Riverview Missions

Jesus gave this commission to His disciples: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." (Matthew 28:19) Just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus spoke again to His disciples, and instructed them, "...you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8)
How does our Riverview fulfill Jesus' commission and obey His instruction to go to all nations, even to the remotest part of the earth? The answer is found in our support of home and foreign mission work -- what we call "Missions" for short.

Why Missions?

Missions is the work of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ beyond our own community and to distant lands. With so many needs at home, why should we be concerned for things that are happening so far away? We support mission work for the following reasons.

1. We support missions because God demands it. Jesus commanded us to do so. In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commanded us to "make disciples of all nations." In Acts 1:8 Jesus defined that "all the world" consisted of Jerusalem (our immediate neighborhood), Judea (our surrounding area), Samaria (the "difficult" neighborhood nearby we would rather avoid), and the remotest part of the earth (foreign countries.) The first generation of disciples obeyed these words of Jesus, penetrating far into Europe, Asia, and Africa.

2. We support missions because reason demands it. There are many people in the world who have not yet heard the Gospel. In Romans 10:14-15 Paul writes, "... how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?" It is up to us who have heard the Gospel to share it with others. We also have a responsibility to provide resources for the ministry to those who lack such resources, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:13-14, "For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equalityñ at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need..."

3. We support missions because of the blessing we receive from it. When the Jerusalem church heard the report of the conversion of the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, they glorified God (Acts 11:18) and when that church communicated back to the Gentile church in Antioch by letter the Christians in Antioch "rejoiced because of its encouragement" (Acts 15:31.) Great encouragement and inspiration comes when we share across cultural and political boundaries the work that God is doing.

Missionaries & Organizations We Support:

In North America
Russ and Di Zimmerman Campus Crusade for Christ	Twin Cities, MN	Coordinates campus ministries in the metropolitan Twin Cities
Craig and Kim Jentink Cadence International	Denver, CO	Outreach to military families
Bob and Lynn Koehn Campus Crusade for Christ	Orlando, FL	Administrative support
Neighbors	Northern Dakota County	Food shelf, clothing, emergency funding: Riverview refers all request for social assistance to Neighbors
Union Gospel Mission	St. Paul	Providing food & shelter to the homeless, job training, rehabilitation programs
Emerging Leaders North American Baptist Conference		Developing leadership here at Riverview and throughout the North American Baptist conference
Village Creek Bible Camp	Lansing, IA	Camp supported in conjunction with NAB churches in Illinois, Iowa,  Minnesota and Wisconsin
Minnesota LaCrosse Association		Our cooperative effort with other NAB churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin
North American Baptist Conference		Provides assistance in church planting and church growth to our denominational churches in the U.S. and Canada.
North American Baptist Seminary	Sioux Falls, SD	Our denominational seminary which provides pastoral and other leadership training for our churches.
Pioneer Clubs		Children's club ministry (Riverview has a club)
Angel Tree Prison Fellowship		Providing Christmas gifts for children of those incarcerated in Ramsey & Dakota County penal system
The Gideons		Bible distribution throughout the world
Outside North America
Sasha and Elizabeth Morozov Global Aid Network (GAiN)	Russia	Sharing the Gospel and distributing humanitarian aid in Russian, Siberia, and former soviet republics
Steve and Carol Jean Gallagher Wycliffe Bible Translators	Papua New Guinea	Serving the Bariai people of Papua New Guinea through Bible translation
Russian Bible School North American Baptist Conference	Russia	Support Pastor Wick and others on two week teaching missions to Russia
John and Sylvia Kallin Assoc. of Baptist for World Evangelism	Brazil, along the Amazon River	Sharing the Gospel and planting churches
Project Increase	Jamaica	Assisting churches with ministry; includes jail and orphanage ministry, includes support with volunteer leadership
Project Salve	El Salvador	Medical and humanitarian relief mission trips
Michelle Robinette Robin's Nest	Jamaica	Support for the orphanage, especially reaching out to special needs children
Dennis and Nancy Palmer North American Baptist Conference	Cameroon west Africa	Medical Ministries, administration & teaching
Doug and Sharon Woyke North American Baptist Conference	Japan	Teaching, pastoral and administration ministries

Riverview Baptist Church provides these links to many websites created and maintained by other organizations as a service. When users link to an outside website, they are leaving the Riverview site. Riverview is not responsible for and cannot assure the accuracy of information on these outside web sites.