NEWS BLOG

2000+ Imagine Christmas

Backpack Peoria 2008

Bare Feet, Open Hearts

Ebenezer Seminary, Tanzania

Election Eve Prayer

Fear Factors 2008

Fun For All at the Fall Festival

Gross-Outs, Games, and God (Fear Factors 2007)

Ladies Get a Taste of Heaven!

Metamora Football Wins State Championship!

Mission Peoria: A View from the Frontline

Overflowing with Baptisms!

Project Armor-All Comes to Riverside

Tanzania Missions in Peoria Journal Star

Watoto Children's Choir Spreads Joy

Yule Like Riverside!

July 4, 2010

Riverside To Open The Oaks Campus!

We are very excited to announce an exciting new venture that Riverside Community Church is embarking upon.

Recently we were approached by a church in Peoria, 12 Oaks Community Church, who were interested in donating their church to us.  They had a smaller congregation, but a great 250 seat church that they felt Riverside, with it’s resources, could help to build and grow. The church is located at 2906 N Twelve Oaks Drive, Peoria.

This miraculously came at a time when we as a church leadership felt that God was leading us to look for opportunities to open Riverside campus churches around the area.

We are excited to announce that due to this donation we will be launching our first campus church in this building – Riverside Community Church, The Oaks.

So what is a campus church, you may ask?

Many churches around the country are successfully using this model and are seeing great growth in their churches.

The idea is that we will raise up a team of people that are willing to commit to helping launch this new campus. This team will not be people who plan on just going to attend. This team will be the backbone of the church. They will be the ushers, the greeters, the children workers, the worship team. If you are interested in finding out more about what opportunities there are to serve send us an email to pat.sheets@riversidepeoria.com

By the fall this team will be ready to have their first Sunday service at this location. We will spend a lot of time promoting this launch around the community and are expecting many brand new people to start attending this church that have never been to Riverside before.

The way that we plan on ensuring that this new campus carries the DNA of Riverside is quite a unique one to Peoria, but one that we feel that will help Riverside reach many more people across the city.

Every element of the service will be live. The greeting, the worship, the announcements, the whole service UP UNTIL the message. At this point a large center screen will come down, and then utilizing some great new technology, we will present that morning’s sermon from the sanctuary in Riverside’s downtown location. This means that everyone who starts to attend this new campus will get the same feel and experience that we all enjoy each week at Riverside downtown.

For this to be successful we feel that this campus will need a full time campus pastor. Pat Sheets, one of our current elders, will assume that role. As the congregation continues to grow we anticipate that the staff there will grow too.

Stay tuned, as we expect this to be just the first of many more campuses to come across Central Illinois.

Posted 7/4/2010 in In the News

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May 21, 2010

Riverside Takes a Stand on Proposed Project

In light of the recent press with regards to the relocation of Big Al’s, we would like to take a moment to share with you Riverside’s stance on this matter.

Our church recognizes that we are in a unique location in the heart of downtown Peoria. This is intentional. We believe that God has placed us here to impact the inner city of Peoria, and all the surrounding areas, with our ministries.

We also recognize that in being located downtown we are neighbors with businesses that a lot of churches don’t normally find themselves next to, including bars, nightclubs and Big Al’s itself.

Although as a church we do not agree with what Big Al’s represents, we do realize that as a business they have a right to be in Peoria. Our concern is that we feel there are rules already in place that should not allow this relocation to take place.
 
This relocation flies in opposition of the ordinance that states that no adult club should be located within 500 feet of a church, school or residential property.  However, current changes are being processed on the basis of an amendment used to grandfather Big Al's present location.

Riverside is located no more than 400 feet from where this establishment would be located. The Journal Star reported one councilman as saying the properties would be right at 500 feet apart, but the ordinance states property to property, not “depending on exactly where you measure the church from the edge of the proposed building."

It is also the opinion of some members of the public that preference should be given to Big Al’s over the church, as they pay taxes and we don’t. While it is true that as a non- profit organization we are exempt from paying taxes, we would like to shed some light on what we DO offer the city.

