Riverview Church

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Riverview Church is a Pentecostal and evangelical Christian church headquartered in Burswood, an inner suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Riverview has expanded in recent times to include a north and south campus for convenience of its attendees. The church was established by current pastor Phil Baker and wife Heather Baker in 1997.

[edit] Services

Every weekend Riverview hosts five church services, and claims an attendance of more than 3,500 people per week on its website.

  • Friday Night Youth: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
  • Saturday Night: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
  • Sunday Morning: 9:00am - 10:30am, 11:00am - 12:30am
  • Sunday Night: 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Riverview holds a kids service for children aged from 0-12. These services are called KidzChurch Live. The church also broadcasts its services on television, the program is call ChurchLIVE@Riverview and airs across 54 countries.

[edit] History

The church was founded by the current pastor's father, Brian J. Baker, who was born in England and with his wife, Valerie, ran various ministries in New Zealand. They subsequently trained at Rhema Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma under Pastor Kenneth E. Hagin, and started the Inner City Faith Fellowship in Perth in December 1979. Baker was ordained by Hagin in 1980. They were assisted by Pastors Mike and Randa Moorhead from Kansas City, who returned overseas in the early 1980s. Shortly thereafter, the Faith Christian Academy commenced teaching school students from years 1 to 10 at Colombo Street, across Albany Highway from the church.

It changed name to Rhema Faith Fellowship in 1982 and again to Rhema Family Church in 1986, also moving to its current premises at 1 Thorogood Street, Burswood (then called Victoria Park), which previously operated as a warehouse. A bible school (Rhema Bible Training Centre or RBTC) was opened, and in the spirit of its evangelical traditions, started churches around Western Australia and Australia. At its peak in the late 1980s, Rhema claimed to have over 3,200 members at its church in Victoria Park and was the biggest single church in Western Australia. By 1989, the church also offered a children's ministry during its main service for those up to the age of 15, divided into four age groups. (sources: The Western Mail, 1987, and The Sunday Times, 1988)

On 30 April 1989, Brian J. Baker retired from the ministry, handing over to his son Phil and his wife Heather, who had been running a children's ministry in New Zealand. Phil instituted a financial management plan for the church to handle mounting debts and liabilities arising from the late 1980s recession, including disbanding the nationwide Rhema branding for churches started by RBTC graduates and loosening the relationship with the school, now renamed Regent College. Under Phil Baker's guidance, the church started periodic "Guest Sundays", a mix of dramatic arts and multimedia presentation designed to reach those outside the church, made plans for a television presentation called "Rhema Live" and introduced the slogan "the church for people who don't like church".

However, numbers declined during the early 1990s, especially after the trial and conviction in September 1993 of Gary Holmes, the church's popular overseas missions director, of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy while at another church, New Day, in 1983 (source: The West Australian, Sept 1993), and subsequent media scrutiny of the church, which was labelled a "fringe religion" in bold headlines. In 1996, the church was finally forced to close, and the Moorheads started Rhema Bible Church and a related construction and development company on the Gold Coast, while Rhema graduate and former champion tennis player Margaret Court opened Victory Life Centre in Osborne Park with several former Rhema pastoral and administrative staff.

In 1997, Phil and Heather Baker established Riverview Church in the same building as the old Rhema fellowship, with a more ecumenical focus than its past incarnation. Phil is president of the Australian Christian Churches network and regularly writes to newspapers and makes media appearances representing the charismatic movement's point of view on what it feels are key issues.

[edit] External links

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