United in Christ
River Oaks celebrated our annual vision Sunday on August 25, 2019. It was a time to re-center on our shared vision: to magnify Christ in our church family, the community, and the world. Here’s a recap in case you missed it!
Corporate Worship
With nearly 280 people in attendance, we worshiped the living God together and, in particular, listened to God speak through John 17 about the importance of church unity as a witness to the world. Listen to Pastor Camera’s sermon, “Unity, Love, Witness,” below (or go to the sermon series):
Vision Dinner
Well over 110 people gathered for dinner catered by Olive Garden (kudos to Melody Hoover for coordinating). We enjoyed a mountain of breadsticks, numerous pasta options, desserts and good fellowship as we broke bread together.
(Click on the images to view full screen)
Midway through dinner, the formal presentation kicked off. If you missed it, you can view the presentation and listen to the audio (apologies for the poor sound quality).
Representatives of several ministries discussed the past year and what lies ahead. (Due to time constraints, we could not fit all teams in, but we also want to recognize the Welcome Team, Coffee Team, Dyslexia Tutoring ministry, Men’s Ministry, and Music Ministry for all the hard work they do in the life of the church.)
- Pastor Camera began with a reminder of our church vision statement.
- Todd Boone gave an update on community groups and announced his new calling to serve as assistant pastor at Grace Point Church (Irmo, SC). Pastor Lanier offered a prayer for the Boones. They will be greatly missed!
- Joel Trigger gave an overview of family ministry (children and student ministries), looking back at some of the milestones from the year and ahead at some new initiatives.
- Nicole Gallagher represented the Mercy team and discussed the various ministries we partner as well as upcoming mercy events.
- J.B. Boonstra gave a recap of the past year for the Missions Team, including our November 2018 Missions Sunday and 2019 Bahamas Mission Trip.
- Abbie Shimer discussed the three-fold vision of the Women’s Ministry (Connect > Equip > Deploy) and shared details about upcoming women’s events and Bible studies.
- Pastors Greg Lanier and David Camera each gave updates on their families and ministry activities.
- We welcomed our new pastoral intern, Zach McIntosh, and his family (Charlotte, Zane, and baby #2 due in October).
- David Camera, representing the Building Committee, gave an update on the building project. We are delighted to report we have exceeded our fundraising goal, have signed the construction contract, and will break ground in a couple months!
- We closed the night with Q&A.
It was a very encouraging time in the life of our church. As David mentioned, it’s a wonderful thing to see so many teams of laypersons doing great ministry for kingdom impact here and around the world.
If you are interested in getting involved, please don’t hesitate to contact the church to find out how!
