It's STILL All About Jesus

by Erin Bird

Last week, I kicked off a new series here on the blog about The Riverwood Way. I shared that the Riverwood Way is our "code" that is underneath the "interface" of our church family. It's something we set out to live as followers of Jesus as part of this new church family.

The first item on our "Way" is "...all about Jesus." Here is what we officially say:

We believe the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament point to Jesus, the four Gospels present Jesus, and the New Testament epistles proclaim Jesus. Therefore, we will point to Jesus through our serving, present Jesus in our teaching, and proclaim Jesus through our worship.

While writing this week's blog post, I realized that I just wrote about how Riverwood is all about Jesus in a post published Nov 17. As I re-read what I wrote, I was unknowingly talking about Item #1 on the Riverwood Way. So here is a "remix" of that post:

It Truly Is All About Jesus

At Riverwood, we truly are all about Jesus. We talk about being Jesus-centered. Most every Sunday we celebrate communion “in remembrance of Him.” We sing to Him every week. Our Growth Groups talk about following Him. We aim to make Jesus the center of everything we do at Riverwood.

But why focus on Jesus? Are we denying the Trinity with this over-emphasis on Christ? I don’t think so. Let me give you a couple reasons why we focus so heavily on the Son of God.

In Iowa, many people believe in God. Because of this belief, many would even say they are “Christians.” But if you probe further, many don’t really know Jesus. They know about Him, but He doesn’t occupy a central part of their life. But when someone truly meets Jesus, their life is radically changed. They no longer just believe in God, they have a relationship with their Creator.

Second, because God the Father is pleased with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to be the Son of God, we want to imitate the Father and Spirit – pointing to Jesus as the only way to the Father, pleased with who He is and what He has done for us through the cross and grave.

This is why Riverwood is all about Jesus. We want to help the spiritually disconnected find Him, to see Him for who He really is. And we want to help all people follow Him, to become like Him in the way they love and live.

So no matter where you are at in your spiritual journey, we want to help you become more Jesus-centered. Because Riverwood - and life - is truly all about and for Him!