Here are some resources for further study into the topics of Marriage & Divorce.

You can listen to the audio from the sermon here.

Reality Pastor Britt Merrick taught on the subject of Divorce from the same text, audio can be found here.

John Stott has a chapter on marriage & divorce in his book Issues Facing Christians Today.

Everyone recommends marriage books, but this one is seriously great. It’s called Sacred Marriage.

*All books mentioned are available at our book-table Sunday mornings.

Here are some resources for further study into the topics of Hell & Temptation. 

You can listen to the audio from the sermon here. 

CS Lewis’ chapter on Hell in his book The Problem of Pain.

Tim Keller’s Article on The Importance of Hell.

Jon Owen’s wonderful book on Overcoming Sin and Temptation.

Here’s how you can help us go to two services…

1. Pray!
-Pray that our leadership makes wise & sound decisions.
-Pray that we have enough volunteers to serve our church community well.
-Pray for which service you’ll attend.
 
2. Choose one of the service times to attend

3. Consider serving at one of the services

-Kids Ministry 

-Set Up

-Tear Down

-Ushering & Greeting for 1st and 2nd service

-Hospitality (Coffee bar or serving the servants between 1st & 2nd Service)

Go here to fill out an application: http://realitysanfrancisco.com/#/volunteer/

Last week the topic of our Form+Function class was Social Justice. The second half of the class was taught by Ruthie Kim from Because Justice Matters. We had a lot of feed back and interest in getting involved in our city. 

First thing we want to say is sign up for BJM’s newsletter so you know of upcoming events.

There is also a Women’s outreach day coming in September in the Tenderloin, details will be up on their website this week.  There have been a number of people from Reality writing to BJM and Ruthie says this outreach is a great place to start volunteering with BJM.

Here are some other places to start to serve our city in the area of social justice.

1. Be a learner - pray, read, watch, study and get connected deeply to an issue that’s on your heart. Understand the history, present struggles and needs in an area and think through how you can be part of the solution. Take a college class, attend a your local neighborhood police meetings, attend a workshop, watch a movie! BJM also has a list of resources on their web page.

2. Tell someone - Share what you learn with people in your sphere of influence…friends, family, work colleagues, dog walker! Make a goal to talk to one person a week and pursue that intentionally. Many people in SF are simply not aware of the realities related to issues like human trafficking. you may only know a little - but share what you have.

3. Get involved - Volunteer with a local organization (see some listed on the BJM website), use your skills, talents and gifts to impact others. organize an event, host a fundraiser, give your time in practical ways.

4. Pray, pray, pray! This is actually what you should be doing in each and every step of the way. This is the only way to get angry, burdened and empowered to do something about the injustice going on in our city and our world. Remember, we are ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18)

Today we mentioned getting and reading a good bible…may we suggest the following.

The Cambridge Pitt Minion. A small wonderfully made bible with cross references…highly recommend. Cons: It’s pretty spendy, but you spend $200 on jeans right?
The ESV Study Bible. Great for studying, it has good and reliable study notes. Cons: It’s a pretty big bible, almost bible thumper status.
The ESV Thin Line Bible. Basic and budget savvy. Cons: It’s bonded leather so it won’t last that long, depending on how much you use it (hopefully way more than once a week).

We currently do not have a resource table, but when we get one we’ll carry these bibles.

Video by our masterful Reality Media Team showing a little of the prep for Sunday Morning Gathering

Pictures from our first service. We had friends and family there to support us from our other Reality churches as well as a lot of new faces from the bay area. It was an amazing day, a day we’ll never never forget.

*photos taken by becky schwartz

Hey everyone,

I just thought I would write to fill you in on the upcoming prayer tour and birth of Reality SF.

Why a prayer tour? Quite simply, it is the way we are starting Reality SF. This will be our fourth prayer tour and I can honestly say, prayer works. I can fill multiple pages with all God has done since our first tour back in January of 2009. That first cold and rainy trip, we spent hours in the streets praying, walking and falling in love with what God is doing in San Francisco. Sometimes my mind will wander back over the last year thinking of all that God has accomplished through prayer and my thinking turns into thanksgiving.

Sharing the Gospel, serving the city and building a gospel community will be built into the DNA of the local church once Reality SF has launched. Until then, we have been focusing our efforts on praying for the city. The results have been a nearness to Jesus, a confidence in the power of God through the Gospel and a good core of people who live in the city to help launch the church. I’m overwhelmed.

So why are we starting the church with over a hundred people from outside SF coming in to pray? We believe that going to a city, learning its history and culture, and taking in the sights and sounds, will lead us in greater and deeper prayer. That is what we believed from the beginning when God first lead us to do them, and after seeing the fruitfulness, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

As we walk the streets of San Francisco we can pray with:

Researched Insight: Examining the history and culture of this great city will fuel our prayers. For this reason, every night will consist of both historical overviews of San Francisco and Biblical teachings by Reality pastors. The entire team of 100 people will be broken up into smaller teams who will all rotate going to and praying for many districts within The City. We will also be praying for the existing churches in San Francisco that they would grow, be strengthened, and continue steadfast in the faith. There are many amazing churches in this city and we are privileged to come alongside them in the great work of gospel ministry.

Responsive Insight: By observing people in The City we will be motivated by Christ’s love and compassion, which will lead us in prayer for them. Also, as we walk and pray with eyes open we become immersed in entire communities in which we ask God to show us the idols of the culture (every city has them). Our prayer is that the gospel will expose and destroy these idols, replacing them with the all-sufficient love of God.

Revealed Insight: As we are firmly grounded in the Word of God, we believe that His Spirit will make us aware of the needs of the people around us and how to pray for and meet those needs. We will also be trusting God to lead us by His Spirit in our conversations with the people that we meet along the way. These are opportunities that only walking, observing and praying can create.

In short, the goal of this prayer tour is very simple: intercession.

However, I believe that through prayer God will lead us to engage with people in the city with the Gospel and we need to be ready for that as well. We’ve made some small cards that give basic information about the church. These cards are not for canvas style advertisement, but if while sharing with someone, they want information about our young church then by all means, give them a card!

We have created a prayer blog (you’re here) for this trip so that everyone can follow along as we post photos, prayer requests and updates throughout each day.

Can’t wait to see everyone,

Dave Lomas