Church With An Agenda

May 6, 2014

As I was working this week while simultaneously trying to watch an online conference about church planting, I had an interesting thought. (Yes, I have those every once in a while!)

Many people who aren't part of a church see churches as having an agenda. They think that the church's agenda is to make everyone look the same, to not let people think for themselves, or to simply rack up numbers (like the number of people in the seats, number of conversions, baptisms, members, or whatever it is they want to measure).

Because Riverwood is a bit different, it's tempting to try to advertise ourselves as a church without an agenda.

But it hit me - that would be inaccurate. We do have an agenda.

We have an agenda to lead with grace.
We have an agenda to love.
We have an agenda to serve our community.
We have an agenda to lean on truth by studying the Bible.
We have an agenda to have fun.
We have an agenda to invite people to follow Jesus.

Because the above is our agenda, it means we don't have an agenda to create cookie-cutter Christians. With our "culture of invitation," we don't force or manipulate anyone to do anything. We simply invite, and let people decide (with God's guidance) what their next step is.

So Riverwood is a church with an agenda. But hopefully its an agenda you can get excited about!

Erin Bird Lead Pastor - Riverwood Church

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Riverwood Church, Waverly Iowa

We are on a mission to help people love like Jesus loved and live like Jesus lived.

It doesn't matter to us if you:

  • are a Wartburg student or a grandparent,
  • vote Democrat or Republican,
  • are married, divorced, or single,
  • have gone to church for years or haven't been to church in years,
  • make $100,000/yr. or wonder how you're going to pay rent this month,
  • or fear your past mistakes make you unlovable to God or others.

No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, we want to help you become who God has created you to be.

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