Leader's Update

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Here we are, the week before Easter and it is a gorgeous time of the year.  Plants all around us are budding and everything has turned vibrant green.  It's wonderful when we wake up in the morning, not too cool, not too hot and it stays that way most of the day.  This week we get ready to celebrate one of the most important events in history - our Savior Jesus dying on the cross for us.  It's amazing that more than 2,000 years later we can look back and see how this event changed history, and continues to change lives every day.  How encouraging it is to serve a God that loves us so much that He gave his only Son up for us!

Next week I lead a team of 11 leaders on a trip to El Salvador.  It promises to be an amazing trip, as God works in and through us to come alongside a small church and poor Christian school in San Salvador, to try to offer hope and encouragement to the residents of the La Linea community.  Folks that sleep on dirt floors, have no indoor plumbing, drink water that we would not consider potable, and may or may not have a light bulb illuminating their one room shanty at night.  The part I'm looking most forward to is watching how God will use these 10 volunteers traveling with me in ways they can't even envision yet.  I just love it when He takes those of us who are willing, and uses us to fulfill his plans that we didn't even know He had.  I have little doubt that He will use us as His hands and feet to come alongside these folks and affirm them, encourage them, and even learn from them in the process.  It's why I do what I do - spending full time looking for His hand to provide, to heal, to bless.

This past Saturday was an awesome day at Riverbend.  2,500 6th - 12th grade girls came to Riverbend from all over the state for the Revolve Tour put on by the Women of Faith.  It was amazing to see Riverbend staff and volunteers step up to serve these girls and their mom's and youth leaders.  It always sends chills up my spine to watch Riverbenders serving others and the joy they experience as part of that.  Talking about an amazing weekend - we got to watch Casey McPherson of Alpha Rev, a hot Austin rock band, lead worship for the first time in 20 years.  It was amazing to hear his story and participate with him in worship!

I hope you come to Riverbend this weekend to experience the stations of the cross and relive and celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection.   Friday's night's Good Friday services in the Chapel will be amazing. Be sure to go through the interactive stations of the cross located in the Remembrance Gardens that night.  Saturday morning we have the little ones hunting for over 12,000 eggs across our campus, as we provide the opportunity for hundreds of young families to join in the fun.  On Sunday we pack the Home for Hope sanctuary with 3 services to celebrate the Resurrection and it will be amazing. 

Yes, it is a most beautiful time of the year, and I can't wait to dive in and experience all that will happen this month as we watch God at work all around us!

It's hard to believe we're about to enter March already.  So many exciting things have been taking place at Riverbend.  Think about Friday night, February 3rd alone:  we had 300+ Dad's & Daughter's attending a Valentine's dance in our Fellowship Hall, complete with horse and buggy carriage rides in the parking lot.  On the same night Riverbend Centre for the Arts packed the house with the Immerse women's event, with 2,000 women worshipping and enjoying a great time with Mandisa and other featured artists.  On the same night a wedding party was having the rehearsal for their big day the next day in the Chapel.  We even had to ask the parents of Bridgepoint Elementary School to not park in our lot that evening for their event, as the place was packed!

That evening was just an example of things taking place.  Dr. Haney's sermon series on worship was amazing this past month,  Our children's & student ministry attendance continues to soar with our continued emphasis on creating a great place for young families on Sunday mornings.  We had an amazing Men's Summit in New Braunfels with 80 men spending the weekend getting "Christ centered". 

We're even more excited about what lies ahead.  Our women kick off March with the Spring Fit Fling all day conference on Saturday March 3.  Our choir has begun their rehearsals for amazing Easter Celebration services.  Good Friday services will be held in the Chapel again this year complete with stages of the cross to visit in the Remembrance Gardens that evening.  We have lots of new studies kicking off on Sunday mornings as well as through out the week for adults to plug into and go "deeper" in their spiritual understanding.  There's a Spring break trip to Reynosa Mexico to serve the "least of these" down there, and another trip to San Salvador the week after Easter to serve a church and school in one of the most impoverished sections of San Salvador.

It's a great time to get involved at Riverbend.  Whether on a Sunday morning, or during the week, there are plenty of opportunities to put the needs of others first by serving them.  Look around this site, and if you want to take the plunge to help out, contact me, Pastor Norm Schoenfeld at nschoenfeld@riverbend.com.  Hope to hear from you soon!

