do you know what you were doing One Year ago today? a year ago today we were 1 day away from our pre-opening family night and one week away from our grand opening of Confluence.

all of the last minute details were finally coming into place and the INCREDIBLE vision from God was finally becoming reality.  i wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts of this past year…

• i have never been called by God to do something as God-sized or challenging as Confluence.
• more people then i could have ever imagined have been blessed through Confluence
• God has drawn me closer to Him
• if i thought i had trust in God before Confluence i was wrong. trust in God has grown tremendously over this year
• my marriage to sarah has been strengthened
• i knew sarah was one of the strongest people i knew before Confluence. however, i never really knew how strong of a woman sarah was until now.
• i have been stretched in ways that has been difficult, but i have learned that growing pains are well worth it.
• i have grown life long friendships with people in this community
• i have learned a lot about the business world.
• i have met lots of really cool people.
• my love of music has grown to support local musicians.
• i have learned how important it is to support local businesses. i purposefully choose to frequent locations like henry james more than ruby tuesday.
• God has grown my graphic art abilities.
• i have never been more thankful for friends who have loved sarah and i through the difficult moments.
• i have appreciated the mentors who God has placed in my life.
• some days it feels like we’ve been here for years and some days it feels like we just opened yesterday.
• i have learned to love on and try to bless the business vendors who run their business right and find ones to replace those businesses who have poor customer service.
• i have thoroughly enjoyed working with the incredible staff we have at Confluence.
• if you knew me before Confluence you would have said there is no way Brian could drink more coffee then he did. we were all wrong. (i have had to start to enjoy decaf– oh well).

i just want to say a brief thank you to everyone who has supported and loved sarah and i throughout this year. i am inevitably going to forget someone, but please know it was not on purpose. understand that although its only been a year since confluence opened, i think i aged about 10 years…. and i have become more forgetful 

 thank you to ….

• those who have anonymously paid for meals.
• those who donate clothes to sarah that are no longer needed.
• those who have talked into the wee hours of the morning (even more than once).
• those who have just called to check in on us.
• those who have support Confluence financially (donations and drinks).
• those who have volunteered at events.
• those who have given advice and those who have told me how i can improve
• those who have prayed with sarah and i.
• those who have shed tears with me.
• those who have shared conversation over meals.
• those who have been willing to have difficult conversations.
• those who have given financially to sarah and i.
• those who have been willing to learn how to make drinks.
• those who have laughed with us (or at us- haha).
• those who have laundered towels or table clothes
• those who have served in ways that were less then enjoyable (unclogging toilets, mopping, ya know)
• those who provided creative ideas.
• those who helped us make connections with the right people in the community.
• those who have prayed for Confluence, The River, the elders, the board of Confluence, & sarah and i.

thank you for BEING THE RIVER and choosing to do life with us.

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confluence has been featured a few times over the past week. just though i would share.smitty’s notes:  confluence was voted for and mentioned in three categories on smittys notes BEST of Winston. considering we are barely a year old and we were mentioned three times, that is way cool.

•  coffee shop - 3rd place honorable mention (there are 20+ coffee shops in winston)
•  music venue - 2nd place
• free wifi - 3rd place honorable mention

triad smarty pants has said that Confluence is one of the BEST kept secrets in Winston.

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i wanted to take an opportunity to share a about our thoughts about the today’s article about Confluence and The River by the Winston Salem Journal.  We are always excited when God provides opportunities to share what He is doing in this community. Most of the article is an accurate picture of who Confluence is, but as many of you know, when you provide the media an opportunity to do a story, there is always a possibility that a few things may be misconstrued or misunderstood unintentionally.

we are definitely pleased that the journal decided to speak so candidly about The River in the article, however, we were a little surprised. when we went to the journal, we went to them about them doing a story solely on Social Networking and how Confluence’s uses all of these various forms to connect this community.  facebook and twittering is all of the rage right now and we thought that an article about our use could help encourage other businesses and churches to use new technology which is mostly free to help promote what they are passionate about.  when we were interviewed ,this was there communicated purpose of the article. so you can definitely understand the surprise we had when we saw the article.

as you saw with the article, the social networking piece was just a small piece and by looking just at the title you’d never know that it was supposed to have been about Social Networking.

there are definitely a few statements that as a church we would disagree with and joey has taken the time to write a very well written blog about the statements that stand out in the article that are contrast to our beliefs at The River.

please take a moment to read the river’s response by joey. if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to post a question or send us an email from the river or confluence website.