Since arriving in the City of Peoria, Riverside has renovated two rapidly deteriorating landmark buildings within the city, and in doing so has invested $4.5 million in these buildings with no monetary support from the government.  Riverside invests over $200,000 annually on programs that directly benefit the inner-city of Peoria. Through our Dream Center Peoria programs over the last eight years we have provided 14,000 backpacks with school supplies to kids in need, and this year we are introducing a program for school kids’ uniforms. We help over 500 families a month with clothing, food, household goods and furniture. Our state of the art youth facility provides a safe environment for kids in the city to flourish and find refuge from the streets. Our AOK events mobilize volunteers from over 10 churches to impact 10 targeted areas of the city through acts of service on a Saturday, every other month. And from fall to spring each year more than 250 kids and youth participate in DCP athletics. In addition, Riverside invests over a million dollars annually into the local economy.

I have written to all of our city council members. In the letter I stated, “The reasons the original ordinance was passed are the same reasons we appeal to you to vote for the upholding of the said ordinance - the safe guarding of women, youth and children within the vicinity. Please, this must be your main concern, as it is ours. We want to appeal to you as the representative of the people to please vote to uphold the law - the original ordinance.”

I would encourage any that are in support of Riverside on this issue to contact our city’s councilors prior to the vote this coming Tuesday, and let them know there are many who are not in favor of this move. You can find their contact information at http://www.ci.peoria.il.us/council-members.

Posted 5/21/2010 in In the News

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November 3, 2008

DCP Renovations Featured in Journal Star

Peoria Journal Star recently featured an article on the current renovations at the Dream Center.

Read the article here.

Posted 11/3/2008 in In the News

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July 29, 2008

Mission Peoria on WEEK and WMBD

Be sure to catch Mission Peoria and DCP on the news at 5:00,6:00 and 10:00PM tonight on channel 25 (WEEK) and 31 (WMBD).

Mission Peoria has grown significantly (in the number of churches and students involved) this year.  Spread the word about this news coverage and about all the great things happening with Mission Peoria and DCP.

Posted 7/29/2008 in In the News

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June 30, 2008

Tanzania Missions in Peoria Journal Star

Peoria Journal Star featured this story, written by Phil Luciano after his trip with Riverside Global Missions to Tanzania.



NDULI, Tanzania -- Fredy Mgoba was heading down a dark path.

The teen had begun hanging around with troublemakers. He had started talking back and otherwise disobeying his parents. He had picked up smoking and other bad habits.

The slide had been going on for years. His parents saw no other way to save their son than send him away.

To Ebenezer Seminary.

"We thought he would change spiritually," says his mother, Eda Mgoba.

They were right. Ebenezer has turned him around, inside-out.

The greatest change we have noticed is the spiritual," says Eda Mgoba, 40.
"He never cared; now, he is sensitive to church. Also, academically, he is doing better."

That is the two-pronged approach of Ebenezer, a new secondary school in the heart of the world's eighth poorest country: push morals along with academics. The school, run by the Tanzania Assembly of God, hopes to create a breed of graduates who will become leaders in a struggling country desperate for hope and direction.

The school has attracted the attention of missions teams from Riverside Community Church in downtown Peoria. The church has made a five-year commitment to build classrooms and expand the school.

"We can make a big impact in a part of the world that needs so much help,"
says Jody Aldridge, Riverside's missions director. "Riverside wants to be part of something that would make such a pointed, direct impact on people's lives."

Tanzania sits on the east coast of Africa. Long a British colony, it has been independent since 1964. Its constitution ensures a separation of church and state; of the 38 million Tanzanians, 40 percent are Christian, 40 percent are Muslim and 20 percent are engaged in indigenous practices, such as ancestral worship.

Work is scarce. About 80 percent of population gets by on subsistence farming; the rest average the equivalent of one U.S. dollar a day. Health problems, including AIDS, have reduced the average life expectancy to 50.

The Tanzania Assembly of God, based in the largest, seaside city of Dar es Salaam, sees a positive future only in the grooming of new leaders. It has begun two schools, the latest Ebenezer Seminary (In Tanzania, "seminary"
means a secondary school with a religious affiliation; the students aim toward careers of many professions, not just in the clergy).

"We want them to have academic excellence, but also moral and ethical excellence," says Barnabas Mtokambali, assistant superintendent of Tanzania Assemblies of God.

Government schools provide basic education, but no spiritual guidance or moral emphasis. Plus, the government can provide schools for only 60 percent of the population, even with parents' paying $600 a year per child for tuition. Many private schools can cost double that but Ebenezer has set its annual tuition at $600, in an effort to lure students from all walks of life.

Ebenezer was sited on 28 acres of rural property in a region called Iringa, in the center of the country, with the goal of drawing students from across the nation. The adjacent village is Nduli, heavy with meager croplands abutting cramped residential hodgepodges of concrete cubes, wooden lean-tos and mud huts.