Welcome to 2012!  What an exciting time as we look forward with anticipation what God will accomplish in and through Riverbenders for 2012.  Certainly 2011 was an amazing year as we look back at it.  It included the construction and opening of a brand new Student and Children's Center, amazing renovations across most of our campus.  It included a generous congregation who is financially helping to make this happen contributing $4.2 million toward our project to date which is way ahead of plan. So many new families have joined Riverbend this past year, and the crescendo of that was evident on Christmas Eve as more than 5,000 people found there way here in the rain.  It was an awesome Christmas celebration!

At the same time, our general fund giving was off for the year, which is causing our church leadership to look at all of our opportunities and figure out the best budget we can given this situation.  The reality is that there are significant resources we have to work with at Riverbend, and we believe God has plans for us to use these in amazing ways to bring more folks to come to know Him, to learn to be more like Him, and to love and help others in the process. We truly believe our best ministry lies ahead of us.

To all of you who are helping us to build the ministry at Riverbend both on campus and off, I encourage you to look for God's leading and JUMP in with both feet.  God has great plans instore for us, and with your help it will be an awesome year.  Thanks for all you do!

Norm Schoenfeld

Pastor of Church Involvement

What an amazing last month it has been.  We all celebrated together the GRAND OPENING of our new facilities together with over 3,000 people coming to check things out.  It was so much fun to see the kids running around on the indoor playscape and outdoor playground, and to watch all the adults jaws drop open as they got to experience the new theatre rooms built to reach and teach the kids.  If you haven't seen the new Student and Chidren's Center you need to check it out!

With the grand opening has come the renovation of the Fellowship Hall upstairs for adults.  We now have several Sunday morning community groups meeting at all three hours inside the rooms there, and the Riverbend Cafe has opened up, with 30 different folks volunteering to make capuccinos & lattes on any given Sunday morning.  The kitchen's abuzz with 6-8 women on Sunday mornings baking muffins and cookies for the cafe as well.  It's hard to believe that Riverbend is BUSY at 8:00 in the morning, but will all these helps, plus our musicians starting their rehearsals, our staff getting ready for big days, it's an amazing place.

Most of all it's wonderful to see so many new families making their way to Riverbend for the first time.  I remember growing up our parents needed to drag us by the ear to come to church.  How cool to be creating an environment now where the kids are dragging their parents to come to church!  Our children's ministry has increase over 50% in the past four weeks with the opening of the new building, and our student's are averaging 33% more teens on campus.  Since statistics tell us that if you haven't reached a child for Christ by the time they turn 17, your chance of ever reaching them is slim, this is very very exciting.  Please join me in praising God for His blessings, and continuing to pray for this next generation!

It's hard to believe that in one month, August 28th, we will celebrate the grand opening of our new facilities!  As we speak the Riverbend Cafe in the Fellowship Hall is being completed, a new air conditioner has been installed to help cool the west end of the Fellowship Hall as well.  The lower level of the Fellowship Hall was gutted, has new walls, and is being finished these next few weeks.  The Statue & Water feature were installed and unveiled on July 17th to 500+ Riverbenders after services that Sunday.  The outdoor playground in in the process of being relocated to the area between the Fellowship Hall and new building.  The new building's walls are in the process of being painted.  The indoor playscape gets installed next week.  The Audio, Video, Lighting and Staging systems are arriving and being installed over the next couple of weeks.  It's really going to be amazing!

On August 28th we will open the new building, the lower level of the Fellowship Hall for children & students.  We will open the Riverbend Cafe and the new classrooms in the Fellowship Hall for adult ministries.

On one hand it's exciting to see all of the progress, and on the other hand it's an awful lot of work.  So many people are working so hard to turn this plan into reality.  Thanks to all of them for all they are doing to help make this an even more amazing place for ministry than it already is! 

We're hoping for thousands to turn out for the grand opening to celebrate all that God is blessing us with.  It's simply an amazing time right now at Riverbend as God showers His blessings upon us.  May all of our efforts bring Him the glory, and may it be contagious and may many who don't know Him might come to Him!

The weather has certainly been in our favor as we've been reconstructing all of the walkway and plaza areas across campus.  Gone are the railings, steps, ramp, and hedges that created a confusing intersection between the Fellowship Hall and Nursery building.  In its place is a new beautiful upper plaza complete with a cover patio area and a soon to be water feature and statue.  The new staircase leading from this upper plaza to the lower plaza has been poured and people are really appreciating this new ease of navigating our campus.