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we’ve all had our fair share of dips in our lives when we feel far away from God. you’ve probably noticed that i’ve had a dip in my blogging. i am not going to try suggest that my # of blogs should or ought to equal where i am at with my journey with God, because in reality, just because you blog doesn’t mean you have a relationship. and just because you go to church, doesn’t mean you’re saved. however my blog had become a place where i could share the great highs and the low lows with people and it came to a point that i had nothing to share and i wondered why?

i think the answer was because i was in a dip. i don’t know what type of dip you are in, but as steven furtick says, if you’re not in a dip right now, you will be soon. but i have learned that there are three types of dips, ones that God ordains when you are following His will, ones that are of ignorance, and what steven furtick called the “dumb dumb” dip.

you see, i didn’t even see the dip coming because i was trying to follow what God had called me to do through Confluence, but because i was working so hard and so many incredibly LONG hours i became lost in a dip. i think looking back i’d call this an ordain/dumb dumb dip.

so for me, why didn’t i blog, because my dip had become so low that there wasn’t anything to share.God spoke to me tonight through something steven furtick said - “your dip seems bigger when your God seems smaller.”the dip that i was in seemed so deep that i was not sure if God could or would get me out of it.

stop digging and seek God. let people who care about you speak Godly truth in your life. a big thanks goes out to my friends joey and justin who allowed God to speak through them.

just remember when we are looking at our problems we lose sight of our God and our problems look bigger than our LIVING GOD.

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i am sorry to be using the blog as a medium of asking favors these days, i promise soon i’ll get back to writing about important stuff.but anyways… sarah and i are going on vacation this saturday to the mountains and we’ve heard they are getting lots of snow. we do not have 4 wheel drive and could really use a vehicle to borrow. we are happy to switch out vehicles and you can use our jeep.if anyone has the ability to help us - let me know. thanks again! 

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our phone at confluence has broken. does anyone have a cordless OR a wired phone laying around the house that they do not use anymore?  if so, can you shoot me an email and drop it by.THANKS!! 

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i hope you are getting psyched up about the best super bowl party that has ever been. plans are going great and people are calling right and left about this event. spread the word, tell your friends, and make some chilli.

this will be by far the biggest opportunity the river church has had to bless any love on people. its time to get your game face on RIVER! it will be very easy to just hang out with people you know during this event, but this event is an event that the river is hosting for the community.

we need YOU to be relational. for some of you thats going thats going to be really easy and some of you its going to be a challenge.either way i want to challenge you to get out of the bleachers, get in the game. whether its saying hi to two people you dont know or spending an hour talking with someone about where they work.

this is a great opportunity to do life together. its also a great opportunity to invite people that you’ve been wanting to. we have still have hundreds of invite cards left. if you have time and want to pick some up and distribute, please do so.

BETHERIVER

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a little refreshing update to the river logo. thought I would share.

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well next week is week 8 of our second service. can you believe that? we have been very pleased with God’s call to move to two services. it has freed up some seats in the 10:30 service and has opened the door for more people who are far from God to hear His message.

but with that said… have you noticed the past 3 weeks what is happening in the 10:30 service? it is full and we need to move more chairs in to accommodate.

studies show that once you are 80% capacity it stops your growth because guests need to feel like they have space and room to move into the space.so here is the challenge, we need folks to move to the first service. another church we follow called New Spring in South Carolina is having a very similar problem and this is what Perry Noble has to say…. 

“Why [move]?  Because stats show that the most likely time someone who is unchurched will visit our church is during that 11:15 hour.  And we want them to have a seat…so…for the next several weeks one of the most evangelical things you can do is adjust your schedule.”

So here is the deal. I know that the 10:30 service may be more comfortable. You get to sleep in a little later, its easier to get the kids ready, etc, but if it our mission to Love God and Love People, how are we going to reach people if there is no more space?

You see we have new guests each and every week and if they feel there is no space for them, they do not feel welcome and may never have the chance to hear the most life changing and amazing message - Jesus.

Yes it will be a sacrifice, but think about when you first heart about Jesus. Wouldn’t you have wanted someone to make a sacrifice so that your life could be changed for ever?

God is moving at the River, are you?

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Newspapers these days need to do a lot more than just newsprint. The Dispatch has posted this video on there home page. They’ve done a great

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