Dave’s story
God has changed my life through serving by…..
I’d considered coming to church for some time before I actually attended my first service at RiverTree. One of my big hesitations was this rumor that if you went to church there that they actually expected you to volunteer and do work there. I couldn’t imagine! I’m a busy dude and just taking an hour out of football Sunday was going to be challenge enough. “They should be happy that I show up,” I thought. Also, my wife had negative church experiences growing up and wasn’t “on fire” at the time either.
Well, events in our lives led us to come anyway (part of me was thinking that sometimes stories don’t circulate accurately and maybe this church really didn’t have that expectation, so we might as well give it a try).
I was pleasantly surprised that the place was so big that it would take somebody a long time to figure out that we were there and before we’d get “busted” for not doing anything.
We enjoyed the services from Day 1,and I probably softened on the whole serving thing. After a short while, having not been asked by anyone to do anything, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked a few people what kind of serving opportunities people usually got involved in. Soon after, we were greeting at the doors.
I was thrilled to be “getting off so easily” and thought this wasn’t so bad after all, but I just wasn’t loving it – it wasn’t totally for me. Nonetheless it was easy and didn’t take much more time than I was already spending at church so we kept on.
Finally, I saw a flyer at Giant Eagle advertising the need for help I some kind of Theater thing at RiverTree. The next weekend I saw a display in the church recruiting people for “RiverCity Studios.” I was interested, but was a little insecure about “auditioning” so I actually missed the meeting/audition date. Somehow though, I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I decided to call the people that were coordinating it to tell them that I probably wasn’t what they needed but that if they didn’t have enough “warm bodies” that I was at least willing to do what I could to help out.
The lady seemed excited that I called and asked if I’d come down for a very non-threatening read through. I agreed and with Steph’s encouragement I went to the meeting. The rest, as they say, is history.
I was shocked at the praise and encouragement I got from the ladies that I met with. They were complimentary to the point that I was embarrassed. They shared their vision with me. At that time they wanted to create a fun environment for kids to learn Christian values while their parents were taking Wednesday night classes. I was shocked that I, who was brand new to the church, and a pretty out of practice Christian was going to be teaching kids “the Christian way” but I was also very excited. I caused me to want to be a better Christian, to learn more about Jesus and to read the Bible.
It’s hard to articulate, by my heart got really connected to this cause really quickly. Steph was excited by it to. This church experience was unlike any either of us had had before. This was actually fun! And no one was pushing us, and no one was pointing their finger in our face to tell us what horrible human beings we were.
And then after several rehearsals, it happened – we had our first “show.” There were lots of little kids there. And they were very excited to sing worship songs with us – and they listened to what we acted out on stage. It was overwhelming. It was a JOY to serve in this way.
Steph enjoyed it and was surprised by it too and began helping out with backstage stuff too. We really did pour ourselves into it It was bigger than us just “showing up to do our part – we really wanted to make a difference and we saw that we actually could.
Then, at some point, because of our involvement in RiverCity Studios, we were asked to consider going to Atlanta for a week to attend a Children’s Pastors Conference. What?!?!?! This was a huge step. While the Children’s ministry would buy our tickets, we’d have to actually invest a hunk of money in airline tickets, not to mention that we’d never been away from our kids for a night let a lone a week. Plus, we felt WAY under qualified to go to such an event. Remember, we were still pretty much baby-Christians.
After much agonizing consideration, we felt that it was something that we should do. We agreed to go, and we thank God that we did.
At this conference, we saw people worshiping deeply, sincerely, and unashamedly – thousands of them. No body was embarrassed to raise their hands in worship. This was wild – I’d never seen anything like this, and if I had I would have assumed that people were doing it for show. But not only was I sure that there was no show in this worship – I got caught up in it myself – and so did Steph. It was a pivotal moment in both of our Christian walks. We came back changed. Not only did we feel the Holy Spirit in our lives, we were now turbo charged with a passion for changing the lives and eternities of kids and families – a passion we still have today.
…And “that lady” (Dinese Cramer) and her husband are now part of our Thrive group – a group that is very focused on Family ministry. We’re a very tight knit group that really is doing life, and ministry, together. While RiverCity Studios is not currently in production, we are still working ministry projects that focus on kids and families. Through that serving Thrive group, we’ve learned about and witnessed the power of prayer in ways that I would never have imagined. I’ve seen the undeniable presence of God in ways that seemed “imaginary” when I used to hear people talk about them.
Personally, I’ve gone from wanting nothing to do with serving, to crediting it for most of my spiritual development. I see it as something that I was clearly called to do and I get as much from it as anyone I serve. Never before could I say with confidence that I know that God has a specific purpose for me, but through serving He has made it clear that He does. I know that I’m here to show Christ to others and to lead them to Him. The “formula” continues to evolve, but it’s still the same effort.
Serving adds to my relationship with God. I’ve always felt so insignificant in the grand scheme, but serving reminds me that I’m very significant in God’s plan.
