About Our Church
Our Mission & Vision
Our vision and mission is to help connect people to faith
What To Expect
- Totally casual clothing.
- Totally rockin’ music, and yep, it’s pretty loud!
- Friendly people who are genuinely excited to see new faces.
- A relevant message which mines the depths of God’s Word for truth that applies to your life.
- Children’s ministries with fabulous leaders who TRULY care. We also use a strident vetting process for our workers (for your safety).
- A church where God is worshipped, people are loved, and the world is changed… all through the power of Christ.
Check us out on Sunday mornings at 9:00am and 10:30am.
Our Pastor: Larry Rodgers
Pastor
One of God’s greatest gifts to me is my family. I love spending time with my wife, she more than anyone else, helps me grow in my walk with God. My daughter has blessed me in so many ways. She is fun to be around and keeps me on my toes. If I had to describe myself I would say that I’m a little nostalgic. I could spend hours looking at old cars, I collect old radios and I have a Victrola where I play my collection of old 78 records. I also love to spend time working in the yard creating gardens and watching things grow.
My greatest joy would have to be studying God’s Word. I especially love the Old Testament, where we discover the foundations of salvation through the history of Israel. I love how God’s Word honestly describes people and how we can so easily relate to them and find ourselves in the text. I then love taking those truths and teaching them to others. There is nothing better than seeing people grow as they get a deeper understanding of who God is and His call on their lives.
Who We Are
Our Team & Leadership
Our Associate Pastor: Chris Sanchez
Associate Pastor, Chris Sanchez, serves as the Pastor of Families. Part of his role is leading community groups and the youth group. His favorite book is Master Plan of Evangelism. Besides reading you might find him fishing, camping, or even skateboarding.
Children's Director: Rachael Ames
Children's Director, Racheal Ames, is passionate about leading children to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. As you can tell from our yearly trip to Nicaragua, she loves to serve families. Rachael is a blessing to our church.
Worship Pastor: Brandon Boatner
Brandon Boatner leads the music and audio/visual teams at River Oaks. Some of his musical influences are David Crowder, Bill Gaither, and NEEDTOBREATHE. That's a diverse mixture, and we like it that way. Brandon leads musics with a joy for Jesus that is contagious.
Our Values
What We Believe
Worship
Our Values
We value the work of the Holy Spirit.
We believe that His presence and power is absolutely necessary for us to experience the full vision of God for His church (Acts 1:8; Acts 4:31; 1 Thess. 1:5, Zech. 4:6).
We value excellence.
We believe our best effort honors God and inspires people. We will limit our programming to what we can do with quality and focus (Col 3:17, 3:23; Mal 1:6-14; Prov. 27:17).
We value cultural relevance.
We will always seek to adjust our methods to changing trends and culture without compromising Biblical Truth. (1 Cor. 9:19-22, Acts. 17: 22-34).
We value children.
We believe children are a blessing from God; as such, their care and growth in Him will be a high priority (Psalm 127:3; Matt. 11:25, 18:4, 18:6, 19:13-14, 21:16, 23:37; Mark 7:27, 9:37, 10:16).
We value pastoral leadership.
We believe that the pastoral role is one of shepherding and oversight. We believe that the church should be led by people who are called of God to be accountable as stewards of His church (1 Thess. 5:12; 1 Tim. 3:1-2; Titus 1:7; Eph 4:11).
We value people who are far from God.
We believe that people who are unconvinced matter greatly to God, therefore they matter greatly to us (Matt. 18:12; Mark 6:34 Luke 15:4, John 3:16; Rom 5:8).
We value God’s Word.
We believe the Bible is God-breathed and is without any mixture of error. We believe that anointed Biblical teaching has the power to change lives (2 Tim. 3:14-17; Rom. 15:4; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matt 4:4; Deut. 8:3; I Thess. 1:5).
What We Believe
The Scripture | We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, eternal Word of God.
It was written by men who were divinely guided by the Holy Spirit. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. It is essential for training in righteousness and is the complete revelation of God’s will and is the final authority for the Christian faith and life. (Matt. 24:35; John 10:35; Col. 3:16; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21)
God | We believe there is one and only one living and true God.
The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, coeternal and coequal, with distinct personal attributes, without division of nature, essence, or being.
God The Father | We believe in God the Father, who is sovereign over all things, creator of the universe, revealed to mankind as unchanging, all-knowing, all-powerful, all loving and always present.
He reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 90:2, 139:7-12, 16; Matt. 19:26; Rom. 1:20; James 1:17; 1 John 3:20; Rev. 9:6)
God The Son | We believe in God the Son, Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, fully God and fully man, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.
