River Oaks Offers Alternative to Traditional Church Setting

When Pastor Mark Ford helped start in Wentzville a little over eight years ago, the decision was sudden and surprising – even to him.

"It wasn’t just that my wife and I just sort of thought, ‘Hey, let’s go plant a church.’ We felt very powerfully called to do that, and it was out of the blue," he said. "It’s nothing we ever dreamed of doing. It’s nothing I ever prepared to do. It’s nothing I even knew much about."

Ford, an accomplished musician, was a music minister at the time and thought that was the direction he would continue taking.

"Three or four times in my life, there’s these crossroads moments, where God has started working inside of us, and there’s conviction, and you need to be praying, you need to be searching scripture, and you just know God’s wanting to show you something," Ford said. "That was probably the most powerful time in my life for me and my wife."

They agreed to take a couple weeks to pray about what God was trying to tell them. When they again discussed it, Ford and his wife Kristy said to each other, "I know what it is."

They were both practically shaking, Ford said.

"I said, "There’s a scripture that God has used to nail this down and show me what he’s wanting.’ She said, ‘Well, me too.’ I said, ‘For me it’s Isaiah 61, verse three.’ And she said, ‘Well, that’s the same verse.’ At that point we’re crying – we couldn’t believe it. The Bible’s a big book. The verse says ‘They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of his splendor.’ ... Then both of us said, ‘Well, here’s what I’m getting out of it, was to plant a church.’ Both of us had come to that separately, and it’s not something we ever talked about before."

The line "oaks of righteousness," along with a passage from Psalms 1 that says "a tree planted by the river will continue to bear fruit" led to the church’s name – River Oaks. Three years later, they were ready to give it a try.

"It’s tough," Ford said. "It’s like starting a business – the percentage of success is very low."

There were moments when people in leadership positions were saying, "we’re not gonna make it," Ford said.

"What got us through all the down times was we didn’t have a choice," he said. "This wasn’t whether or not people thought we needed another church. This was a God call."

Starting with a core group of 25 people, they opened the church doors in September 2002.

"That was probably the most anxious night of my life, the day before that first Sunday," Ford said. "Guaranteed was that 25 or 30 people were going to show up. Other than that, who knew? If you’re going to try and start a church with that small a group, really it’s hard to go anywhere. You’ve got to have a critical mass."

The first service brought in 119 people, with 60 or so still coming back by the third Sunday. The church now has 200 members who regularly attend the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service. While the church plans to move from their rented space and build a new church on 12 acres off Hepperman Road in the future, right now the focus is on the church vision.

"We consider ourselves a simple church, that is to say we are sort of organic, meaning that we want to be very New Testament church-like, and less consumeristic," Ford said. "We focus not on getting bigger but making a bigger difference."

River Oaks is a non-denominational church with a vision statement of "Worshiping God, Loving Each Other, Changing Our World, Through Christ." These three elements to the church’s vision come from the Bible.

"If you look at what the early church was doing, in Acts 2, read through those passages – those are the things you see," Ford said.

Changing the world – making a difference as individuals – gets a lot of emphasis.

"We do some organized things, but we have an understanding that the church is you," Ford said. "Don’t wait for our church to go out and do something – you go out and do it."

The church vision, Ford said, tries to address, "What is the church supposed to be, biblically?"

River Oaks went through some growing pains while trying to find an identity.

"The vision has changed a lot over the years. There were times when we were probably too focused on trying to get bigger," Ford said.

They’ve come full circle on that, he said, satisfied with a solid core group of members who love and appreciate each other.

"We want to keep reaching out, but we’re not really that worried about how big we get," Ford said. "It’s gotten now to the point where you couldn’t pry people away. They love it for what it is, not just what it’s becoming. That’s been a really wonderful, refreshing thing that’s happened, not only for our people, but for me."

One of the reasons River Oaks was founded was to offer an alternative to people.

"When we started here, there really was nothing but traditional churches," Ford said. "Which is wonderful – I certainly don’t want to slam them. But there were a lot of people who were not being reached by traditional churches and traditional methods. was a perfect place, at that time, to plant a modern, upbeat church that didn’t have any constraints. The only constraint is the Bible. That was one of our core values – talk about cultural relevance within the limits of scripture."

It was the right time to offer a less traditional format.

"The bottom line is it worked," he said. "We’ve had a couple hundred people at least who have made first-time decisions to become a Christian, to accept Christ. ... Many people have had their lives changed radically. We were able to reach a lot of people who were not being reached."

Doug Smith and his family, who have been members of River Oaks for four years, joined because they found the congregation very welcoming.

"What Mark has created is a very committed group of people who love one another and interact well," Smith said.

Ford, 40, has a Master’s in music ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Music is a big part of the relaxed worship style.

"It’s laid back. It is not a show," Ford said. "I wear jeans – everyone does, pretty much. The music is loud – it rocks. It’s along the lines of Mercy Me or Casting Crowns, those type of bands."

The music is "fantastic," Smith said. "There are a lot of talented musicians there."

While Ford occasionally chooses a topic for sermons, like the annual "Bring your friends who don’t believe" day, he usually has an expository style of preaching.

"Most of the time I teaching straight through books of the Bible," he said. "Like right now I’m going through the book of Hebrews – really heavy stuff. What has happened is, as we’ve grown and we’ve reached people who had not been in church, we’ve realized these people need to be discipled. They don’t even know the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament."

The original plan was to teach the Bible in classes and small groups, but the concern was people who were attracted to a non-traditional church would not be interested in the structure of Bible classes.

"You’re really doing well to get them to come Sunday mornings, " Ford said. "Over time I’ve looked out there at the congregation and said, ‘OK, we have 200 people and they just really need to be taught the Bible.’ So my preaching has become very discipleship oriented, and it really is the number one place where people learn more about what the Bible says about how to live, who God is, those kind of things."

Ford is direct in helping people understand the Bible.

"I try to be loving and caring, but I don’t preach to try to keep everybody happy," he said. "I just really preach the word of God."

This is a practical approach.

"He is a teacher," Smith said. "You’re going to be taught – not preached at, not condemned. What I like about Mark the most is he doesn’t try to water down what’s real and true to pacify people."

This tough love style works.

"River Oaks Church is transforming the lives of the people who go there," Smith said.

Ford, who is interested in "life-long learning," is taking classes at the St. Louis extension of the Kansas City-based Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While Ford’s seminary training has been through the Southern Baptists, the goal at River Oaks is to be "a church for everyone," he said.

"We have people from the Catholic tradition, we have people from the Charismatic tradition, Methodist, Lutheran – you almost can’t name a denomination that we don’t have people from. We’re trying to be welcoming to all."

That’s what the Smith family found when they joined.

"The same people greet you pretty much every week," Smith said. "It’s not so big that you get lost there – that’s the best part."

River Oaks Church is located at 1163 Wentzville Parkway, in front of . In addition to Sunday morning service at 10:30, the church also has a youth ministry, led by youth minister Brandon Boatner, that meets at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday.

For more information, call the church at 636-327-7075 or see the church web site