A favorite summer tradition for many New Englanders is traveling to the mountains -- hiking, camping, or just soaking up the beauty.  So this July and August, RCC will be spending "Summer in the Mountains".  We'll survey some of the "high points" of Scripture.  It's uncanny (providential?) how spending some time on the peaks of the Bible can give us a much better understanding of God's character and activity.  We invite you to join us as we visit nine of the great mountains of Biblical history!

JULY 11 

• “Ararat: The Mountain of Grace” (Genesis 6:1 -- 9:17) 
• Our God is the God of second chances. Through Noah and his family, He gave the whole world a second chance. Grace suggests the possibility of judgment, it extends promises, and it invites a response of obedient faith. 

JULY 18

• “Moriah: The Mountain of Faith” (Genesis 22:1-19)
• Active faith is the only appropriate response to God’s grace. Largely because of this remarkable act of faith, Abraham is known as “the Father of the Faithful”. In order to have his kind of faith, we must make ourselves available to God, trust that He’s able, obey Him regardless of our personal feelings, and surrender everything to Him. 

JULY 25 

• “Sinai: The Mountain of Instruction” (Exodus chapters 19-20)
• “Torah” means “instruction or guidance”. What God gave Moses on Sinai is an expression of His loving concern for His people – both then and now. That “Old Testament Law” serves as our teacher (about what God is like and how to please Him), our judge (it can make us aware of our shortcomings but can’t correct them), and our guardian/schoolmaster (Gal.3), leading us to Christ. 

AUGUST 1

• “Zion: The Mountain of Renewal” (Nehemiah)
• Dan Clymer preaching. Title subject to change. 

AUGUST 8

• “Carmel: The Mountain of Testing” (I Kings 18:17-40) 
• Israel’s (and Elijah’s) loyalty to Yahweh was being tested. This event constituted a confrontation between two world views, and it demonstrated the supremacy of Yahweh and the nothingness of Baal. Why can we say that Elijah passed the test? He was convinced of the truth, challenged sin and sinners, was willing to stand alone, repaired the altar, and ultimately gave credit to God. 

AUGUST 15

• “Mount Hermon: The Mountain of Glory” (Matthew 17:1-8)
• The true glory of God’s Son is revealed, though briefly, to three of His friends. From this mountain, we hear the voice of morality/law (Moses), the voice of personality/charisma (Elijah), the voice of society/popular opinion (Peter), but finally the voice of authority (God). We’d better listen! 

AUGUST 22

• “The Mount of Olives: The Mountain of Decision” (Mark 14:26-42) 
• This was the most gigantic moment in history. Mankind’s fate hung in the balance. Jesus resisted the ultimate temptation and remained faithful to His Father. How can we follow His example? By keeping our mind on our God-given mission, by resting in the right relationship, by giving priority to prayer, and by not letting disappointment defeat us. 

AUGUST 29 

• “Calvary: The Mountain of Atonement” (Mark 15:22-39)
• Christ’s work on the cross atoned, compensated, or made amends, for our sin. Much of the power of His work can be summarized with these four words . . . Release (from condemnation), Reconciliation (to God), Redemption (from slavery), and Remission (of sins). Calvary is a mountain that only a penitent sinner can climb. 

SEPTEMBER 5 

• “The Mount of Olives: The Mountain of Exaltation” (Acts 1:1-13) 
• The ascension of God Incarnate speaks of God’s providence (“It is not for you to know . . .”), His purpose (“You will be my witnesses . . .”), and His promise (“This same Jesus will come back . . .”)

NEXT TWO SUNDAYS . . . "GOD OF THE NATION(S)!"

The Bible is clear: God is Sovereign over all nations, including our own!  These two Sundays (June 27 and July 4), we'll celebrate that great truth, and consider some of its implications.

 We hope you'll join us for both of these celebrations of God's loving reign!

As many already know, our student ministry programming takes a different look in the summer.  We do not simply cancel our weekly programs; we just take another approach.  There are many reasons behind this.  Another youth minister, who serves at a church in Michigan, recently put together some of his thoughts on why they similarly change up their summer plans.  Feel free to take a look at that (link here).  The main reasons for us relate to the fact that many of our students and adult leaders are gone or have very irregular schedules during the summer months. We also want to give our adults a break from their weekly small group leading/teaching responsibilities.  Additionally, the summer is a great time to try new things and for our team to regroup, evaluate, and educate.

This summer we are trying a couple new things.  One involves an every-other-week meeting at a home.  During these times, we will mainly hang out and catch up with each other.  It will also involve some pointed discussion on a particular Biblical topic.

