Student Ministries will be heading to Camp Pondo in Running Springs. The students will hear the worship band “For All Seasons” and a dynamic speaker, Josh Griffin. Pondo is known for its insane activities: ropes course, giant swing, team cheers, waterslide, and so much more.
Venture will attend the week of August 1-5. There are still spots available, please contact Terrilynn Adrian if interested. Cost is approximately $300, with fund-raising opportunities available.
“Nothing of eternal significance happens apart from prayer.”
Join others in prayer for Venture Church each Sunday morning at 9:30 am. Come a bit early for church and pray for God to be at work in our body. The group meets upstairs in the Chatigny Center (Room 1).
Venture Church celebrates our 4th Anniversary on July 3 with a Church Picnic. After church, we will drive to Riley’s Farm at Los Rios Rancho. There is plenty to do at Los Rios — nature trails, gift shop, open field for games, and plenty of space for casual conversation. Bring your lunch — or buy your lunch — some camp chairs, games you may want to play, and an EZ-UP if you have one. There is much to celebrate as we reflect on 4 years of God’s faithfulness at Venture Church.
Friendship, purity, work ethic, managing money, saying the right thing….there are so many areas of our lives where we need wisdom! And wisdom is found in God’s Word, especially in the book of Proverbs. This summer at Venture, we will “walk with the wise” as we make our way through the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. Proverbs represents a fascinating genre of Scripture, and there is much to be learned by spending time there. The sermon series will begin June 26 and continue through most of the summer.
Since July and August each have 31 days, and Proverbs has 31 chapters, we are encouraging everyone to read the chapter of Proverbs that coincides with the day of the month. If we read through Proverbs twice and hear multiple sermons on its teachings, we will all grow in wisdom as we walk with the wise this summer.
Venture Church will hold the Annual Business Meeting Sunday evening, June 26 at 7:00 pm.
Annual Business Meetings are much more than just business! This year, our elders and pastors will reflect on a great year of ministry and share some exciting plans about the upcoming year. We will also celebrate
with Fernando Lopez as Venture Church will license him to the gospel ministry.
All are invited to attend, as members will vote to approve the budget and affirm the new elders that have been recommended to the congregation. Brant Adrian has been recommended to join the elder board, and Harve Detweiler has been recommended for a second term.
Brant Adrian has served previously as an elder at Venture. He serves in many ways, but primarily as the director of the high school ministry. Brant is happily married to TerriLynn. They have three children: Madison, Cade, and Jordan.
Harve Detweiler has complete his first three year term on the elder board. Harve and his wife Patty serve in many ways, especially with the welcome and prayer ministries at Venture. Harve seeks to serve a second three year term as an elder at Venture.
For more information on elder selection at Venture Church, read our FAQ article here.
Science is fascinating. Even if you hate science class, you have to admit that the idea of conducting experiments is cool. It’s amazing how adding just a few drops of one chemical can create a reaction, adding a few drops of another can stop or deactivate the same reaction and adding a few drips of a third chemical can make the first two glow in the dark or it can make them explode! What’s crazy is that you can’t tell by looking at something what reaction it will cause. Maybe it’s an activator. Maybe it’s a deactivator. Maybe it’s neither. The only way to know is to keep testing it out and see what happens. Believe it or not, this is something faith and science have in common. We all experience moments that have the potential to activate or deactivate our faith, and it’s hard to tell at first glance which is happening. This was especially true in the life of one of Jesus’ followers and dear friends, Peter. As we take a closer look at his ups and downs, we’ll discover how sometimes the very experiences that threaten to destroy our faith are the ones that can activate it in a whole new way.
JOIN US IN CELEBRATING OUR 2016 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES!
MONDAY, JUNE 13 @ 7PM
VENTURE MINISTRY CENTER 10420 BEAUMONT AVE., CHERRY VALLEY, CA
TICKETS ARE $5 – PLEASE SEE TERRILYNN ADRIAN AT THE WELCOME TABLE ON SUNDAY.
“Where is God?” is a curious title for a sermon series, but it is fitting for the book of Esther. Esther is an intriguing book of the Bible – for one thing, it never mentions the name of God. It’s a captivating story of a powerful king, his beautiful bride, a conniving assistant, and a faithful Jew. They combine to weave a tale of reversals and plot twists that seem to come out of a movie studio. But behind it all, orchestrating all of the events, is the unseen hand of God. He who is not mentioned is ever present to rescue and deliver his people. In the end, justice is served.
Perhaps you have experienced those times where you have asked the same question, “Where is God?” We all go through seasons of life where God feels mysteriously absent, even though He has promised his presence. The book of Esther reminds us that God is always at work. His unseen hand is always guiding us, protecting us, and strengthening us to do bold things. We will see the most powerful character being manipulated, the power-hungry character begging for mercy, the most helpless character acting boldly to save her people, and the faithful character being rewarded.
Esther is an important book in the Jewish community, as it is read annually at Purim. We will see over the next few weeks that it is an important book for our lives as well. It is our hope that the series brings hope, boldness, and faith in the unseen hand of God to all who spend time with us on this journey.
This month in KidVenture, our kindergarten – 5th graders will be learning about contentment.
We define contentment as “deciding to be happy with what you’ve got.”
In other words, you can choose to be happy because of what God has actually given you. You can choose to shift your focus away from what you don’t have and toward what God desires to do with the life you have. When you trust Him with your life, you become more focused on being grateful for everything He’s already given to you.
The Bible has a lot to say about contentment. This month, we’re going to unpack several of those moments where people learned something about contentment as well as some key principles about how we can live our lives focused on trusting God no matter what.
See, when it comes right down to it, contentment is a heart issue. It can’t be solved by getting the thing that’s off-limits, the thing that someone else has, or even more of a good thing you already have. In other words, contentment happens when we place our trust in the One who is able to meet our needs each day.
When you teach kids to see their life as a gift from God it sets them up for a life of contentment and fulfillment. There will be no reason to be distracted by what others have, or what’s off limits, or what we had in the past. And when all of us really trust God, we will be content with exactly what He has put in our box for today and won’t worry about the future.
Each week this month we’ll tackle a new principle about contentment summed up in these 5 “Bottom Lines”:
1. When you focus on God, He can help you be content.
2. When you focus on what you don’t have, it can make you miserable.
3. When you focus on what you used to have, you can miss what you have now.
4. When you focus on stuff, you can miss what matters.
5. When you focus on God, you don’t have to worry.
Our Memory Verse is Philippians 4:12b (NIrV), “I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough.”
When Paul wrote this, he was under house arrest. He could have complained about not being free, but instead he focused on God and found peace in the middle of a difficult circumstance. Our kids can discover this same peace when they trust God with what they have and don’t have.