Our spiritual experience is often tainted by human hands, ah... the church. Often, the church, or people in the church haven't really represented God, like he represented himself. At The River Church, we recognize these realities. Many people would like a spiritual experience of God... and so often 'God's people' have gotten in the way.
It might be different at The River... God accepts people 'as is'... and we do to. That means... come as you are. How you dress any day of the week, is the way you can dress at The River. No need to hide anything, outside or inside. We care because God cares. But, God doesn't want us to stay the way we are, at least not most people. So we say, 'Come as you are... but don't stay that way." Easier said than done, right? Face it, if you're looking for God, you want things to change anyway. So, why not try to do that in an environment that is safe, real, and seeking the same spiritual hope, healing and life that you are. So, even though God accepts us 'as is', we should do our part to go 'all in'. At least as much as we understand of ourselves and as much as we understand of God. That will be good enough for God, and it doesn't really matter if it's good enough for anyone else.
What we have found in 6 years at The River... is that if God accepts us 'as is' and we accept each other 'as is'; and together we go 'all in'... its a potent combination; people find hope, healing, and new life... which leads naturally us to 'act it out' (what we're becoming). See, we believe that we are naturally messed up, have struggles... why pretend? The natural solution to our problems is to help each other clean up our messes... hard to do if you pretend. And once we start making progress, well things start to change. Often, that's because God shows up in the middle of the equation. So... you can feel natural at The River... email, ask questions, browse the site, get a sense of what we're about... show up some Sunday... Maybe The River's not for you... we'd be glad to help you find a place that's more up your alley. Just know this... God loves you unconditionally. He wants you to become more than you know, because God is more than we know. It's just been cool to be connected with Him through a bunch of people like you!
