Every week these guys come to my door, hand me a couple loaves of homemade looking bread and a bag of beef jerky, then they invite me to a church service held in a community center with the promise of pizza and coffee. I know that many churches do outreach work, but this goes above and beyond anything I've ever heard of before; especially since these guys look like they could use the food a LOT more than I can.
Natrually I'm intriged. I did some research on the net but found nothing except the minister's ceremony ad on a wedding site. Normally I would just go to one of their services; however I'm a little worried that they might be tied to the Victory Outreach cult which is also very active in my neighborhood. I've already fallen for one cult and I don't want to get sucked into another one.
That's why I was wondering if anyone has every heard anything about this group. Does anyone know of a similar group running under a different name?
(PS: to the mods. I hope that this post doesn't violate rule #2. If it does I apologize and understand fully if you wish to remove it. If you do please send me a PM).
anyone ever heard of THE RIVER church?
by what_Truth? 18 Replies latest jw experiences
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what_Truth?
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GetBusyLiving
Maybe it's some strange farm produce cult or something.. I'd go for the food anyways
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Leolaia
What state are you in, if you are in the US? There are several "River churches" out there.
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what_Truth?
I live in Vancouver, Canada. As far as I know there are no other river churches here.
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Satanus
Vancouver
Perhaps they are hippies that got lost for 40 yrs in the gastown wilderness.
S
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Leolaia
Well, they used to have a website at http://www.theriver.bc.ca. However, the page is now defunct. I checked the Internet Archive, but none of the cached pages for this website have any text.
There's another River Church in Ontario, but it may be have nothing to do with the one in Vancouver. http://netministries.org/see/churches.exe/ch26128
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lonelysheep
Sounds like a cult to me.
P.S.,
Where can I find these rules you're referring to??
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NeonMadman
Looks like it might be this group. Kinda strange, the statement of faith reads like standard evangelical teaching, but there seems to be a focus on postmodern thinkers. Interesting. Doesn't look like a truly cultic group to me (i.e., high control), but then if it is, they're not likely to advertise that on their web page.
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Leolaia
This group is based in San Jose, CA, and the webpage does not mention any affiliated congregations outside the Bay Area, so I doubt they are connected with the Vancouver, BC church. I read the PDF position paper by the San Jose group and they seem to be strongly focused on outreach and social welfare. They seem to be concerned with restoring "Ebionite" social consciousness to Christianity, especially in affluent American society where the needs of the poor enter our minds less than elsewhere.
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what_Truth?
One thing I should mention is that the flyer they sent attached to the last bag of beef jerky announces that they are having a special "healing servivce" on March the 5th. I'm assuming that this is some sort of faith healing. Perhaps that might narrow it down a bit.