“Supporting the emotional, social, physical and spiritual growth of those around us by sharing the love of Jesus”

Everything that Riverside Church does is underpinned by the command to “love one another as I have loved you...”. The love of Jesus Christ can be shared in countless ways to positively impact lives emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually. It is our aim to be an inclusive church that understands the needs of our partners, those friends that attend regularly, those who are less frequent attenders as well as those who are new to the family.

The support and growth of our family and friends is of the utmost importance to us. We take the role of discipling our people very seriously. Our desire is to see them growing in their relationship with Jesus, whatever stage of the journey they join us at. This is described by the framework that we have developed that seeks to promote the spiritual growth of individuals from making their first-time profession of faith through to realising a specific call to ministry within the body of the church. We call this the ‘Cycle of Growth’.

The activities that support this area of vision are:

Lifegroups

Lifegroups are central to our vision of loving people. They are small groups held every week in the community and held in our homes. Lifegroups are the place where we ‘do life together’; supporting each other, developing positive relationships and exploring God’s amazing truths through bible study and life experiences. Our vision is for all ‘Riversiders’ to be linked to a Lifegroup.

DNA

The DNA course is designed to take you on a journey of discovery; find out about the vision, values and culture of Riverside, the lifestyle of the Riverside family and how these are put into practice. This course is run four times each year.

Alpha

The Alpha course is designed primarily for people who aren't churchgoers and each course is open to everyone who would like to attend. Alpha is an opportunity for anyone to explore the Christian faith in a relaxed setting (see www.alpha.org).

Freedom in Christ

The Freedom in Christ course runs for 12 weeks and its mission is to provide a biblically-based process and resources by which church and ministry leaders and their people discover who they are in Christ, who Christ is in them and how to live out the truth of those realities every day so that those ministries become healthy, healing places making a powerful impact for Christ on their communities (see www.ficm.org).

 Celebrate Recovery

The Celebrate Recovery course takes participants through an rolling eight-stage Christ-centred program to deal with their hurts, hang-ups and habits (see www.celebraterecovery.com).

SHAPE

The SHAPE course is for those who want to explore their God-given gifts and talents and consider where they can put these to use. This course is run as the demand is identified and is currently twice per year.

Bible School

We believe the bible is the living word of God, and that growing to understand it better is an essential part of our spiritual journey. Twice a year, Riverside runs a six-week Bible School focussing on different aspects, themes and characters found within this amazing book. Anyone who wishes to delve deeper is more than welcome to join us. The next Bible School will start in February 2009.

Pastoral Skills (Certificated Course)

The Pastoral Skills course is written and recognised by the Association of Christian Counsellors (ACC) and is run over 12 sessions to explore and develop the skills required to provide effective pastoral care in a range of settings. This course is run at Riverside by our Assistant Pastor (Pastoral Care & Community) and is accessed via an application process. It is designed for those who are either already involved in pastoral care or who are considering whether this is their calling (see www.acc-uk.org).