The River Purposes

Evangelism

“Go, make disciples…” We are convinced that every person we lock eyes with needs to know Jesus! And that every Christian needs to be equipped to share the reason for their hope in Christ. That is why we are designing every Sunday Morning to be a high energy outreach event that proclaims the life changing truth of God’s word in a style that makes sense to the unbeliever.

Reaching out to El Paso requires as many different kinds of outreach as there are different kinds of people. Jesus changed lives through preaching, teaching, using stories, performing miraculous acts of compassion, showing the power of God, confronting sin, etc. He accomplished this by ministering to people one on one and by the thousands. So we recognize the importance of personal evangelism training by providing workshops and training seminars to develop individual believer’s unique style of sharing the message of Jesus. Also by providing large community events to draw great numbers of unbelievers and introduce them to Christ! Our philosophy is “the more hooks in the water, the more fish you will catch!”

Worship

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
“…true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, the Father is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.” John 4:23

Worship is a lifestyle of expressing love to God. Since there are many ways that we express our love to others (actions, words, thoughtfulness…) how could there be only one way to worship God. Most people associate worship (expressing our love to God) with one word- music. But there are more ways to show God we love Him than we could possibly mention! At the River we teach worship as anything that makes God smile; which includes obedience, loving others, prayer, praise, meditating on His word, as well as worshiping through music. However, there is great significance in worshiping together in one place as the family of God. The goal of our Worship time together each week is to forget about ourselves, focus on God and bring a smile to his face!

Fellowship

“Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit…”

Baptism is an initiation into God’s family. Fellowship is simply living and loving as a family.
True fellowship originates in God’s love which makes two things possible:

1. A personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ
2. A Christ-like caring, sharing and daring relationship with other believers

Caring…for each others needs
Sharing…life’s triumphs and tragedies
Daring…one another to take the next step with God

We are committed to growing both larger and smaller at the same time. Growing larger through evangelism (impacting people to choose Jesus) and smaller through small group ministry. “Sharing, caring and daring” groups meet in homes during the week to maintain that “close” feeling even as the church attendance increases rapidly. These groups meet on the night that works best for them and are allowed to use any common interest, geographical location, age, study topic, or experiences to define who attends each group. Loving each other was a commandment given to us by Jesus and it is as important as loving God. Small groups make it possible for everyone to love and be loved!

Discipleship

Discipleship is the next step in our walk with Christ after salvation. Just as we grow as an infant from birth on, we grow from a spiritual infant to Christ likeness “form glory to glory”. Far too often the church has made a massive effort to lead someone to salvation, only to leave them to find their own way. Remember what the next step was for Christ after his Baptism…Temptation. It is a terrible injustice to our new Christians to expect them to grow in Christ without the help of the Church.

We look to the example of Christ for Discipleship. He said “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men” The main ingredient in discipleship is FOLLOWING. We will use several tools to help our members grow in Christ. Mid-week services, a closer study of the Sunday morning lesson and ongoing development classes to name a few. Growing in Christ is a daily process and we will take those steps on purpose and together.

Ministry

“…love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

Ministry is love in action. All of Jesus’ actions boiled down to one thing- God’s never ending love for us. We believe that every Christian is called to fulfill their life mission. And it is our job to equip them for this duty. Imagine a team with no second string, no one on the bench, every player knowing his unique strengths united in common purpose defeating every foe, rising to every challenge. That is the kind of team God wants and commands us to be! That is our goal. Every staff member is totally dedicated to equipping the new believer for their position in the “Body” and their role in God’s game plan.