Riverview Church

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Easter Sunday night, 2007

Riverview Church is a pentecostal, evangelical Christian church headquartered in Burswood, an inner suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Riverview has expanded in recent times to include a north and south campus, and in 2007 launched a campus in Orange County, California. The church was established by current pastor Phil Baker and wife Heather Baker in 1997, out of the former Rhema Family Church which was founded in 1979 and grew to be one of Perth's largest by the late 1980s.[citation needed] Riverview Church operates with the mission statement: "to lead people to Christ, and build them into a worshipping community". The church maintains an ecumenical, liberal focus.

Services

Riverview hosts nine weekend church services across four campuses, and claims an attendance of more than 4,500 people per week on its website.

The church runs a kids service for children aged from 0-12. These services are called KidzChurch Live, and are provided during Saturday night and Sunday morning church. The church also broadcasts its services on television, via a program called RiverviewLIVE that currently airs across 54 countries, over various networks.

History

The church was founded by the current pastor's father, Brian J. Baker, who was born in England and with his wife, Valerie, migrated to New Zealand in 1972 and ran various ministries there.[1] They subsequently trained at Rhema Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma under Pastor Kenneth E. Hagin, and started the Inner City Faith Fellowship at Holmes Hall in Belmont, a suburb of Perth, on 9 December 1979. The church moved five months later to Brisbane Street, five blocks north of Perth's central business district.[2] Baker was ordained by Hagin in 1980. At this time, the Bakers were assisted by Pastors Mike and Randa Moorhead from Kansas City, who returned overseas after helping to establish Faith Christian Academy, which in February 1982 commenced teaching 70 school students from years 1 to 10 within the church's building.[3]

The church changed name to Rhema Faith Fellowship in 1982 and again to Rhema Family Church in June 1985, also moving to its current premises at Thorogood Street, Burswood (then called Victoria Park), which previously operated as a warehouse.[4] The school, renamed Rhema Christian Academy in 1985, had grown to 200 students by the following year and had moved to premises in Colombo Street, across Albany Highway from the church.[3] A bible school (Rhema Bible Training Centre or RBTC) was opened, and in the spirit of its evangelical traditions, started churches around Western Australia and Australia, as well as over 100 home groups operating in Perth's suburbs.[4] At its peak in the late 1980s, Rhema claimed to have over 3,200 members at its church in Victoria Park and was the biggest single church in Western Australia.[5] By 1989, the church also offered a children's ministry during its main service for those up to the age of 15, divided into four age groups.

On 30 April 1989, Brian J. Baker retired from the ministry, handing over to his son Phil and his wife Heather, who had been running a children's ministry in New Zealand.[6] Phil instituted a financial management plan for the church to handle mounting debts and liabilities arising from the late 1980s recession,[7] including disbanding the nationwide Rhema branding for churches started by RBTC graduates and loosening the relationship with the school, now renamed Regent College.[8] Under Phil Baker's guidance in 1991-1992, the church started periodic "Guest Sundays", a mix of dramatic arts and multimedia presentation designed to reach those outside the church, made plans for a television presentation called "Rhema Live" and introduced the slogan "the church for people who don't like church", which they maintain to the present day.[9]

However, numbers declined during the early 1990s, especially after the trial and conviction in September 1993 of Gary Holmes, the church's popular overseas missions director, of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy while at another church, New Day, in 1983[10], and subsequent media scrutiny of the church, which was labelled a "fringe religion" in bold headlines.[citation needed] In 1996, the church was finally forced to close, and the Moorheads started Rhema Bible Church and a related construction and development company on the Gold Coast, while Rhema graduate and former champion tennis player Margaret Court opened Victory Life Centre in Osborne Park with several former Rhema pastoral and administrative staff.

In 1997, Phil and Heather Baker established Riverview Church in the same building as the old Rhema fellowship, with a more ecumenical focus than its past incarnation, with a membership base that has grown consistently during the 2000s. Phil is president of the Australian Christian Churches network[11] and regularly writes to newspapers and makes media appearances representing the charismatic movement's point of view on what it feels are key issues.

The church has recently begun to move into multi-site services, with meetings held at North, South, and City sites. With an official launch date of 4 March 2007, the (former) Destiny People's Christian Church (Orange County, California) led by Wes and Ellie Beavis joined Riverview Church as its fourth campus. Connect and Worship Pastors Mark and Ali Cullen moved to California from Australia to assist and support the launch and subsequent growth of the church. The churchgoers on the Orange County campus are able through multimedia presentation to see the same sermon every Sunday that the Australian campuses see, a few hours later via satellite link.

References

  1. ^ "Brian and Valerie Baker". Rhema Life. [[Perth, Western Australia|]]. July 1986 (Vol. 1, No. 2). p. 3. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Accessed at Battye Library, Perth.
  2. ^ "Back to Belmont!". Rhema Life. [[Perth, Western Australia|]]. July 1986 (Vol. 1, No. 2). p. 1. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b "Rhema Christian Academy History". Rhema Life. September 1986 (Vol. 1, No. 4). p. 12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Our 7 Year Celebration". Rhema Life. December 1986 (Vol. 1, No. 6). pp. 1, 17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Down Long Routes Along The Road To Heaven". The Sunday Times. 12 April 1987. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Vessels change, anointing remains". Rhema Life. June 1989. p. 7.
  7. ^ "Church's Foundation Strong". Rhema Life. June 1989. p. 7.
  8. ^ Telecom Australia (1989; 1990). White Pages - Perth 09. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Rhema Life Magazine, Summer 1991
  10. ^ source: The West Australian, Sept 1993
  11. ^ "Episode 78 - Riverview Church - Pastor Phil Baker". George Negus Tonight (ABC). 22 June 2004. Retrieved 2007-03-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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