He was completely holy by virtue of His miraculous birth and sinless life. Jesus voluntarily laid down His life, the just dying for the unjust, making it possible for man to be redeemed. He rose bodily from the dead on the third day after death, providing salvation for all who believe in His atoning sacrifice and is now seated at the right hand of the Father and will one day return to establish His earthly kingdom. (Matt. 1:23; John 1:14,18, 2:19; Acts 1:9-11; Rom. 10:8-10; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 2:5-8; 2 Tim. 2:8; Heb. 4:15, 7:25, 8:1, 9:14, 28; 1 Pet. 3:18)
God The Holy Spirit | We believe in God the Holy Spirit who lives in all believers at the moment they are regenerated (born again), guiding and teaching Biblical truth, regenerating and empowering them to live a life of godliness.
He bestows spiritual gifts to all believers, and that these gifts are to be used for the edification and perfecting of the believers in the church. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. (John 14:16, 17, 26, 15:26, 16:7-14; Acts 5:3-4; Rom. 8:14, 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12-14; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 3:16, 4:7-16; Titus 3:5; Heb. 2:3-4)
Man | We believe man and woman were created by the special act of God, in His own image, free from sin and able to have intimate fellowship with Him, and is the crowning work of His creation.
By his free choice Adam disobeyed God and brought sin into the human race, resulting in both physical and spiritual death for all of mankind. In his fallen condition, man was left totally depraved and unable to remedy his own situation. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Gen.1:26-27, 2:7, 3:1-13; Isa. 53:6; John 3:3; Rom. 3:23, 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21-22; Eph. 2)
Sin | We believe that sin is anything that does not conform to the character and nature of God.
It is falling short of His glory – missing the mark of His perfection – through negligence, unfaithfulness and willfully crossing boundaries set by God. (Rom. 3:23; Gal. 3:10; James 4:17; 1 John 2:15-17; 3:4)
We believe that all mankind sinned in Adam, the head of the human race, and that each human being has a sin nature, which is totally depraved, and also has by an act of his own will committed personal sin. (Rom. 1:18, 3:23, 5:12; 1 John 1:8-10)
Salvation | We believe salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His death on the cross, shed His own blood obtaining eternal redemption for the believer.
We believe that salvation is the act of God whereby man is brought into a proper relationship with God. It is that act where a spiritually dead man is made spiritually alive. (Ps.3:8; John 2:9; Eph. 2:1-2)
We believe that this is accomplished by the grace of God through man’s faith in the death (shed blood), burial, and bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Eph. 2:8-10)
We believe Jesus fulfilled every aspect of God’s righteous requirements of the Law. He conquered death by His bodily resurrection, thus fulfilling His claim to be God’s Son. In this way, He bridged the gap closing our separation from God. His resurrection gives us the assurance that we will also be resurrected “IF” we trust that His death paid for our sins. (John 1:12-12, 3:16, 5:28-29; Rom. 5:8-10;1 Cor. 15:20-23; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Thess.4:16, 17; Rev. 20:12-15)
We believe the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ by convicting the individual of sin, the need for repentance, and a personal faith in Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord (John 14:16, 17, 26, 15:26, 16:7-14.)
We believe that salvation involves three things for the believer: deliverance from the penalty of sin at the moment of regeneration; victory over the power of sin during the Christian life; and deliverance from the presence of sin at glorification.
We believe that salvation positionally sanctifies the believer and is known as justification, but that the believer needs to experience growth in his daily life, which is known as progressive sanctification. (Rom. 6;14; 2 cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:20-21)
We believe that the expression of salvation is exhibited by the act of a Believer’s baptism by immersion.
Spiritual Gifts | We believe that the Holy Spirit, in His wisdom and according to His good pleasure, has bestowed “gift(s) of grace” on all believers in Christ, for the purpose of equipping them for ministry and bringing about maturity of faith and unity in Christ’s church.
These gifts are to be used in accordance with God’s expressed will as revealed in His Word.
However, we believe that some of these gifts mentioned in Scripture–popularly known as “sign gifts”, tongues, prophecy, miracles, healings, etc.–were primarily manifested in the age of the apostles and were for the purpose of confirming apostleship and giving authority of their writings, i.e., Scripture. Since, the age of the apostles has passed and the Scriptures are complete, we believe the sign gifts as manifested in the first century are extremely rare and should be evaluated within their original intent of confirming God’s message and messenger, for the sole purpose of advancing the Gospel in areas where the name “Jesus” has not been heard. (Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:7, 11-12; 1 Cor. 12:7-11; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:3-4; 2 Tim. 3:16-17)
The Church | We believe that the true church is a universal, invisible, living organism and that it is the “body of Christ” who is Himself the head of this body.
