GROWING AS WE GATHER

RiverOaks has long been a place that focuses on being together and growing together. The church has been full of places, spaces, and opportunities to gather and grow with one another. However, when we first introduced community groups, it took people a minute to catch on. “Gather just to gather? No bible study? No Agenda? Just make friends?” The ideas were a bit foreign but once they took root, our church has continued to grow and flourish. This growth can easily be seen across our community each week.

Riveroaks Tulsa Growth

In Worship we have over 450 people weekly, up 20% from last year.

• In May we have added 30 new members, on top of the 40 we added last fall.

In RiverOaks Kids we have from 100 - 120 children every week.

In the Core Youth Group we have over 65 teens involved.

• More than 15 adults also volunteer weekly

Our Women’s ministry has blossomed under the Women’s Care team.

• More than 90 women are reading through the bible together

• Two women’s bible study groups meet weekly with childcare provided

• We have a weekly mother connection group gathering at the playgrounds weekly

• Every month or so the women throw a special event to gather new people and help them make new friends

Our ministry to the broader community includes:

• Divorce Care

• Surviving the Holidays

• Grief Share

• Single and Parenting

• Overcoming Job Transition

• Plumbline Counseling

• MEND health clinic

New Members

We have been busy planting Churches.

• 2011 Trinity Presbyterian Church in Owasso

• 2013 Ethos Presbyterian (now Grace and Peace)

• 2015 Pacto de Gracia

• 2016 Three Rivers Presbyterian in Grove

• 2018 New City Fellowship in North Tulsa (still Supporting)

• 2018 Hope Presbyterian in Bartlesville

We have been supporting ministry to college students.

• RUF Tulsa

• RUF Oklahoma State

• RUF Oklahoma

• RUF University of Arkansas

• Three of our youth have become RUF interns: Madeline Dorst, Scott Moore, Joe Crews

In Foreign Missions:

• We helped a church in Lviv Ukraine purchase a building

• Sent a missionary (Mi Lo) to Vietnam

• Sent Virginia Crews to Ukraine

Regional Growth And Missions Started And Supported

By God’s grace, we have accomplished much in the 17 years. We have been a vital resource church, giving heavily to church planting, RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) campus ministry, and local and international missions. We have planted four daughter churches and two granddaughter churches in NE Oklahoma, with an average attendance of 835 people.

Churches Planted:

• Trinity Presbyterian Church, Owasso

• Grace & Peace (formerly Ethos) Presbyterian Church, Tulsa

• Pacto de Gracia (Now King’s Cross) Church, Tulsa

• New City Fellowship Church, North Tulsa

• Three Rivers Presbyterian Church, Grove

• Hope Presbyterian Church, Bartlesville

Pastors/Missionaries Deployed:

• Rev. Shane Hatfield

• Pastor & Missionary Mi Lo

• Rev. Ross Turner

• Rev. Jason Averill

• Youth Pastor Joseph Crews

• Future pastors Scott and Andrew Moore

• RUF Staffer Madeleine Dorst

• Missionary Virginia Crews

Resources Deployed (since 2012):

• $550,000 for church planting

• $340,000 to RUF Campus Ministries

• $495,000 to local and mercy ministries

• $150,000 to international missions

RESOURCES DEPLOYED (SINCE 2012)

$550,000 (to Church Planting)

$340,000 (to RUF Campus Ministries)

$495,000 (to Local and Mercy Ministries)

$150,000 (to International Missions)

Space To Gather

In 2012, River Oaks was a church meeting in a rented space in a school. The 10-acre campus on 101st Street became available for us to rent, and even though we couldn’t afford it at the time, we took a step of faith and moved. God provided a school and a church to sublease buildings on our campus so that we could afford the rent, and we immediately began to grow. We also continued to plant churches, sending over 100 people out to start Ethos Presbyterian (now Grace & Peace Presbyterian) in 2013. Over the last 11 years, we have continued to grow, with average attendance now nearing 500. Because of these blessings, our growth has outpaced our infrastructure.

Attendance Growth Trajectory

We are bursting at the seams in our current buildings, particularly in our children’s area. As a church, we are blessed with more children than our facility can currently support. In our first service alone, 60% of the attendees are children. Space has become such a problem, best seen that 1-3rd graders, as well as our 5th graders, have to cross the parking lot for Sunday School.

This growth is pushing into our Youth Group, which will naturally grow from 60 to 112 kids in the next three years simply from age promotion of our current children. This is before any additional new families come to the church. Our current youth building is presently unable to handle this coming growth in order to facilitate our dynamic youth ministry.

In addition to our kids and youth, our adults are also cramped for space. Presently, our adult ministry spaces are now also busting at the seams.

Our current growth rate is unsustainable due to the constraints of our buildings.

• The lobby, used for gathering before and after church, is cramped and restricts space and flow before and after services.

• Adult Sunday Schools lack adequate weekly meeting space.

• Nearly all of our Bible study and discipleship groups meet off campus due to lack of space.

• The outdoor space is regularly used for overflow and fellowship gatherings despite being uncovered and unfinished.

• Our current footprint does not have office space for our women’s ministry coordinator, interns for youth group, or any future staff members.

• Finally, our meeting spaces are inadequate, lacking space large enough for our deacons, women’s care team, or elders to meet; we currently use space in the youth building (coordinating a time when not in use by the youth) or meet off-campus.

In addition to the capacity of our church campus, we are also aware of the aesthetic appeal of our building. More than 20,000 people drive past our campus on 101st every day, and they only see the back of our building, which looks like a warehouse. Our signage does not communicate the healing community that Jesus has made us. We have something beautiful and life-giving here at River Oaks, but no one who drives by would know that because our facilities say otherwise.

“I think of RiverOaks as beautiful, because of the ministry and the people. When I saw a picture of how our building looks from the road I was shocked. It looked cold, abandoned and aloof; it doesn’t match the beauty that exists inside the buildings. I want our campus to communicate to Tulsa the beauty of our ministry. I want everyone who drives by to see something beautiful.” - Mark Dalton