The school got its start with seed money from the Tanzania Assembly of God.
But early on, through its connections with missionaries worldwide, Riverside Community Church caught wind of the project and liked the focus. Its funding has already built three of the current eight classrooms. Four more are under construction, part with the labor of an early-June Riverside mission team.

In a clearing amid corn and sunflower fields, up pops a quartet of smart, brick, one-story buildings. Half are classrooms; the others serve as offices, dormitories and lavatories. All look nearly as modern as any school you might see in America.

"Whatever we do for the Lord has to be practical, durable, and cost-effective -- but attractive," says Pastor Mtokambali.

In one classroom, a civic teacher has scrawled the blackboard with, "Human rights" -- all lessons are in English, rather than the traditional Swahili, as to better prepare the boys for professions --and under that, "rights to join a trade union," "rights to equal pay " and other tenets of the national constitution. Next door, a history teacher explains Tanzania's social organization of the 18th century. In another classroom, a teacher is filling the board with a fast and furious statistics lesson, and the students work quickly to scribble down everything in their notebooks.

They also take regular Bible classes. Plus, every night before bed, they hold devotions.

Students must maintain a C average, or they flunk the year. They can repeat once; after that, they are expelled.

For lack of funds, Ebenezer has not been able to build lavatories and dorms for both genders; that should occur within the next several years, and the school will become co-ed. Enrollment is now at 99, with 160 planned for next year. Eventually, the school prays, enrollment will hit 1,000.

Not all students arrive born again. Many are Christians, but some are Muslim or non-committed.

Says Pastor Jonas Mkane, regional superintendent of Tanzania Assembly of God, "To transform people from the inside-out, to have a school like this, that is our evangelism."

When Fredy Mgoba arrived at the beginning of the current school year, he maintained his tough attitude, which had no room for spirituality. But when he looked around, he saw other teens who seemed unlike him, especially in their peacefulness.

"I found other young people here who were leading a born-again life. And I was so different from them," Fredy says.

With encouragement from Ebenezer, Fredy turned his life over to Christ.

"I have changed my character," Fredy says. " .. My life was not good. Now that I have accepted Jesus, I am feeling well."

His parents have had a tough time with tuition. His father makes just $30 a month as a self-employed carpenter, barely enough to maintain their tight, concrete-block home, like others jammed onto a hillside amid the stench of open sewers and animal waste.

"It is a sacrifice," his mother says. "The income is not so big. We just save little by little.

They'll have to get even more frugal when Freddy's three younger siblings reach his age and head to Ebenezer.

"God will help us," his mother says.

In mid-May, Ebenezer officials and Riverside representatives broke ground on a new foundation. At the ceremony Pastor Mkane said, "We now start the building of (more) classrooms, all with the support of Riverside Community Church."

Riverside missions director Aldridge stresses that contributors aren't just investing in buildings, but lives of students.

"That have hopes and dreams for the future," she says. "And this school does give them hope."

The buildings' foundations are hewn of stone, hauled by truck from nearby mountains and laid by hand. The process takes about two weeks, after which Riverside representatives arrived to help begin fashioning the rest of the structure.

Other buildings are in the works, one for a new dorm, another for a computer lab. Further funding will be needed before either happens.

Beside Riverside's help, Ebenezer raises money much they way folks in times of need in central Illinois: they hire a band, bring in food and pass the hat. Ebenezer did that three times during this school year, netting $15,000.

Meanwhile, parents try to give beyond the tuition rate. Many extended families will combine together to come up with money.

"They believe in the cause, and they are willing in to sacrifice," Pastor Mtokambali says.

Riverside's Aldridge was impressed by that sacrifice.

"They're not just sitting back, waiting for us to raise all the money," she says. "They're getting it done."

She also marveled at the quick pace of construction, not just on-campus but surrounding the school. The school's growth and stability has prompted the Iringa region to grade and pave area roads.

In addition to the bolstered infrastructure, Nduli residents hope the burgeoning school will bring more construction, custodial and caretaking jobs.

"We are just glad the school is here," says Christian Jairo Kito, chairman of the Nduli village committee.

Through it all, leaders with Riverside and Tanzania Assembly of God continue to relish the progress at Ebenezer Seminary.

"People are being transformed," Pastor Mtokambali said. "It doesn't get any better than that."

