. Combining classroom work and guided study with hands-on practical instruction, training and activation exercises, the goal of the school is to equip leaders for Kingdom ministry in the church and in the marketplace. In addition to class work, each student will have a mentor to support and guide them through the process.
I am really excited about the enthusiasm the school is generating. We are currently accepting applications for the first year. You can go to the web: http://www.wellspringschoolofleadership.org/ for more information and to download an application form. To have your specific questions answered you can call the newest member of our staff, Mike McKinniss, with those queries. Oh, and by the way, we will be holding a second Information Night on Sunday, August 8.
Lastly, many thanks to members of the envisioning task force for WSL: Mark Johnson, Nancy Riley, Kimberly Springman, Steve Roe, Ed Tuttle, Terry Griswold and aforementioned Mike McKinniss. They have done an amazing job in moving this vision forward to be ready to launch. And praise to the Lord for his favor upon this venture.
The Wellspring School of Leadership is open for Kingdom business!
Blessings,
Pastor Rick

Summer Nights at Wellspring

Pastor Rick
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Summertime Greetings!

Today is the first day of summer! Hooray! Wow--I can't remember the last time I said 'Hooray!'

Anyway, it is summer and I have not posted a blog for a long, long time. Was taking time off. And now all the articles in our e-newsletter at Wellspring are linked to our blogs, so here goes a blog-announcement. I hope to get to more randomitems-substantive stuff-opinionated rants in the near future.

But back to summer nights at Wellspring. Beginning Wednesday, July 7 and on every Wednesday evening through July and August, we will be gathering for worship, prayer and presence gatherings from 7:00--8:30 pm.

These gatherings have been very special over the past few summers as we meet primarily to worship the Lord and to host his presence. We will be led in worship by various worship teams from Wellspring--different teams each week. We have not planned a teaching emphasis for those nights--though on some nights there might be words of exhortation given. These meetings are not planned as healing services, though we will most likely be ministering in healing on several of these nights. They are not designed primarily for 'Body Life' and fellowship, but undoubtedly there will be the sharing of life between various members of the Body here at Wellspring. They are not designed to be unity meetings, but on some occasions folks from other area congregations may be joining us.

Our primary goal is the seek the presence of the Lord through worship and then host his presence as we entertain what he desires to do among us.

So you can mark your calendars for Wednesday nights in July and August--7:00--8:30 pm at Wellspring. We will offer childcare for children 5 and under in our nursery. Hope to see you there.

Pastor Rick

Greetings from Israel!!

Pastor Rick
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Shalom!

Greetings from Jerusalem.

This is quite a trip--literally and figuratively.

After a great week in Uganda with Terry Brennan at Kampala Childrens' Centre and at Pastor Arnold's pastor conference, I have come to Israel for a week.

The last two days I have spent touring Jerusalem with my good friend. He is a Messianic believer and a missionary to Japan. He also has a home in Jerusalem, where I have been staying. We have been touring the city of Jerusalem together and taking in the sights. We also have been meeting some very amazing believers in Jesus--some Jewish and some Arab.

Today we had lunch with a former PLO activist who came to faith in Jesus after he appeared to him in a vision. He is an evangelist and pastor, as well as a shop-keeper and dealer in biblical antiquities in the old city of Jerusalem. What an amazing man and a great heart. I was very encouraged by his testimony and love for Muslims. As he said--we love Muslims, Islam is the problem. That is, the spirit behind Islam is the driving force of so many difficulties--Jesus died for Muslim people and he loves them.

Tomorrow we go to the Dead Sea area and Jericho and then the next couple days to Galilee.

Got to go now. More thoughts later.

Blessings,

RM

Equally Yoked

Pastor Rick
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The book is done and at the publisher. The project started ten years ago is now completed.

Thanks to all who have prayed for this book to come to fruition, encouraged me along the way and helped to make it a reality.

It is kind of weird to say, 'It's done.' To hold an actual copy in your hand.

The thesis of the book is that God's highest ideals for the genders is full and equal partnership. This was how he created us to operate and what got twisted through the fall has been and is being restored through the redemption Jesus brings. Mostly it is a study of pertinent biblical passages to demonstrate the thesis, along with some personal and practical stuff mixed in.

I wrote it because the Lord told me to write it. And because it is a message that needs to be repeated again and again until the church really grabs hold of it. And I wrote it because I needed to conform my own heart and practice to what my study has shown. Writing it down has a way of making one accountable.

Soon copies will be in for a gala book-signing at Wellspring. Plans are being laid for a conference by the same name as the title this spring. For those of you who can't wait--you can order your copy at Amazon.

Anyway, that's all I'm gonna say about that for now.

RM