RHCM joined four other RH communities to tell the Big God Story in the neighborhoods of our county. Together, we saw God show up at 36 sites in 15 cities. More than 1,200 kids heard the Gospel. More than 250 volunteers contributed. $3,500 was raised for Aquaponics in India and Uganda. Most importantly, 40 kids made a decision to follow Jesus.
This year we had 69 kids attend Royal Family Kids Camp. The theme was "The Royal Court," inspired by 1 Peter 2:9. Every year, God brings emotional and spiritual healing to kids who are hurting, and this year was no exception.
Last year's Back To School Drive resulted in 2,500 school supplies, 121 teach care boxes, 105 backpacks, and 160 backpacks for Foster Teen Minisitry.
We started the ministry year with a 9-week series through the book of Genesis. As we dove into the beginning of our story, we grasped the weightiness of sin as well as the grace of relationship with God. Our faith grew as we saw God's plans unfold in His sovereignty. And most importantly, our eyes were opened to our role in God's greater narrative that has spanned thousands of years.
On Labor Day 2015, we started a new rhythm in our weekend services. Three times a year, we now pause from our normal weekend content to simply tell stories of what God is doing in and through RHCM. On this inaugural Storytelling Weekend we celebrated God’s movement in individual lives, in life groups and in our ministry partners in Uganda and South Africa.
On September 14-18, 2015, we stepped into our yearly Seek Week tradition. We used the time to unwrap our new mission statement together as a church. We spent time fasting and interceding for our church and Orange County. We worshipped together. We heard stories of what God is doing in our lives. We walked away feeling both refreshed and inspired toward another year of ministry together.
In the fall of 2015, ROCKHARBOR unveiled its new mission statement for all campuses: We are a church of communities following Jesus as we worship, pray, and love others in Orange County and beyond. We took the month of September to teach through this mission statement in our weekend services and cast vision for how this would play out at RHCM.
Our first of three Alpha courses started on September 29. Between the fall and spring courses, 550 people explored some of life and Christianity’s biggest questions. Some people experienced Jesus of Nazareth in profound ways on the Alpha Day Away retreats. Some said yes to him for the first time. Some made decisions to be baptized. And many are now part of the RHCM family!
We celebrated our first baptism weekend of the ministry year in early October. Across all three RHCM services, people came ready to step into new life in Jesus. We also cheered on many others who responded to the open call and to the Holy Spirit's leading by taking this step. In all, 42 people said yes to Jesus this day!
Starting in October, we kicked off a year-long study in the book of Romans. We studied Paul’s words on transformation, that we are not just saved from darkness but saved to freely live in line with how God intended. We saw the beauty and power of the Church, that it truly is God’s plan to bring hope to the world. And perhaps most importantly, we realized the power of hopelessness, that when we come to the end of our striving, only then do we understand that the Gospel really is good news and that Jesus is more than sufficient.
Our second Storytelling Weekend of the year fell the weekend before Thanksgiving and, fittingly, was themed around gratitude. We gave thanks to God for all that He did throughout 2015. Specifically, our stories focused on recovery and personal transformation and on God's provision to our ministries and to our broader church community. Together, we responded by thanking God for His presence in our individual lives and laid our gratitude at the foot of the cross.
Christmas Eve had a lot of familiar service elements: music, teaching from the Bible, lighting candles, hospitality, and more. We also used the creative arts to tell the story of Jesus’ birth in a different kind of way. Together we took a journey through the world’s most popular Christmas carol, O Holy Night. It’s a familiar song with lyrics that everyone has sung before. But it’s also a song with a compelling backstory that even the original writers couldn’t have foreseen…a story that pointed to the bigger story in beautiful and profound ways.
The Giving Tree Store was set up at The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa, in partnership with numerous local churches, businesses and non-profits. 325 families participated, 160 RH volunteers were involved, and 800 gifts from RH were donated. Overall, $20,000 was raised for our global partners and local initiatives for specific needs during the Christmas season.
In December, RHCM sent 23 people to our partner Harvest India in Tenali, India. The team got to work along side Pastor Suresh Kumar in ministering to a school of 300 orphans and 200 Bible college students.
The Stirring brings together local churches for a night of worship and prayer. This January, we were at the Crossing Church in Costa Mesa. Half of the service was done in Spanish, with translations provided. It was a great opportunity to come together and worship together in spite of langauge barriers.
This February we had our first Plus One Singles Event. We planned for 200 people, but 425 were in attendence. The parking lot was filled with food trucks and games. Bryan Hill and Cathleen Doyle were our speakers. They gave an inspirational and challenging message that sought to empower the singles community. In the end, 37 volunteers signed up to help make the event happen again.
Easter 2016 had shouts of “He is Risen!”, music, teaching from the Bible, baptisms, kids content, and more. We also used the creative arts to tell the Gospel story through the metaphor that life is a song and every created thing is playing along. Together with all RH campuses, 6300 people heard the Gospel story across 12 services in 2 states. 31 said yes to Jesus for the first time, 80 said yes to baptism, and all of us walked away inspired into the song we are meant to play.
Our Neighboring series was born out of the belief that loving your neighbor starts with learning their names. We were challenged to actually learn the names of our immidiately surrouding neighbors as a jumping off point to loving our community at large.
Our Families Ministry had the opportunity to dedicate at least 11 kids, from 6 months to 3 years old, to the Lord this year. We were incredibly blessed by the faithfulness and humility of the parents who lifted these kids and our community up in prayer.
In May, we began a four-week series of prayer walks around four major cities in Orange County: Costa Mesa, Tustin, Irvine and Santa Ana. The goal in praying for and around our cities was not only to Awaken the cities, but to Awaken our hearts for our neighbors and local governments.
June 5 brought our third and final Storytelling Weekend of the 2015-16 ministry year. The weekend was themed around personal transformation as we told stories of Jesus making lives new. We learned that our stories are telescopes that help the world understand what God is like. Then we cheered and threw quite the party as 40 people said yes to baptism!
A team of 19 from RHCM returned to our partners in Gulu, Uganda. The team hosted VBS with two different partner schools. Some of the most crucial ministry time was spent doing medical outreach. The team arrived in a village to a line of 500 people in need of medical attention. With a team of 3 doctors, our team prayed, treated wounds and administered medicine to at least 396 registerred patients. They also visited the government hospital and prison where they prayed for the sick, preached the gospel and witnessed many people choose to follow Christ.
This year, we launched 30 new Life Groups and commissioned 61 new leaders who stepped out in faith to lead a group in their homes. Over 330 people were placed into Life Groups across Orange County, which means more than 900 people are now actively engaged in their communities.