The other new thing we are trying involves Facebook and Twitter.  In the past, we have scheduled out every little detail of the summer 3-4 months in advance, and we found that it did not benefit many students. This year, we are changing our approach.  Instead, we are going to utilize social media to get the word out about "small" events. For example, our Six Flags and camping trips are still scheduled in advance, but events like a swimming party or going out for ice cream will be announced just a few days in advance.  Students and parents can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for these announcements, even having them sent to their cell phone automatically.  As with everything, we will evaluate and see how it goes, but we felt it is worth trying.  Students are used to making small plans the day-of with their friends anyhow, so this should not be much of a change from their normal way of life.

All about Him,
-Steve-

[Also posted on RCCStudents.com]

What does faith in God look like?  Not just religion, or piety, or spirituality, but true Godly faith?  There's a Bible book written by a man named James that explores some practical rubber-meets-the-road answers to that question. But be forewarned: James has a tendency to get in our faces a little bit,  He won't let us get off the hook with the standard excuses for our hypocrisy.  We think everybody can benefit from our next few Sundays exploring this 2,000-year-old document that's as current as today's newspaper.  Join us!

• April 11 -- "True Religion" (Overview - James 1:26-27)

• April 18 -- "Perfect Perseverance" (James 1:1-18)

• April 25 -- "When Listening is not Enough" (James 1:19-27)

• May  2 -- "Love Is Blind" (James 2:1-13)

• May 9 -- "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" (James 2:14-26)

• May 16 --"AYTMTB (And You're Telling Me This Because)" (James 3:1-12)

• May 23 -- "Wisdom That's Truly Wise" (James 3:13-18)

• May 30 -- "Dr. James Makes a Housecall" (James 4:1-12)

• June 6 -- "Our Best-Laid Plans" (James 4:13-17)

• June 13 -- "Rich Man, Poor Man" (James 5:1-12)

• June 20 -- "Power Through Prayer" (James 5:13-20)

What a great weekend! On February 12, we left RCC with 20 students, 5 adults, and 3 vehicles.  One student had to go home on Saturday morning due to sickness, so we were left with 24 total people at Deep Freeze 2010.  This winter retreat at Camp Berea (Hebron, NH) is a great opportunity for students and adults to get away for a weekend and to focus on God and each other.  The weekend involved music, snow-tubing, paintball, teaching, rock climbing, snow shoeing, small group discussions, and wacky-ball...among many other activities.  In the end, we had 14 students who made significant decisions for Christ -- whether that be accepting Christ for the first time or coming back to Him after some time doing their own thing.  We even had a couple make even deeper commitments to God and reaching out to others in His name!

I believe that I am truly blessed to be a part of this ministry at RCC.  We've got some amazing teenagers and some awesome adult leaders!  It is obvious that even things like cold weather and sickness does not stop God from working.  While we left with a group of people looking to have a great time, we returned on Sunday with so much more -- a group of people on fire for Christ and what He wants to do through us!  Please continue to pray for these students as they go back to school, work, and their families.  Pray that they will stay strong for Jesus, no matter what comes their way.

To view photos from our trip, check out the following photo albums on our Facebook page.

• Deep Freeze photos - Part 1
• Deep Freeze photos - Part 2

All about Him,
-Steve-

[Also posted on RCCStudents.com.]

At the center of human history stands the Christ Event, and at the center of the Christ Event stands the Cross.

You can learn a lot about a person from the things he chooses to say in his dying moments. From February 21 through April 4 (Easter Sunday), RCC will take a long look at the person and work of Jesus Christ as understood through the "Seven Sayings from the Cross." In Scripture, seven is the number of completeness, and it's probably no accident that the Bible records exactly seven utterances of Christ while He was hanging on the Cross. Each Sunday, we'll feature one of those, and its significance for us.  We hope this will help you in your observance of the Lenten Season and your preparation for Easter.

• Feb. 21 -- Christ's Intercession: "Father, forgive them..."
• Feb. 28 -- Christ's Intervention: "Today you will be with me in Paradise."
• Mar. 7 -- Christ's Interests: "Woman, here is your son. Here is your mother."
• Mar. 14 -- Christ's Isolation: "My God, my God, why...?"
• Mar. 21 -- Christ's Identity: "I am thirsty."
• Mar. 28 -- Christ's Invincibility: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
• Apr. 4 -- Christ's Intentions: "It is finished!"

I hope the last three Sundays have given you a strong sense of the real heart of RCC.  If any of my messages have raised questions or concerns for you, please let me know!

