KIDS CAMP VIDEO: The Righteous League, Episode 3
KIDS CAMP VIDEO: The Righteous League, Episode 2
KIDS CAMP VIDEO: The Righteous League, Episode 1
VIDEO: Youth Summer Camp Invite
Jr. & Sr. High students, join us July 23-29 for our 2017 Youth Summer Camp! Get details and register at www.restonbible.org/summercamp.
Celebrating Generosity: Youth Winter Retreat
Here’s a quick update from Pastor Aaron Osborne on this year’s Youth Winter Retreat and how your generosity is impacting the lives of students for the glory of God. Thank you for being a generous church.
Women’s Retreat 2017 (a.k.a., Bad Hair Sunday)
Men of RBC: On March 3-5, the Women’s Ministry is holding their annual retreat. I have called the Sunday of that weekend, “Bad Hair Sunday” because it is the one Sunday out of the year that children show up with varying degrees of bedhead — worthy of pictures. For every man who spends the weekend with his children while his wife is away on a Women’s Retreat there are several valuable lessons in store. First, he realizes just how under-insured his wife is and that any thought he has ever had that even smelled like “I could do her job” was delusional at best. He also learns that you can dress your kids for church on Saturday night and put them to bed in those clothes. Lastly, he learns that Jehovah Jireh in the NIV means “Papa John’s delivers.” Men, you do not want to miss out on this.
More importantly, the weekend is a great opportunity to invest in your wife. I speak at a lot of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups in the area. When I go to these groups there is a room full of moms eager to hear my every word. (Not really.) I know that if a mom knows that her kids are being watched and someone is giving them food that they did not have to prepare, they would come and listen to me read the dictionary. No, I’m not the speaker for the retreat – they actually found someone with spiritual depth and great communication skills. But I am asking you guys to consider blessing your wives by strongly encouraging them to attend the retreat. All kidding aside, your wife will have the chance to spend time with other women of RBC, hear great teaching from the Bible and possibly get some much-needed rest.
Imagine how much they will laugh when they see the pictures you take of the kids on that Sunday morning. For more information on the 2017 Women’s Retreat, visit www.restonbible.org/womensretreat.
Paul Goodnight
Counseling Pastor
Caroling for Christ Update
Throughout the month of December, RBC ministries, Shepherd Groups, and friends joined together to spread Christmas cheer and the gospel of Christ to our Northern Virginia neighbors.
This was the first time that we offered “Caroling for Christ.” It was an evangelistic opportunity, led by those in the congregation. To participate, the carolers would pick up a Caroling Kit that equipped them with everything they needed for planning their community outreach. Each Caroling Kit contained song sheets, candy canes, gospel booklets of the book of John, and invitations to the Christmas Eve service.
After gathering in groups, choosing a time and a location to carol, and assembling the Christmas caroling material, each group greeted 15 houses. Not only was this an event to minister to our community, but it was a fun way to bring Christian brothers and sisters together and be an encouragement to one another. Many caroling groups drank hot cocoa, ate cookies, and shared laughs together.
Over 500 households were reached the Christmas message. Praise God!
Here are a few comments we received from members our caroling groups:
“After caroling at one house, the lady commented that she had never been caroled to before. We asked if she’d like to hear another song and she said, ‘Yes, please!'”
“I was surprised by all the smiles.”
“It was a magical night, hopefully the first year of a long-lasting tradition.”
“We had an overwhelmingly positive response from the neighborhood and one family even wanted more information about RBC service times.”
“We had a whole night of caroling practice and prayer before actually caroling. I’m thankful for this community!”
Annual Report 2016
“I will remember the deeds of the LORD… I will ponder all Your work and meditate on Your mighty deeds.” – Psalm 77:11-12
As 2016 comes to a close, we hope you’ll take some time to remember, reflect and give thanks for many things our God has done in and through the body here at RBC over the past year. Our annual report is a way of doing just that. It is not a list to highlight our accomplishments, but a way of “remembering the deeds of the LORD…”
In the annual report, you’ll find brief overviews of many things God has done as we sought to know Christ and to make Him known in 2016. Of course, He has done far more over the past year than we can put here – “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25) But our prayer is that this report will give you a brief glimpse of some of His mighty deeds, a taste of what He has done. Taste and see that the Lord is good! (Psalm 34:8)
As you read through and remember the goodness of God, we pray that you would rejoice in the glory of His grace and give thanks for the beauty of His gospel as it goes forth in so many ways in Northern Virginia and around the world.
The Marriage You Want
The Bible starts with a marriage and ends with a marriage. We are God’s image bearers – male and female – we were designed to become one. Even though the culture has changed, God’s design has not.
Michael Easley
Maybe you’d like to turn a good marriage into a great marriage. Or maybe you’re in a struggling marriage and need help, hope and direction. Or perhaps you’re just about to begin the journey of marriage and want to set out in the right direction.
Wherever you are in the journey of marriage, we invite you to join us the weekend of January 27-28, 2017 for our annual marriage conference. Author and speaker Dr. Michael Easley will help us review the biblical basis of God’s specific design for marriage and share how we can re-align our expectations toward His ideas. Michael is husband to Cindy, dad to four, pastor to Fellowship Bible Church in Nashville, and host of the podcast, Michael Easley inContext.
We invite you to join Michael and his wife Cindy on this journey of The Marriage you Have vs. the Marriage you Want! Renew, realign and re-calibrate your relationship into a new set of expectations that are both realistic and biblical. In addition to the conference itself, we would also like to encourage you to take the opportunity to stay overnight at the beautiful Hilton Doubletree at our discounted rate. You can choose to stay in-between the Friday night and Saturday morning conference sessions or for the entire weekend. It’s a great opportunity to disconnect and relax without the travel.
The cost of the Marriage Conference is only $45 per couple. Register here by Christmas Day to receive a $10 discount. Hotel accommodations for one or both nights can be made through this Conference Registration as well. We hope to see you there!
– RBC Marriage Ministry Team
Celebrating Generosity: First Fruits
Because of the generosity of over 800 volunteers who did 150 jobs, our First Fruits project raised over $41,000! Food and gift cards were personally delivered to 35 families and another 35 will receive food cards in the next few days. Excess funds will be used to provide several scholarships to local high school students and bless the staff of several area high schools. Thanks to all who donated directly, provided jobs and participated that day to bring joy (and food) to many hurting families in our community. Thank you for being a generous church!