Our Vision
We desire to see God, by His grace, continue to build through us a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, mission-minded, biblically grounded church of Christ where we watch our life and doctrine closely as we minister to one another and to a lost world.
Our imperative for the North River Church of Christ is to be a people thoroughly grounded in the Word of God. Ephesians 4:1-16 lays out the biblical model for a mature church. We are committed to following that pattern and teaching.
Reaching the Lost and Serving Those in Need
- Evangelism (Matthew 28)
- Local: Special training sessions for men and women led by Tom and Kelly Brown will be offered to further equip members to study the Bible effectively with others and to strategically evangelize certain areas.
- Regional: “We are going to Auburn!” North River has dozens of members who were converted to Christ as college students and several who have served as outstanding full time campus ministers. Over the next several years, we will focus our regional evangelism on planting campus churches and helping existing churches begin campus ministries in Georgia and the Southeast. We will become a training center for future campus leaders, ministers and elders. It is our intent to strengthen existing congregations (when asked) and help start new congregations similar to our first church planting in 2006 – the Auburn Tuskegee Christian Church.
- International: We will continue to support our missionary efforts in Africa through prayer and annual mission contributions. In addition to regular updates in our newsletters/bulletins, our goal is to send several of our members this year to personally encourage and evaluate the needs/ opportunities on the continent. We will continue to support our teaching ministry not only in Africa, but around the globe.
- Benevolence & Community Service (Matthew 25). Each disciple should follow Jesus’ example of lifestyle evangelism and lifestyle service. As a church, we encourage each Family Group to develop an outreach plan and a community service focus such as ministering to the elderly, a prison ministry, feeding the poor, or mentoring.
Our One Another Relationships (John 13:34-35)
Family Groups: We will continue to encourage every member at North River to be an active part of a Family Group as a vehicle to practice the many one another passages in the New Testament, as well as develop a close network of friends in the church. We want to build closer relationships with the campus, singles and adult Family Groups for encouragement and mentoring.
The Older Teach the Younger (Titus 2:1-5, I Peter 5:5)
The Bible emphasizes the older teaching the younger in mentoring/discipling relationships. We particularly want to focus on special need areas including new Christians, engaged couples, new marriages, young families, academic and career development, sexual purity and areas of self control. We encourage every disciple to seek out relationships that will follow this Biblical pattern.
The Brotherhood (I Peter 2:17): We want to encourage participation in brotherhood events around the country and engage in regular fellowship opportunities with our Atlanta family of sister churches.
We believe our worship services should be Christ-centered and bring glory to God by lifting up Christ and inspiring us to live lives that glorify him in every way.
We recognize that without spiritual growth and a much deepened reliance on our Heavenly Father in prayer, that our vision will be blurred and our goals unfulfilled. We are calling on every member to reach new heights in their prayer life and increase their faith and dependence on our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 6:18).
We are asking our Heavenly Father to direct and help us accomplish all of these goals and for the vision to do even greater things here in His body at North River. We believe if we humbly bow and submit ourselves before Him, and seek all of this for His glory alone, that He will be pleased and we will be successful.
Oh Lord, open the eyes of these men, so they can see. (2 Kings 6:20)