Below is an overview of what our church is doing (our mission), where the Lord is leading us (our vision), our shared commitments as a family (our values), and how we strive to accomplish our mission together (our pathway).
Advancing the gospel by making disciples who make disciples
The word gospel means good news. The Bible teaches that the gospel is the good news about what God has done, in his unmerited grace, through the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, to deliver rebellious and sinful people from His wrath and bring them into eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone.
The gospel is not only the power of God to save us by grace—it is also the power of God to change us by grace. The entirety of the Christian life is centered around the gospel and its ongoing implications for our convictions, character and conduct.
To say it differently, the gospel can be summarized in these two affirmations: we are great sinners and Christ is a great Savior.
When a person trusts in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, they become a disciple. A disciple is a forgiven follower of Jesus who is growing to become like Him. In the Bible, the words disciple and Christian are synonymous—every Christian is a disciple.
True disciples are marked by lives of abiding in Christ and his Word (John 8:31), loving one another as Jesus has loved them (John 13:34-35) and bearing much fruit to the glory of God (John 15:8).
God not only commissions us to make disciples, but also tells us how this is to be done. The basic ingredients that go into making disciples are God's Spirit, God's Word, God's People and time. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God (the gospel) through the ministry of the people of God (the church) over time to bring people to become forgiven followers of Jesus and grow to become like Him.
Our aim is that this biblical process of:
will permeate the entirety of our ministry as a church and lead to more disciples being made, matured and multiplied.
Our mission statement outlines the reason for our existence and the goal of our ministry. Riverstone Church exists to advance the gospel by making disciples who make disciples. We believe this is simply another way of stating the biblical mission of the Church—the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21-23, Acts 1:8).
We envision a church where every generation is prayerfully reliant on God’s Spirit, equipped by God's Word, and passionately committed to relational discipleship for the joy of gospel transformation in every sphere of life—from our homes and church to our communities and the nations.
We believe that God the Holy Spirit is the One who brings about spiritual life and growth through his sovereign grace. We demonstrate dependence on the Holy Spirit by prioritizing prayer, seeking God's guidance, and trusting him—in our private lives and communal life—to produce the lasting fruit of Christlikeness in our speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.
Prov. 3:5-6; Zech. 4:6; Matt. 6:7-13; Rom. 8:26-27; Eph. 5:18
We believe that the Word of God is the primary means through which the Holy Spirit draws people to become forgiven followers of Jesus and cause them to grow to become like him. We demonstrate commitment to the authority and sufficiency of God's Word by regularly reading, teaching, applying, and organizing our lives and ministries around the Bible.
Ps. 119:105; Is. 40:8; Matt. 7:24-27; Jn. 17:17; Rom. 10:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-17
We believe that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, so we seek to center everything we believe and do around the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We demonstrate gospel-centeredness by knowing and applying the redemptive work of Jesus to everyday life, speaking truth to one another with honesty and humility, loving others as Christ loves us, and celebrating his saving work in all we do.
Gen. 3:15; Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:15-16; Phil. 1:27; 1 John 3:16-18
We believe that true discipleship happens in the context of commitment to a local church, in which we can be devoted to one another in love. We demonstrate devotion to one another by regularly participating in the corporate gathering, joyfully serving with our spiritual gifts, sacrificially giving our resources to the church, and by building meaningful relationships where we love, serve, encourage, teach, and grow together in unity.
Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:38-40; Acts 2:42; Rom. 12:9-13; Eph. 4:11-12; Heb. 10:24-25
We believe that every follower of Jesus is called by God to participate in the mission of the Church to make, mature, and multiply disciples near and far. We demonstrate commitment to Christ's mission by equipping and encouraging every generation to make disciples through building intentional relationships in every sphere of life and engaging in local and global outreach to advance the gospel among all peoples.
Gen. 12:1-3; Deut. 6:4-7; Hab. 2:14; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Col. 4:2-6; Rev. 7:9-10
Our Pathway is a visual discipleship journey that helps every person take their next step in following Jesus and participating in his mission at Riverstone. As we walk this path together, we believe that the Lord will lead us in fulfilling our mission for his glory.