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Posted 6/30/2008 in In the News

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June 30, 2008

Ebenezer Seminary, Tanzania

The guiding force behind Ebenezer Seminary found his calling in a cave.

Pastor Barnabas Mtokambali, the assistant superintendent for Tanzania Assembly of God, grew up in the Anglican Church, in which his dad was a pastor. In his teens, Mtokambali attended Forrest Hill High School in Morogoro, Tanzania.

"One day I felt the urge to pray," says Mtokambali, 46. "I tried to get others to go with me."

But no one else cared to join him. So he went off on foot, following the call of the Lord.

"The urge to go was very strong," he says. "I found a cave on a hill, and I prayed until morning."

He fell asleep about 5 a.m., and had a clear dream: amid a crowd of thousands of people, a podium emerged in the middle.

A voice said to him, "I have given you these people to shepherd,"

After Mtokambali awoke, he rushed to his church. His pastor told him, "I think God has a specific purpose for you."

Mtokambali was not sure of the exact path, so over time he continued to pray and follow the voice of God. At age 21, he became an itinerant pastor, preaching to crowds in Tanzania and the neighboring nations of Zambia and Burundi.

In 1984, he attended the East African School of Theology in Nairobi, Kenya, where he got his B.A. in theology. In 1987 started Bethel Bible Temple, an Assemblies of God church in Morogoro, which has blossomed to 1,400 members.

Before his congregation, the affable, passionate Mtokambali uses a mix of deliveries. He has a rich, soothing voice that engenders the notion of God's love for all. Yet, when needed, he can switch quickly to an imploring boom, seeking the Lord's help to dispel sickness and demons.

Under his leadership, the church is building a new administrative wing.
Members trust him to the point that they currently are earmarking two months' of paychecks a year -- above their normal tithe -- to complete the project.

Mtokambali is always moving forward. After getting his B.A., he got his master's of divinity degree from the International Theological Seminary in Los Angeles in 1992. In 2001, he got his doctorate from the Assembly of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Mo.

All the while, he has been raising a family with wife Gladymary, 46. They have three children: Joyline, 19; Gladline, 15; and Oceanic, 7. They live in Morogoro, near their church.

Meantime, he continues to push forward his growing vision for Ebenezer Seminary. He has been deepening an ongoing partnership with Riverside Community Church, hoping its members will put their arms around the school and students.

"We can't do it without your help," he says.

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Posted 6/30/2008 in In the News

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November 25, 2007

Metamora Football Wins State Championship!

Saturday, Metamora's football team took home the 5A high school state championship.  The game ended with a 26-yard field goal kick from freshman Brennen VanMieghem.  Metamora won 17-14 in their first state championship win since 1975.  The team has gone to the state championship many times over the last decade or so, making victory this year even sweeter.

The remarkable thing about the team this year isn't just their superior athletic ability--it's their dedication to God.  Many Metamora players come to Riverside, including tight end / linebacker Brad Herman, Captain Adam Duvendack and co-captain Alex Luhring.  This morning, Pastor John invited them on stage so we as a church could celebrate with them, and hear about what God has done in their lives. 

Last year, seniors from the team started Bible studies and worship gatherings--something clearly impacted this year's players.  This year, the team members continued to attend the gatherings, and prayed together before and after games.  The players mentioned the influence of last year's seniors as one of the main factors causing this year's spiritual climate.

Duvendack, an all-state running back, said: "I honestly don't know how we could've made it through the game without people praying for us."

Brad Herman, an all-state tight end / linebacker, told the congregation about a prophecy given to him by a prophet from the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City.  The prophecy included the message that he would be part of winning a championship in the near future.  Herman admitted: "It was pretty much a faith test throughout the whole game--just to stay strong in God and believe...and sure enough he came through, and it was pretty neat.  God was really on our side yesterday."

Wow!  We couldn't be prouder of these guys--how they represent Christ to their school and teammates. 

The Metamora "section" at Riverside has been growing over the last year or so, and we're glad they've found their spiritual home here, both in our main services and Confession (our young adults group).

Read the Journal Star's article about the game here.

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Posted 11/25/2007 in In the News

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November 2, 2007

Project Armor-All Comes to Riverside

Local news crews buzzed around our sanctuary today, as local pastors and religious leaders met to talk about how prayer can help turn our city around.  Mayor Ardis called the meeting in hopes that pastors will catch a vision for regular prayer meetings.  The group established a "steering committee" today that will organize regular prayer with a focus on issues like crime, violence, and unity among churches.

