We at the Rogue Valley Church of Christ, wanted to let the wordl-wide family know what has been happening in our lives and in the church here in Oregon. We have had one of the most exciting times in our lives as the church has been taking off growth-wise.
We started the year with a goal to grow from 25 to 35 members this year and on to 50 by the end of 2012. As of mid-May we are at 33 members with 9 baptisms so far! We are seeing God’s hand move as we had 9 baptisms total last year. We also have about six other people who would like to
become Christians before the end of June.
As you may remember, we lost our campus evangelist, Chris Schwartzenberger last December. He received an amazing position as the campus minister for Arizona State University along with his wife, Amy. They are doing great in their first semester there.
We were worried how things would go without Chris and Amy, but God must have heard our prayers. He sent John Biggerstaff from Spokane to transfer in and help the ministry and then, in January, Tyler Bedell from the Boise church transferred to Southern Oregon University, as well. These brothers, along with a number of extremely fiery and ambitious young leaders, stepped in and stepped up and have almost doubled our campus ministry in the past 6 months! We now have 21 students on campus!
Last summer, two campus disciples from the Seattle Church came down for 3 weeks to do outreach on campus. There were very few people on campus when they came in late August. The only people they seemed to run into were football players practicing in the pre-season. One of the young men they reached out to came to church and brought his friend, who was on the SOU wrestling team. They both became Christians in November. Through their outreach to their friends, we have seen two other football players and another wrestler become Christians while a number of their other friends have responded, as well. It has really been fun and inspiring to see God at work.
Another sister reached out to an acquaintance on facebook and he became a Christian. The campus ministry is growing and the married and singles ministries have been inspired by the work and have people who want to become Christians, as well.
We hope that you can come visit us soon. If you know of any students who are graduating and looking for a great campus ministry to go to, please let me know. This is a great situation for young disciples. My son, James, has been leading his own Bible Talk at his high school and regularly has eight people attending. One of his friends is now studying and should get baptized before the end of the school year.
With all of these great young disciples, we really need more and more marrieds to help provide mentoring and support in the church. Please keep us in mind if you know of anyone looking for a growing and positive church situation. Our church motto is “Having fun, loving God, making disciples.” Don’t forget to visit our website www.roguevalleychurch.org
In Him,
Rob Skinner