At the end of March we held a very successful women's conference, in the newly renovated Fellowship Hall.  The main hall looks amazing as we've worked to transform it from the "80's" look it had to a current design and colors.  It will be fully complete by mid may inclusive of a new sound system replacing the 25-year old system.  The new "Plazaview Classroom" will soon be the most utilized space on campus - a new classroom inside the Fellowship Hall building that can hold up to 100 adults, and has a large screen with audio video system.  In just the past week it's been used for the Women's Conference, Stephen Minister's, Men's Breakfast, PocketWatch Financial Class, and a Campaign Leadership Team meeting!

We're waiting for the steel to be delivered by end of April for construction of the new structure on the slab that's already been poured for our new student and children's center.  By early May you will see a 3 dimensional structure take shape.  Already Pastor Kip and Pastor Connie are making exciting plans for how we will use this new building to reach increasing numbers of children and students for Christ, not just on Sunday mornings, but during the week as well.  Grand Opening of the new Student and Children's Center is planned for August 28, 2011!

To be a part of all of this exciting activity, help by contributing to the Building A Blessing campaign (special envelopes available in the back of the seats in the Home for Hope Sanctuary, or going to the online giving section of this website.  You can also help with your time by joining us on the third Saturday morning of each month as volunteers gather together at the kitchen at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast tacos and then working around campus to help with renovations and clean up.  

It's an exciting time to be at Riverbend!  To God be the glory!

If you've visited Riverbend's campus lately, you can't help but notice all the changes that are beginning to take shape, and they're happening faster than a speeding bullet.  Each Sunday as people come they'll be met something new and different on our campus over the next 8 weeks.  To date the grading for the new building has been finished, 16 cement beams have been drilled and poured, the plumbing and electrical has been run, and on Tuesday morning at 1:00 a.m. we begin pouring an amazing amount of cement as the cement trucks line up and pour from 1 in the morning until about 10:00 that morning, to create the foundation for the new Student & Children's Center. 

A new 12' wide walkway has been shaped leading from the entrance to the Home for Hope nearest the chapel, going to the center plaza area.  It too will be poured early Tuesday morning.

The Fellowship Hall stage has been pulled out, a new wall put up and they are working behind this wall to build new offices this month.  A new wall has also been framed and sheetrocked in the corner or the Fellowship Hall to form the new "Plaza View Classroom" - a room that will be large enough to accomodate over 100 adults classroom style.

If you haven't seen the new stage in the Chapel, I would encourage you to do so - it looks fantastic.  We added a baptistery in the back of the stage and will hold our first baptisms after church on Sunday, April 3 - can't wait!

Over the next several weeks you'll see a tremendous amount of new walkways poured and landscaping going in surrounding them, as we form new plaza areas and walkways to connect all of the buildings on our campus in a friendlier way with signing to make it easier to make your way around.

Men's Summit

On a separate note, returned from a weekend spent with 80 guys last weekend at Riverbend's first annual Summit, held at T Bar M ranch in New Braunfels.  It was an awesome weekend of teaching, worship, & spiritual growth, relationship forming with other guys, and just plain fun.  Nearly 100% of the guys said they would attend again, and  we are planning a "same time next year", second annual retreat.  Planning for this has already begun!

Here we are, February already.  The building project is in full swing, even though we had snow yesterday!  We started renovations of the Chapel last week, and start renovations in the Fellowship Hall this week.  Our Student's had an incredible "Inside Out" event at the end of January with over 130 teenagers hanging out with us for the weekend, getting to know more about God's grace, and getting a chance to practice it at Martin Middle School on Saturday as they joined this East Austin school's teachers and students in painting, landscaping and other projects to improve their school.  Think about that: our kids helping a poorer school's kids . . . what could be better!

It's been really cold this past week, but that has not stopped Riverbenders from loading up the MLF truck and going out to feed the homeless and provide warm clothing, hot coffee, and some blankets to help them survive this time of year.  Awesome!

If you haven't done it already, go to the church info section of this site under About Us and pull up the new Annual Report to get a handle on all that happened at Riverbend in 2010, and what our expecations and goals are for 2011.  God is doing amazing things in and through the people of Riverbend!

Coming up in the next two months are two amazing weekend events: we have Riverbend's first ever Men's Summit, a Friday night - Sunday morning event that takes place in New Braunfels.  We're expecting close to 100 guys to join us for a weekend of spiritual refreshment and renewal as we have times of teaching, times of worship, times of fun, times of workshops, times for hanging out and building relationships with other guys.  Feb 25-27, check it out and sign up before it's too late!

