Outside: Local Missions
There are numerous needs in the Rockford area. We have three options to help you be a part of the solution: join an existing local missions team, partner with a local non-profit organization, or start your own local missions ministry. Once you find a team here you want to join or are ready to start a new one, go here to sign-up through email.
Join an Existing Team
We provide various service opportunities throughout the year, such as Paper Angels, Toys for Tots, and Thanksgiving Baskets. We also have ongoing local ministries. These are the River Valley ministries that reach out to our community that are currently being led by River Valley volunteers. When you contact us, we will get your name to the group with which you want to serve.
Adopt a Highway
River Valley Community Church has "adopted a highway." One Saturday per month in April, June, August, and October, we'll look after our little adopted stretch of Perryville Road. A group of adults (18 and over) is needed to collect trash and spiff it up. We will need a minimum of 8 volunteers each time. We'll meet at 7:30 a.m. in the Lowe’s parking lot (E. State & Perryville), then after making it beautiful, we'll head to a nearby restaurant for some food and fellowship.
Kidz Kits
Kidz Kits supplies short-term, critical supplies to children who have been removed from their homes by state welfare services. Packaged in a backpack, Kidz Kits are designed to reassure children during the first hours of transition, as they are moved to a positive, long-term family situation. Kidz Kits does this by lovingly filling the gap between home removal and foster care with familiar items a child will likely need: a blanket, a stuffed animal and small toys, toiletries, activity books, pajamas, underwear and socks, bottles, formulas and diapers. The goal is to reinforce the child’s self worth during a time when uncertainty abounds. For more information, please see www.kidzkits.org.
Maude Johnson School Partnership
We are partnering with Maud Johnson Elementary School, its Parent Teacher Organization, and the staff there. We have chosen this local school to help meet their needs and affect change in the school culture and in staff and families’ lives. Our hope is that in serving the felt needs, we will eventually serve the spiritual needs as God opens the doors. There will be many service opportunities througout this partnership to pull from everyone's talents.
Partner with a Local Non-Profit
We’ve formed partnerships with several non-profit organizations that focus on meeting the needs of our local community. We do not see any need to duplicate the ministry they do with excellence. So, if you are interested in serving the community, you might want to contact these ministries and partner with them. Let them know you are a part of the River Valley Community Church mission force. If you know of other ministries we should tell our church about, please let us know.
Carpenter’s Place
Carpenter’s Place is a place of hope, help, and healing for those often referred to as the ‘street’ population: the homeless, addicted, mentally ill, or otherwise severely distressed individuals of our community. For opportunities to learn about Carpenter’s Place and service with them, go to www.carpentersplace.org.
Love INC: Love In the Name of Christ
Love INC brings Christian churches together, across denominational lines, to help the poor by meeting immediate needs such as food and clothing, to longer-term responses through relational ministries such as life skills training and transitional housing. Love INC helps our church cooperate with other local churches and service agencies to provide care for the disadvantaged. If you become a Love INC volunteer, you will be contacted through our church to help people in our church as well as those in need in our community. Some areas of service include moving, packing, yard work, snow removal, house cleaning, shopping for seniors, taking people to appointments, phone calling shut-ins, visiting elderly shut-ins, minor home repair. You can be a Church Ministry Coordinator, a volunteer, or a direct servant at the Love INC local office. For opportunities to learn about the national Love INC and service with them, go to www.loveinc.org and to contact the local ministry, call 815-962-5683, or email loveinc@xta.com.
Lydia Safe Families
You can be a Safe Family for a child in crisis. When a crisis strikes, many of us rely on relatives and friends for support. Some families do not have that safety net. Often for them, a straightforward problem such as postpartum depression or unemployment can be debilitating. Children in these situations often suffer neglect or abuse; some eventually are removed from their home and placed in state custody. Lydia’s Safe Families program arranges for these children to stay with a Christian family while the parents address the issues that led to their situation. Safe Families volunteers provide the home and the love. For opportunities to learn about the national Lydia program and service with them, go to www.lydiahome.org. To contact our local ministry call Robb Rennix at 815-978-8151 or email Rockford@lydiahome.org.
Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing ministry. Habitat welcomes all people--regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or any other difference—to build simple, decent, affordable houses with those who lack adequate shelter. The Rockford Area Habitat affiliates work in the Rockford area to select and support homeowners, organize volunteers and coordinate house building. For opportunities to learn about the national Habitat ministry and service with them, go to www.habitat.org. To contact the Rockford Area Habitat, call 815-636-4573.
Rockford Reachout Jail Ministry
The Reachout Jail Ministry works within the Winnebago County Justice Center to provide worship services, Bible studies, distribute Bibles, provide pastoral counsel, and connect ex-offenders with local community resources (churches, housing, food, and jobs). The REVYVE works with teens in the Juvenile Detention Center in the same way. You can volunteer in many ways to reach out to those in prison and their families who are suffering. For opportunities to learn about the national Reachout Jail Ministry and service with them, contact Michael Sowell, Senior Chaplain, at rrjmmsowell@aol.com.
Rockford Rescue Mission
The Rockford Rescue Mission shares hope and help in Jesus' name to move people from homelessness and despair toward personal and spiritual wholeness. They offer men’s crisis services and life recovery services for men and women, a medical service, meals, and an innovative education center. For opportunities to learn about the Rockford Rescue Mission and service with them, go to www.rockfordrescuemission.org.
Shelter Care
Shelter Care is an outreach of Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Rockford. They exist to serve families who are homeless and adults living with mental illness while they move to self-sufficiency. Their programs include emergency housing, transitional housing, soup kitchen, the Jubilee Center (helping people with mental illnesses), and Maya’s House (meeting the needs of homeless children and their moms). For opportunities to learn about Shelter Care and service with them, go to www.shelter-care.org
Start a New Ministry
You may be asking, “What if I don’t fit any of the ongoing ministries at River Valley? Can I start a new ministry?” Absolutely! If God put you in our church, then he is shaping our ministries around your S.H.A.P.E. (Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, Experiences). We want to support you and unleash you to do what you are made to do. Hopefully, you are a “designer” or have one on your team.
In order to start a new ministry at River Valley, you need to have six things. Each of these six is critical. We call them “The 6 P’s.” Think and pray through these and put them in a ministry proposal, some written form that explains The 6 P’s of your new ministry idea. You can download the PDF of this here (add link to PDF). When you are ready to go, present The 6 P’s to Rodney.
- Purpose: There must be a specific purpose for the ministry and that purpose must fit under our church’s purposes of Worship, Evangelism, Community, Ministry and Discipleship. What is your purpose?
- Plan: There must be a clear, strategic plan for doing the ministry before you start doing the ministry. What is your plan?
- People: No one starts a ministry alone. You must have a team of helpers. Recruit before you request. Gather before you go. Who are your people?
- Point: There must be a leader who has the spiritual gift of leadership. This leader must have made the 201 level commitment through Igniter 201 class and demonstrate leadership abilities. No ministry gets launched without a spiritually gifted and committed leader in place. If that is not you but you have the vision, then start praying for and recruiting a gifted leader. If there is no Point Person, there is no point in asking to begin. Who is your point person and why is he or she qualified?
- Pockets: Most initiatives take resources to get going, either material or money. You need to know from where those resources are coming, whose pockets are getting tapped. If God is in it, then God has a plan for funding it. You need to do the work to figure out that plan. What are the pockets providing your resources?
- Prayer: Any ministry that God is leading you to do will be one that he wants you to do his way and in his power. While you are figuring out all these “P’s,” don’t forget to stay locked in with God through prayer. How will you cover this new ministry in prayer?