Andy King (director of Dream Center Peoria) encouraged pastors to join Adopt-a-Block in targeting Taft homes for door-to-door prayer.  He hopes Adopt-a-Block's volunteer base will increase so it can visit and pray for residents in neighborhoods across the city.
Watch for local television and newspaper coverage about the meeting!

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Posted 11/2/2007 in In the News

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July 9, 2007

Riverside Seminar on the Radio!

Riverside's monthly seminar, Related Leaders, is holding a special event for Worship Leaders. Following the seminar is a special concert by "Revival in Belfast" visionary Robin Mark.

In response to this special event, WCIC as well as several other Christian Radio Stations have been buzzing with news about the event. Keep your ears open to hear the great radio coverage that we've been getting and don't forget to buy your tickets for this once in a lifetime event!

Posted 7/9/2007 in In the News

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February 24, 2007

In the Press: Related Leaders

Religion columnist Mike Miller did a feature story in the Saturday, February 24 edition of the Peoria Journal Star on the upcoming Related Leaders seminar being hosted at Riverside on Monday, March 12, with Mike Haley and Melissa Fryrear of Focus on the Family, discussing the issue of homosexuality and the church. Don't miss out on this event - register today!

Taking a stand, but showing compassion
By MICHAEL MILLER
of the Journal Star

Homosexual behavior is a sin that needs to be addressed more often and more honestly by evangelical churches - but with compassion, say two former homosexuals.

"It's one thing to take a stand on the issue of homosexuality," said Mike Haley.

But when people show up in a pastor's office with questions about their own sexuality or how to deal with a homosexual relative or friend, politics need to be left in the waiting room.

"(A pastor's) people need real-life answers to real-life questions," Haley said. "Most pastors don't know where to go and don't know how to respond to those questions."

That's one of the problems Haley and Melissa Fryrear, two former homosexuals now working for Focus on the Family, plan to address at "Homosexuality and the Church: How Should the Church Respond?", a day-long Related Leaders seminar March 12 at Riverside Community Church, 207 NE Monroe St., Peoria.

"What we tell them is there really is no hard-and-fast rule on that per se," Haley said. "There's a lot to be considered" in counseling a person struggling with homosexuality, such as what a person's triggers or temptations are, or whether there was sexual abuse in the person's past.

The goal of the March 10 presentation is "to help the Christian community to know how to respond with both truth and grace to the issue of homosexuality," Haley said.

As to the controversial question of whether a homosexual person's orientation can change, Peorian Flo Hubbs has offered a loud "yes."

In 1979, Hubbs decided that men didn't have any attraction for her despite being surrounded by them as a member of the U.S. Navy. She began a homosexual lifestyle that would last through a relationship in the Navy, a series of one-night stands and a nine-year "holy union" with a woman.

After ending up in Peoria, Hubbs and her partner became active in a church now closed. "We told everybody we were just sisters," Hubbs said.

That relationship ended in the early 1990s, though, and Hubbs wasn't sure what to do.

"I knew I couldn't go back to the bars," she said. "I was at a loss. I really started diving into the Bible."
That was when things started to change for her.

"I realized I was living a lie," Hubbs said. "The only way to correct it was to repent."

At about the same time, she started attending Mount Olive Missionary Church on North University Street. At first she "kind of sat in the back," but then got involved in children's ministry. That required her to continue studying the Bible, where she became more convinced that not only was homosexual behavior a sin, but that
it was one of which she could be healed.

"I asked God in '93 to take away those sinful desires - and God did," Hubbs said.

Helping her through all of these stages, though, were compassionate Christians, Hubbs said. She developed friendships with Christian women at Mount Olive and in Community Bible Study.

Today, Hubbs, now 50, says that dealing with homosexuals has "got to be done with compassion."

"Even a heterosexual sin like adultery, you want to compassionately tell a person, 'You're ruining your marriage here,' " she said.

Homosexuals who say they are Christians need to be told that they're "going against the teachings of Jesus," that they are in effect telling God they're going to do what they want to do, Hubbs said.

Focus on the Family's Haley said the good news is that churches are getting better at dealing with the issue.

"I think our efforts are being highly received and more and more people have been desiring the information we're offering," he said.

"In this issue in the past, they've buried their heads. To be a relevant church in today's society, they have to be willing to address this issue."

Posted 2/24/2007 in In the News

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