Healthy churches are the real hope for the world.  These last few days, we've all watched with heartache the unfolding story in Haiti.  The needs are overwhelming, to say the least.  But it's also been gratifying to see people from many lands giving and serving in order to relieve the suffering.  I trust that these missions of mercy will continue well into the future.  But I have a prediction.  A few weeks or months from now, after the initial wave of media attention has subsided, the needs will go on, and it will be predominantly churches who stay the course and continue to pour themselves into that work.  It's not that governrment agencies and other relief organizations won't still be present there; but if the Hurricane Katrina experience is any barometer, and I think it is, it's Christians and churches who will persevere for years to come.  And that's because of that principle I talked about Sunday . . ."Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of servant-leadership."  He's our inspiration for loving our fellow humans and sacrificing for their needs.  To His glory, let's be faithful in praying for our fellow Christ-followers as they "wash feet" in Haiti.

On January 24, 2010, we are launching a new worship series, called "We Are Family." Each week, we'll explore a specific aspect of family life in a fun and practical way, of course basing the entire experience on the principles of God's Word. There'll be something for everybody! Here's the lineup:

• January 24 -- "We Are Family . . . When Life Gets Crazy" Young children are gifts from God; but that's easy to forget when they seem to make so many demands on our time, energy, and sanity. Let's take a time-out from the craziness and just celebrate the blessing of kids!
• January 31 -- "We Are Family . . .When Conflict Occurs" Disagreement and personal friction are natural parts of family life. The difference between a healthy family and an unhealthy one is how we handle conflict. We'll do some helpful Biblical teaching on this topic.
• February 7 -- "We Are Family . . . When Making Choices About Marriage" Whatever our marital status, it's vital that we know and apply timeless Biblical principles about this God-given institution. We'll provide some down-to-earth insights on whether, when, and whom to marry.
• February 14 -- "We Are Family . . . When Commitment Wins Out" True love is an unconditional commitment by an imperfect person to an imperfect person. We'll celebrate the great things God can do when we live by that principle.

On behalf of the entire RCC staff, I want to welcome you to our new website! Many people have been hard at work, getting this ready for launch, and we are really excited to finally have it live! I wanted to explain a few things about it, as we have added many new items.

First of all, you have obviously noticed this "Staff Blog." Be sure to check this page often for updates from the RCC Staff about how ministry is going around the church. For instance, you might read a blog from Tom concerning a message from Sunday morning, or you could read about some family tips from Amy. One thing you can expect to find here are explanations of updates to the site. Notice the author posted under the title of the blog post and the authors and categories list to the side for your convenience.

You will also find a "New to RCC" page that was designed with that "first-time guest" in mind. This part of our site will walk a guest through what will probably be asking in order to get to know RCC better.

Registration is a new and exciting thing for our website. You can do so in various ways. One of them is clicking right here. And if you haven't noticed yet, after you register at rccsalem.com, you will be given a profile page. It is very important that you keep your contact information up-to-date on that profile page, as we will be using that information to contact you. Included in that is our new e-newsletter list. Be sure to subscribe to the e-newsletters you would like to receive in your inbox, including Tom's weekly "Hi, Church!" email.

Finally, you will notice a brand new event page. Along with the combined calendar for all of our ministries at RCC, you will see that we can now do online event registration through our site. We will be experimenting with this as we go, but we urge you to register for events online, as it will hopefully simplify the registration process for events like Camp Create, Iron Sharpens Iron, Deep Freeze, etc.

Overall, we urge you to check out the site in detail. We know there will be hiccups along the way, as there always is when you switch to a new site. If you find something that looks out of place, please let us know. It is our goal to make this new website a key tool in communicating the message of Christ to the world. If you have any sugestions or comments, I would love to hear them!

All about Him,
-Steve Cullum-
(RCC Student Minister & Co-Webmaster)

From the Why? Worship Series:

Q. Why does God let bad things happen to very good people?

A. This might be the most frequent question that Christians get asked. I refer you to the podcast of my September 27 message, “Why Is the World So Messed Up?” for some possible responses. The Book of Job and the 37th Psalm give some perspective. Until we’re in Heaven, most of the reasons will remain clouded in mystery. Maybe the most powerful answer, and the one that gives me the most personal peace, is that God Himself, in the person of His Son, has experienced the ultimate in this sort of injustice, so He can sympathize with our feelings (Hebrews 2:18; 4:15-16). Also, keep in mind that from a Biblical perspective, no human being other than Jesus can fully be called “good”, since we’re all sinners, and the pain of this world comes as a natural consequence of our many sinful choices.

Q. Why does God love us?

A. Because that’s His nature. (I John 4:7-8) I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but it’s the best I can do. I definitely know He doesn’t love me because I’m so loveable! If you find yourself taking the Christian life and message for granted, try asking yourself, “What would lfe be like if God WASN’T loving?” Seriously, start making a list of all the ways your life would be different if you didn’t have the assurance of God’s unconditional love and your ultimate salvation by His grace. A few minutes of that should get you excited again about living for Him!