Our Priorities
#1: God’s Grand Story
We have been caught up in God’s grand story of creative redemption. The Bible reveals an active, interested God who cares for creation, loves creatures, and would do anything for them. This story is the story of an all-powerful God reaching out to bumbling humans with radical generosity, loving them in their mess, saving them from their mess, and welcoming them into abundant life. The hero of the story is Jesus, who fully embodied this radical love by becoming human and giving away his life for the weak and the lost. Our personal stories have been caught up as characters in this grand story of redemption. Come join in this story.
#2: Gospel-Impact in our City
God’s story is good news (“Gospel”) for our city. The good news is that God is deeply interested in the businesses, social structures, service organizations, government and educational institutions of our beloved city. God’s interest, and ours, is to see these institutions and structures aligned with the truly good ways of God’s kingdom, which is to say, for them to flourish and thrive for the general welfare of the people they serve. We expect to see transformation of these important social pillars by God’s grace and because of His Gospel.
#3 Welcoming People Into Community
One of the things we love about Jesus (and the thing that got him in trouble with the religious leaders) is his way of radically welcoming the marginalized, the outcast and the sinner. The religious leaders grumbled at Jesus because he went to meals with people they viewed as societal scum. Of course, the message Jesus was sending was that God does not see societal scum, Only children, some of whom are far from God and need rescuing. At RiverTree, we hope to provide a radical welcome to sinners, anyone and everyone who desires to connect to a loving church family on mission with Jesus.
#4: Awakening Potential and Sending People Out
We think one of the greatest gifts we can give to someone is to wake them up to what is good and true about themselves, God and the world. People today are sleepwalking through life, unaware and apathetic to the grandeur of God’s unfolding story and their potential to experience and impact eternity. We at RiverTree desire to wake people up to the abundant life that is available to regular people and to inspire them to take their place in God’s story of redemption in their families, neighborhoods, workplaces, city and around the world.
#5 Worship
Because of who God is and because of the grand story of redemption, God deserves our worship—that is our praise, trust, gratitude, love, our whole selves. The more we know God, the more we can worship, delight, and be in awe of God. This is why we were created, to know and enjoy God. Delighting in God is the greatest joy we can ever know! This is why worship matters both in the life of the church and in the lives of the individuals who make up the church. At RiverTree, we are committed to God centered worship that helps us grow in our knowledge of God and fuels our joy in Jesus.
#6: Children (and families)
Children played an obviously vital role in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus prioritized them by welcoming them in, caring for them, and pointing to them as ones to be emulated. Simply said, children hold a special place in God’s kingdom. And they do at RiverTree, too. Not only are we committed to providing quality programming for children, we are committed to seeing children as ones to be emulated, which means we welcome their insight and inspiration in following Jesus. Children are an important part of RiverTree.