Southall, London Jeremy and Angel (and their children) are missionaries with Serge who will be entering a new mission field in Southall, UK in late 2019 or early 2020. Originally from Orlando, Jeremy and Angel first began serving in global missions in Uganda in 2015. They are in the process Read more…
Connecting the Dots This post marks the beginning of a new way for Joel (our Director of Family Ministries) to connect with the parents and youth who are involved in River Oaks’s student ministries. We hope this monthly resource will be a valuable way for everyone at ROC to “connect Read more…
The “Community” in Community Group According to a recent study by the Barna Group,* two of the top five reasons why people join a church are related to the community or fellowship they experience there: In today’s fragmented and isolated society, people are visiting churches looking for community. Since the Read more…
God is Sovereign! In the month of April, we will finish the latter part of Genesis by studying the end of Jacob’s life and the story of Joseph, whom God protected during his time in Egypt. We will be focusing on how God is sovereign over all of history and Read more…
A Biblical Model for Church? “Church as we know it is over. Here’s what’s next.” This is the title of a recently published FoxNews opinion piece by self-defined “social media pastor” Dave Adamson. Of course, as a pastor, reading that the Church of Jesus Christ was “over” took me by Read more…
Tracing God’s Promises During the month of March, we will be continuing our study of the center section of Genesis and God’s covenant promises to Abraham, particularly as they work out in the lives of his children/grandchildren. We will explore the wonderful truths of God’s faithfulness through the ups and Read more…
God Knows You From the Womb On February 25th, the U.S. Senate voted down the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act,” a bill sponsored by Senator Ben Sasse. This bill would have required a health-care practitioner to “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life Read more…
Interested in Further Study? During our Adult Sunday School series on the Book of Revelation, several questions have arisen about where folks could go to read in more depth about the book. There is so much published on this book that it can be bewildering. Many things out there are Read more…
Resourcing You! With the restructuring of our children’s and youth ministries into “family ministry” comes a desire for us as a church to grow in how we nurture our covenant children of all ages. This is the first installment of what will be a monthly update aimed at helping provide Read more…
New from Pastor Lanier Recently Dr. Lanier’s new book, How We Got the Bible, was released by Christian Focus publishers. This book explores how the books of the OT and NT were delivered by God, received as authoritative (canon), and transmitted to the church today (text). The book emerged, in part, out of a Read more…
Motivation to Multiply The vision for the CG ministry of our church is multiplication in the lives of the people of God: bearing fruit, making disciples, and growing in maturity. We aim to cultivate a small group culture that makes disciples across generations, and equips our members to keep doing Read more…
Reflecting on Bethlehem Click on over to Credo Magazine to see Pastor Lanier’s recent post discussing the birth narrative of Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew. In this post (just in time for Advent!), Greg explores the interesting ways in which Matthew quotes the OT in explaining the significance Read more…
New from Pastor Lanier Recently the result of Dr. Lanier’s doctoral work in England was published by Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, entitled: Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel. That’s a mouthful! What is this book about? It explores how the Gospel according to Luke draws on ancient metaphors Read more…
An Outward Vision The goal of a Community Group is to produce and encourage God-glorifying relationships as we express the kingdom of God. Interestingly, this happens not just by focusing inwardly, but on looking outside our group to bless others. The result is that the members of the group grow Read more…
Why Did Jesus Do That? Recently Pastor Lanier authored a short article about the curious scene in the Gospels when Jesus curses the fig tree on his way into Jerusalem the last time. Why does Jesus cause the tree to wither? How does it relate to the broader storyline of Read more…
Casting a Vision The Community Group ministry seeks to be a vibrant expression of the Kingdom of God through renewed relationships by caring, encouraging, edifying, and teaching one another. CGs are, then, an expression of the vision and principles of River Oaks. What are the marks of an effective CG? Read more…
Eating Together In the January edition of Tabletalk magazine, Pastor Camera writes about the blessing of sharing a meal together as Christians now as a beautiful anticipation of the heavenly marriage feast of the Lamb. Of the practical and spiritual implications, he writes: In a world where we are growing Read more…