In early April we have a huge women's conference coming to Riverbend, for Friday night through Saturday.  It will be a packed house in the Fellowship Hall, as hundreds of women gather in pursuit of going deeper in their faith and relationships with other women.  Sign-ups are starting soon, so look for it!

A huge Spring break trip is planned for individuals and families to go to Reynosa, Mexico, to help the impoverished community we serve down there.  A separate team is headed for El Salvador on March 21, to serve a poor colonia in San Salvador.  God is working in the hearts of Riverbenders to really help serve the "least of these".

Easter weekend is shaping up to be an amazing weekend celebration.  This year for the first time we are holding three Good Friday services in the chapel, complete with 7 stages of the cross - you won't want to miss this amazingly spiritual and moving service.  On Saturday we hope to have nearly 1,000 small children all over our campus for the annual Easter Eggstravaganza Easter egg hunt.  A huge outreach that draws families from all over the community.  Then on Sunday morning we celebrate Easter Riverbend style, as over 5,000 Riverbenders and guests gather together over three services, to worship and celebrate our Savior. 

 Yes, it's an exciting Spring season with all of these things and many more things happening, as the Riverbend community continues to be a people of grace practicing grace both here at Riverbend, across the city, and across borders!  May God be glorified!

I have the greatest job in the world - getting to work for a church, working with incredible staff and volunteers, and continually being at a place where we rely, in fact are dependent upon God to provide for our needs.  The cool part is He allows us to be part of doing that, and in fact works through us in many different ways to accomplish His will.

So here we are, almost at the end of the year, getting ready to enter 2011.  Totally dependent on God to provide financially for us, totally dependent on Him to work through all Riverbenders to "be the church", and totally confident that He is faithful and will provide in ways greater than we can ask or imagine.  We've had the chance to watch him do this time and again, and have no reason to believe He won't continue to be the divine provider. 

Please join me in praying to our God that 2011 will be a most incredible year.  That his hand of blessing will be upon our building and renovation projects.  That we will be blessed with our new worship leader, Jackie Key joining our staff some time in Feb, to help us continue to build the Resonate service.  That we will reach more families in Austin than ever before, with the message of the grace of God, being people of grace, practicing grace.  May 2011 be a year that we continue to grow in our faith, knowing God more, and reflecting Him more in the way we live our lives.  Pray that God will continue to be the God of miracles.

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas!

In Christ,

Norm Schoenfeld

Fall finally seemed to arrive with Thanksgiving, with the cold front blowing in, the trees starting to turn, and if you stroll around Riverbend's campus you'll see that the Building A Blessing campaign is becoming reality.  Permits were issued by the City of Austin in mid-November, and construction has begun.  We have relocated the temporary Crossing Building and Facilities trailer to new locations, so that the construction site can be set-up.  Silt fences for erosion control have been installed, along with protection barriers for all the trees we are saving and building around.  The delivery area for construction is being established.  Post Christmas we will put up the construction fence around the site.  It's a very exciting time at Riverbend to see all of this progressing.

To date we have pledge commitments in excess of $7.5 million with nearly $1.4 million collected to date, so the congregation is responding and supporting the needs of the project.  Short term construction financing is being established for the project by our Coordinating Committee, and it appears that all systems are "go". 

Praise God for how he is working in and through the people of Riverbend to create our new Student & Children's Center that will help us reach and impact students and children all across Austin!

If you are a leader at Riverbend, whether on staff or as a volunteer, it means that you've chosen to walk by faith.  As a leader, you are using your gifts and talents to do the best job possible, leading whatever ministry team you are leading, but ultimately you realize that you are not in control, and without God's help you cannot bring things to full completion.  We are called on to make our best effort, but then to trust God to fill in the rest, to bring it to completion. 

This has never been more evident than in the Building A Blessing campaign that the church is undertaking right now.  66 leaders and over 150 volunteers did an awesome job of executing the plans for the capital campaign.  Yet, it stil takes the Holy Spirit working in the lives of the people to convict them to make a 3 year pledge.  Time and time again I've been amazed at people's responses as they've allowed God to lead them.  Dr. Haney's encouragement to pray a simple prayer: Lord, what is it that you want to do through me financially for this campaign at this time?  Praying that prayer, and waiting on His answer, can be a powerfully spiritual time.  Taking the step of faith to trust Him when He answers this prayer is hard, yet everyone I know who has done this has been blessed.

