Please Fasten Your Seat belts!

2012 was a great year full of milestones for Ridge Church. Without a doubt the most notable milestone was having our first service in our newly renovated building on December 16th. It was also the highest attendance in our history as a church. These new environments will enable us to to open our doors to a whole new group of people as well as bless our city in new and improved ways.

We kick off 2013 on January 6th with a great new year's challenge called "This One Thing." I want to challenge each of us to care enough about the people in our lives to invite them to join us at Ridge Church. It could literally change their lives. Fasten your seat belts--2013 is going to change everything. Don't be a spectator!

NOTE: New Service Schedule
9:30 Waumba Land (birth-pre-k) Upstreet (k-5th) and Adult Worship
11:00 Waumba Land (birth-pre-k) Student Impact (6th-12th) and Adult Worship

New Adult Worship Space

 New Upstreet Theater

You can help change countless lives in 2013!

There are many great organizations who ask for a donation this time of year. When you choose to give to Ridge Church, it enables us to create irresistible environments where people are inspired to take steps in their spiritual journey and to bless those in need. Recently as part of our “Be Rich Campaign” Ridge Church provided an entire red carpet Christmas experience for 10 families in need. We bought gifts for all family members, paid water & electric bills, bought groceries & gas, took care of basic needs, and so much more. But most importantly we were able to inspire hope! Listen to a few heart felt thank you’s and know that you can help us change countless lives in the upcoming year by choosing to partner with us through your year-end gifts!

Year end giving made easy-Two ways to give: 

1. Egive (December 27th is last 2012 posting day for EGive!) Give HERE! 
2. Mail Giving (2012 donations Must be posmarked by December 31st                                                                                                                             Ridge Church P.O. Box 1292 Matthews, NC 28106

When is our Grand Opening?

We are in the home stretch on the up fit for our new facility. This week volunteers are showing up Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 5-8:30 and Saturday 8:30-4:30 to paint and do small construction projects. Our project has been a cash project to date which means two things:

1. We are debt free in this construction effort to date
2. When our funds run out we will push the PAUSE button on construction

The million dollar question that people ask me every week is "When are we getting into the facility?...When's the grand opening?" At this point our Grand Opening has about 5% to do with construction time lines and about 95% to do with funding. We have two things between us and the finish line and you can help

• We have 250 remaining chairs to sell. Each chair represents a person we hope will sit in the seat one day as well as a portion of the renovation. We've sold over 200 already!
• We need to increase our monthly budget by $5,000 more per month to absorb construction & facility related costs. We've already increased by $5,000 since we began the campaign so we are halfway there! (see chart for details)

You can give online HERE and help us get to the Finish Line

Concert in the Commons

We have an exciting night planned for October 5th. We are doing a concert in the commons (Sycamore Commons) from 6-8:30pm. We are also doing a pumpkin patch that night and all proceeds will go to support Piney Grove Elementary School, the title one school that we partner with. In one great night we get to combine great fun in our community and serving our community. Admission is FREE but we do have tickets so you can invite friends. Pick up tickets from guest services on Sunday and start inviting!

You never know

Be on the look out for opportunities to invite people to experience Ridge Church with you. One of the four things that we ask every core person at Ridge Church to embrace is what we call invest & invite. The premise is: as you develop relationships in the circles that you travel in look for appropriate opportunities to invite them to experience Ridge Church "with you". My kids are all on new sports teams this year and we've already had opportunities to meet several new families and invite them to our church. Trust me--our environments and volunteers will be ready for your "invest & invite". You never know when a simple invitation could result in someone's life being changed forever!! So be bold.

When God "Chat room God" video

From beginning to end Sunday's service was one of the most moving and challenging services that any person could imagine. I witnessed and experienced extreme emotion on every level. We started the morning with a video called "Chat Room" God. Our creative team, lead by Karen Clark, began dreaming about the idea long ago and with the help of Ed Williams creative writing and Chris Lee's editing the final product was...well it was the thing people have been talking about and asking me about all week long. It's not just hype when I say you really MUST to be at Ridge Church right now or you will simply miss out on some amazing things that God is up to! Our messages are always posted online but their is no comparison to being in the room while Christopher Kincaid and the Ridge Band are leading. It was absolutely unbelievable this past Sunday...ask anyone who was there and they'll confirm! Here's "Chat Room God" which was followed up by a "Nickel Creek" opener.

Partnering with Parents

One of our desires as a church is to do what we call "Partnering with Parents". We want to leverage the small percentage of time that we have with children on any given Sunday to partner with parents to build bridges and create conversations between parents and their kids in the huge amounts of time that they spend with their children. Most parents will spend more time with their children in the car this month than we, as the church, will spend with them in the entire year! Fortunately for Elijah his parents understand this partnership from both sides. They are both investing in their children at home as well as investing in others at Ridge Church as volunteers. Experiencing a child putting their faith in Jesus as Savior and letting the world know through baptism never gets old!