Our Story

Beginnings:

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The River Christian Community was initiated by God’s purpose and will in the power of His Spirit in 2006. An initial gathering took place in the backyard of Pastor Kent & Rouzé’s home in Oakdale. At the conclusion of this gathering there was unanimous affirmation that the vision and opportunity for The River was God’s doing. Thirty five people made a firm commitment to be a part of The River’s beginning.

 

We were blessed by the Lord in countless ways as He graciously affirmed our commitments and encouraged our faith. These blessings were witnessed in: the process of incorporation (receiving both federal and state non-profit tax exempt status in two weeks); and The Oakdale Joint Unified School District approving our use of the Sierra View Elementary facility. These were both a major “God-thing” as we had been informed the incorporation could take up to a year, and the School District would not approve our request due to “bad experiences” with previous churches using the school facilities. God intervened for us - He did a great thing!

 

We had our first worship gathering at Sierra View School on October 1, 2006. There were 100 people in attendance.

 

Intersections of Faith:

 

A major intersection in The River’s journey of faith occurred March 31, 2010. The Elders of The River (after two weeks of prayer, discussion and counsel) determined God was leading us to move forward in faith to purchase property and begin the process of building a facility to further establish and expand the ministries of The River. 

 

The River family moved into our present facilities in July 2013. At the time of our move we were a church family of about 200 people (adults, youth and children). Within three (3) months of the opening of the new facilities our attendance grew to approximately 350; a second worship gathering time was initiated. At this time, The River asked Ryan Poling to transition from being our part-time student ministries director to become a full-time student ministries pastor. Ryan was at that time teaching at Big Valley Christian High School in Modesto. During the subsequent years of Ryan becoming full-time at The River he completed his Masters degree from Western Seminary.

 

In 2018, Pastor Kent proposed to the Elder Leadership Team a transition in which Pastor Ryan Poling would become the Lead Pastor. The transition was prayerfully affirmed by The River family in September 2018.

 

God has continually shown and proven His love, grace, kindness and faithfulness to The River. We have been blessed to see hundreds of people embrace the truth about Jesus and to become 

fully-devoted followers of Jesus who Love God, Love People and Serve Jesus Together.