The River Church Community

Hello family!

As the worship pastor, I'm in constant prayer with hope that the words we sing and pray and listen to on Sunday morning are actually forming our souls long after the band has packed up the microphones. I believe many seeds are planted by the Holy Spirit as we come together and that God's promise is true -God's word will not return empty, but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it. But I wonder if our busy pace of life and the constant bombardment of new information into our minds might be keeping God on his toes for this task. So, I'm creating a space for us to continue to put legs on the ideas thought and convictions felt together from this last series on giving. If you were one of the folks who wrote on your card that you felt you would like to test out this idea of tithing, or if your wrestling has moved into an idea to try out, then this is the place for you!

The tithing lab is a 3 month commitment to the following things:

1. A personal decision to try some new form of giving for the next 3 months of paychecks. This could be any kind of new practice that you feel God has placed in your imagination over the past 3 weeks. We all will be trying different things as we have felt led to do. This decision should be made and implemented by the first meeting on March 15th.

2. Meeting once a month after we have paid our bills to share what our new giving practice is and how we are feeling about it. The dates for these group lunches are: 

March 15, April 19th, May 17th

Time: noon - 1:30

3. Meeting once a month with one other person in the group at a time and place that is fun and convenient for you. Either over coffee or lunch, or a walk in a park, this is a chance for you to get to know someone else at The River better as they share how their giving experiment is going, and the effects that it is having on their heart and spending habits. It's also a chance to learn how to listen to what God is doing in someone else's life through this discipline and pray for more of God's work in their life. And then someone will do that for you!

4. Periodic postings as you feel are helpful on The Reef's group "Tithing Lab". This blog will be only seen by the members of the lab. I will be posting scriptures on Money for our personal reflection times and we can generate some conversation on these passages as well as other questions that may come up as we try this experiment out. 

Again, this lab is for anyone who wrote down on their card last week that they would like to test a new practice, increase in their giving or have decided in their wrestling some kind of next step to try out. I am starting a new practice of "graduated tithe" that I will share at the first meeting. 

Please prayerfully consider if this 3 month lab would be a helpful next step in your worship life. You can email me at to let me know that you would like to join and I will add you to the Tithing Lab group on the Reef. Our first meeting will be in 3 Sundays - in just enough time to pay those bills and write those first giving checks!

I'm really looking forward to being on this journey with you!

krista-dawn