The Universal Church is made up of regenerate, redeemed believers only. (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph 1:22-23, 5:23; Col. 1:18)
We believe the church began on the day of Pentecost; that every believer is indwelt/baptized by the Holy Spirit into the one body of Christ, which is the Universal Church. (John 14:16-17; Acts 1:4-5, 2:1-4; 1 Cor. 12:13)
We believe there are many local churches which are made up of those regenerate, redeemed believers who desire the fellowship that Christ is building, based upon the foundation of faith in His nature and His saving work. This church is made up of a body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel and are autonomous.
We believe the local churches are called to be distinct from the world while in it, called to grow in Christlikeness, called to edify fellow believers to maturity, called to acclaim to the world God’s offer of everlasting life and to be the visible representation of the body of Christ in the local community. (Matt. 16:16-18, 28:19-20; John 17:6,9,11; Acts 2:46-47; Rom. 8:29-30; 1 Cor. 1:2, 12:13, 27; 14; Eph. 1:22-23, 4:11-16; Col. 1:18)
Evangelism & Missions | We believe it is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations, to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ through prayer, financial giving, and personal effort.
The Ordinances: Baptism & The Lord's Supper | We believe Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water.
It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. (Matt. 3:12-15, 28:19-20; Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Pet. 3:21; Col. 2:12)
We believe the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming by partaking of His chosen symbols, the bread and the cup, which represents His broken body and shed blood. (Luke 22:17-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-34)
Family | We believe God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage of the Lord. (Gen. 1:27-28; Eph 5:22-33, 6:1-4; Col. 3:18-21; Matt. 19:14; Psalm 127:3)
Last Things | We believe in Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven, His present work as intercessor, the rapture of His Church, the seven-year Tribulation Period will take place, and His personal, bodily, pre-millennial, imminent return.
(Daniel. 9:24-27; Matt. 24:36; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Rom. 8:34; 1 Th. 4:13-17; 5:6; 2 Th 2:3-4; Titus 2:13; 1 John 2:28)
We believe that following the Tribulation, the Millennium will begin. It will be brought about by the literal, physical, visible, bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth to rule and to reign for one thousand years. After the Millennium, those who refused the grace of God in accepting the penalty of their sin being paid by Jesus Christ on the cross, will be judged and eternally punished, while those who placed their faith in His person and His work will share in His eternal joy. (Zech. 14:1-4; John 3:16; Rev. 19-20)
We believe that Israel is God’s chosen national people. In His sovereign will, Israel serves as a channel of His blessing to the entire world for His glory, and His witness to the nations. God’s election of Israel for this unique relationship is unchangeable. Israel is distinct from the church and central to God’s plan for all ages (past, present and future). The unfulfilled prophecies given to Israel in the Old Testament will find their final literal fulfillment in Israel at a future time. (Gen.12:1-3, 28:13; Ps. 105:6-10; Isa.43:7,10; Rom. 9-11)
Marriage & Sexuality | We believe that term “marriage” has only one meaning and that is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture.
(Gen. 1:27, 2:18-25; Eph. 5:22-33)
We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and woman. (Prov. 6:25-29; Mal 2:16; Mat. 5:27-28; Rom. 7:1-32 Cor. 6:15-20; Heb. 13:4)
We believe that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s gender, or disagreement with one’s biological gender, is sinful and offensive to God. (Lev 18:6-30, 20:10-21; Deut 22:5; 1 Cor 5:1, 6:9-11)
We believe that in order to preserve the function and integrity of the church as a local Body of Christ, and to provide a biblical role model to the church members and the community, it is imperative that all persons employed by the church in any capacity, or who serve as volunteers, should abide by and agree to this Statement on Marriage and Sexuality and conduct themselves accordingly.
We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. (Psalm 32:3-10; John 8:31,32; Rom. 5:6-11)
We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of the Church. (Luke 18:9-14; Rom. 15:1-3; Phil 2:3,4)
Worship
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” (Psalm 29:2)
The Scriptures teach so much about worship. It’s the overflow of our love for our Savior. Indeed, He deserves glory. He alone is holy.
Worship is at the core of who we are as followers of Christ. Music is just a small part of worship, but it’s an influential piece of RiverOaks. We love to unite our voices to our King. As the magi did to the Christ child, we offer our adoration.
The ROC worship team realizes that God is the center and beginning of our love. We want none of the glory. We don’t come to perform for the church, but for an audience of one. Offering our gifts in music, we lead our brothers and sisters to the throne each Sunday.
The musical style is very much a formative element of our church too. We enjoy contemporary music, typically a little more on the rock side, but you might hear a hymn every now and then.
One thing is for sure, from the beginning of our church God has blessed us with incredible musicians. This is an area of our worship that God has really perfected to minister to our community.
Come Visit Us
550 Highway T
Foristell, MO 63348
(636) 248-1147
Click for directions