A year ago when the church's Coordinating Committee was processing the potential building project, they were unsure if we could even raise $1.0 million in this economy.  Ultimately they determined that God's resources were not limited and decided to trust Him to provide through our congregation enough to enable us to build this project.  Today we have pledges closing in on $7.5 million, and have already collected over $1.0 million toward those pledges.  Obviously God can fill in the gaps of our unbelief if we give Him the opportunity to do so.

Already the Deck has been dismantled, the Crossing building next to the Fellowship Hall has been relocated, and soon we will be prepping the site for construction.  With God's blessing we will be in our new building this time next year - how amazing is that? 

If you want to grow deeper in your walk with our Lord, let me suggest you begin praying a prayer that asks Him to lead you.  Listen for what He has to say.  When He prompts you to do something you feel uncomfortable about, trust Him that if He is prompting you, He will provide in the areas that you feel you can't.  I've always found God to be faithful, and these days it seems as evident if not more evident than ever.  Walking by faith .. . it can be an amazing journey! 

Congratulations to our campaign leadership team!  65 Volunteer Leaders plus a lot of their volunteers have successfully launched to our congregation the Building A Blessing campaign, last Sunday and this past Sunday.  Dr. Haney's messages were inspiring, the worship was awesome, the children and students are involved, and the informational events in the Fellowship Hall were well attended as hundreds poured in to learn more about the campaign.  The enthusiasm is incredible!

Today Dr. Haney announced that 70 families at the end of June (our staff and our core leadership) made preliminary commitments of $2.73 million to date in 3-year commitments.  We are now in the process of meeting with many of the key stakeholders of the church to enlist them in prayer and an early commitment process during September, as we work toward the big day: Sunday Sept. 26 when the whole congregation turns in their 3 year commitments toward the campaign.  

Please be in prayer for the future of the church and our city, and how God might want to use you at this time to help with this campaign as we all pray about what our sacrificial commitment might be.  With God leading us this campaign will be amazing!

Only about two weeks to go until we go live with the Building A Blessing campaign, and things are heating up.  The first newsletter is being received by nearly 3,500 families who call Riverbend their church home.  This weekend Dr. Haney will be inviting people to come 8/22 & 8/29 to learn more about the exciting future at Riverbend, and to come to the Vision Gathering meetings in the Fellowship Hall immediately following each service to learn more about the campaign by viewing a virtual tour, looking at floor plans and renderings, and talking with our leaders to ask all of your questions.

Check out the new campaign website by clicking on the Building A Blessing button on the home page of this site, to learn lost more, and stay tuned for lots more updates coming up!

Over the next week you will begin to hear about the upcoming stewardship capital campaign that Riverbend will be launching to our congregation on August 22. It will be a very exciting time in the life of our church so stay tuned for lots more details as August unfolds!

Well it's summer time and many of our volunteers are traveling, taking summer vacations, visiting family and friends.  Our hope is that they are having a great time and come back relaxed and refreshed. 

In the meantime, that leaves us a little bit short-handed, especially on Sunday mornings where we could use help with our children in their classes, or helping to greet or take the offering at our services, or to help drive a golf cart between the services.  If you would consider helping, or know of someone who might like to help out during the summer, please contact Norm at nschoenfeld@riverbend.com, and I'll be happy to talk through opportunities and get you plugged in and helping.  Thanks for your consideration!

Some of you may have heard about a new building project that the church leadership has been working on this past year.  The plans are to build a Students & Children Center in the area where the mulch parking lot currently resides.  This would be dedicated for use for K - 12th graders and would enable Riverbend to have first class facilities for this age range. We'll also take the opportunity to renovate some of our existing facilities and grounds, and are also hoping to pay down a significant portion of our existing debt.

Already 64 leaders have volunteered to help the church create and stage a capital campaign to raise funds for this project starting this fall, and plans are being worked on through this summer.  If you have questions, stop by the Involvement Center on Sunday morning and speak with Pastor Norm Schoenfeld about it.  We're excited to see how God is going to work in and through our congregation throughout this Building A Blessing campaign that we'll be launching end of August.   Stay tuned for more details as the plans develop!

If you're reading this you've realized that our new website went live recently.  It incorporates 7 websites in one: our church site, our student's site, our children's site, our Riverbend Centre site, our Christian School site, our Remembrance Gardens site, and our Neighborhood Development Centers Site.  You can get to any of them through their unique url's, or from the church site.

Each of our staff is being trained on how to update the site, so if you notice anything that needs correcting, or is missing, please email any of us and we'll be quick to implement the change.  Hopefully this site becomes a great tool for you to find out what's happening at Riverbend, and for people who don't know us to learn a lot more about us.