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You know it’s going to be one interesting and incredible Sunday worship gathering… it will be historic!

DO NOT MISS THIS SUNDAY @ IMAGE CHURCH

My dad, Dr. David Rhodenhizer, will be preaching and sharing his incredible, miraculous story…

see you at the warehouse

9:29 or 11:09

It was great to be back today, my vacation was simply relaxing, I truly needed it, but it was great to be back… This will be short, sweet, and to the point:

1st: Great message today, it was great to sit and get fed…  point I took away… “Losers leave lousy legacies, so respond quickly when God rebukes!!!”

2nd: Band did a great job, loved how we ended the gathering, with everyone shouting… “You have done great things!!!”

3rd: I got to do nursery and hang out with our babies, always love holding those little guys, although we only had 2 in there during the 1st gathering… Laura did all the work – HA!

4th: We need to continue to pray, as we did this morning, for Rod and Kathleen Simons.

5th: 1st Image peeps are doing a great job, a couple of them drove 3 hours back from a trip they were on, just so they could be there and serve at Image this morning… you go COLES!

That’s all, keep reflecting HIM!!!

My family is unplugging from reality for about 10 days, we are heading up north for a vacation in the Adirondak Mts. We will have no cell phone service or internet access, we will turn off our phones and take off our watches, it is going to truly be a vacation… A time of rest! I advise everyone to do this, here is something I strive for, it is something I heard when I was first starting out in ministry…

Divert Daily… Withdraw Weekly… Abandon Annually

SO this is my/our annual abandon, see you when I return!

[This is also my last blog post until July 6, later virtual world!]

This is turning out to be an incredible summer…

1st: Very creative way to intro worship today, thanks to the band for their hard work… the music was completely energetic and worshipful, love Forever and ever and ever

2nd: Scott Hamm, CRASH director, nailed it! If what he shared didn’t move you then you need to check your pulse! Thanks bro for being so transparent and for sharing your story.

3rd: Got a ton of feed back from the sermon! Seemed like men and women were getting things right!

4th: Great to have Matt Willmington and his family there today… Matt is the associate pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church… great to catch up with him and have his input!

5th: Loved preaching out Genesis 3 today… gotta stay away from that downward spiral.

6th: We had 295 people come through our doors today, definitely time to expand.

7th: This is turning out to be our best summer ever, I love gathering with Image Church!!!

Keep reflecting Jesus!

Krista and I will be unplugging from Thursday-Saturday, we are getting away to celebrate 10 years of marriage, and it has been the best 10 years of my life!!! We will be back Saturday afternoon, and, of course, we will be gathering with our favorite peeps in the world on Sunday, Image Church – speaking of Image, here’s what is coming for Fathers Day…

We will be calling men to not just be better, but live and lead as the redeemed!!!

This old warehouse had life in her on Sunday, the place was packed, the music was hot, i-Kids did an incredible job singing ‘Take It All’ with the band, tons of guest, the Spirit was moving, everyone was saying how excited they were to be here and we had 285! Be Bold, keep reflecting Jesus, and its time to Expand!!!

Matthew 16:13-19
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” [ESV]

Vision for God’s Church, Vision for People, and Vision for future space…

BUT, What holds us back?

All of this coming, this Sunday, be at the warehouse… 9:29 or 11:09!!!

Here are some highlights from our worship gatherings:

1st: Communion always brings us back to what it is all about… love it when we lift up Jesus together!

2nd: Talked to someone between gatherings, who has been coming for only a few weeks, they were headed over to the info center to see how they could start serving and get on mission with us!!!

3rd: Took communion with the band before our gatherings yesterday morning… these guys love Jesus and wanted to make sure they were ready to lift Jesus up through music!

4th: We had a ton of guest!!! I love this. Even though we had a lot of people out of town, we still had a great crowd yesterday. We gathered 252 people for worship.

5th: i-Kids wing was packed again. I took a walk through there at the beginning of the 1st gathering, love seeing people on mission with our kids!!!

6th: We raised all the money to send Melanie Henderson to Cambodia – BRING IT!

7th: We gotta keep praying, keep reflecting Jesus, make sure we are not full of a hot air religion, and we need to get that extra space in the warehouse soon, so we can fit the whole church family in this warehouse for worship!!!!!!!!

Lets keep being a community of people reflecting the Image of Christ!

Francis Chan, Pastor of Cornerstone Church of Simi Valley, CA, spoke on Tuesday morning. He preached from Acts 4:13 and his main point was this… “in our churches we have too many educated scared people and a lack of boldness”. I would like to share some thoughts from this verse and also from hearing Chan…

Acts 4:13 – Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. [ESV]

1st: BOLDNESS

Peter and John’s boldness was completely visible and the fact that they were just everyday average guys was visible as well. They had zero degrees and formal education! The disciples, here, took a bold stand for Jesus and for Jesus alone! Their only power was from knowing Jesus and that was visible as well!!!

2nd: ASTONISHED

People who had education and formal training were astonished that these 2 guys could be so bold and do what they were doing. This shouted the name and power of Jesus. What was seen in them was the HOLY SPIRIT living in them, controlling them, and giving them the power. This was so visible that it astonished everyone!!!

3rd: RECOGNIZED

No one even questioned, it was recognizable, visible… these guys had been with Jesus!

Man, I want to reflect Jesus in this way!!! This is the reason our church has this as our vision: A community of people reflecting the Image of Christ. We want people to see Jesus in us – it should be RECOGNIZED!!!

IMAGINE THIS…

Imagine the talk of the town being, “Have you seen the boldness of those Image people, their power to do good astonishes me, it is totally recognizeable that there faith in Jesus is authentic! They back up their talk by their walk!”

Image Golf Open:

Look at these guys…

Toby Ward and his team did an amazing job on this! First of all it was just plain fun, and the rain delay, in my opinion, made it even better as we had an hour to just hang out and socialize in the club house. About half the people playing in the tournament were from outside our church, oh yea! AND we raise a few thousand dollars for the shelter… Praise God!

Another amazing Sunday with Image:

We had more guests, we had more people serving, we had an exciting time of worship through music [of course 11:09 was way more awake, ha], we saw God moving and working in lives, as He does, once again, and we had 256 gather in the warehouse to worhsip Jesus! i-Kids had their promotion and, of course, they had to fiure out a way to fit the kids in the rooms. God is truly moving and working in our church, lets keep praying our church will reflect the Image of Christ, for space to grow into, for faithful staff, and that we would truly be on MISSION!