What we believe

River City Church is part of the Apostolic Church UK and Ireland. The Apostolic Church was birthed out of the great Welsh Revival of 1904 and you can read a fuller account on the official church website at www.apostolic-church.org. Formed in 1916, it is an evangelical Pentecostal church with a strong commitment to worldwide mission. Today it is a global church with millions of members throughout five continents.

As you will see in our statement of beliefs below, tenets Nos. 5 and 6 place us firmly in the Pentecostal section of Christendom, the fastest growing expression of the Christian faith.

Our unique tenet is No. 9, believing as we do that it was never the purpose of God that the recognised ministry of the Apostles and Prophets should cease any time in the ‘Church Age’. We believe that the power, the passion and the pattern of the early Church as recorded in the book of Acts, is the experience that God still desires for His Church today. That pattern of a fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers is recorded in Ephesians 4.vv11,12.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

 The ministries of ordained evangelists, pastors and teachers have been widely recognised across the body of Christ, but in recent decades there has begun a restoration of the ministries of the Apostle and the Prophet to the body of Christ. These ministries have been recognised in The Apostolic Church throughout the 20^th century and have been foundational to the growth of the Church across the world. These are vital equipping ministries if the saints (believers) are to be released to the work of the ministry, rather than ‘ministry’ being a term reserved for the pulpit. There is no biblical New Testament pattern of a separate ‘Clergy’ and ‘Laity’. Every believer is a member of one body with a different gift according to the grace given us (Romans 12.v4-8)

Right now throughout the world, God is moving by His Holy Spirit to transform lives through a revelation of His great love and wonderful purpose for each individual. He offers reconciliation and restoration to a world that is dying from the effects of separation from Him. He offers each of us ‘fullness of life’ through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who took the cause of our separation; our sin, onto Himself on the Cross.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16.

The following tenets of our church outline what we believe in summarised form.

Tenets of the Apostolic Church

1. The One True and Living God who eternally exists in Three Persons in Unity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. The inherent corruptness of Man through the Fall; the necessity of repentance and regeneration by grace and through faith in Christ alone and the eternal separation from God of the finally unrepentant.
3. The Virgin Birth, the Sinless Life, Atoning Death, Triumphant Resurrection, Ascension and Continuing Intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Second Coming and Millennial Reign on Earth.
4. The justification and sanctification of believers through the finished work of Christ.
5. The baptism of the Holy Spirit for believers with supernatural signs, empowering the Church for its mission in the world.
6. The gifts of the Holy Spirit for the building up of the Church and ministry to the world.
7. The sacraments of baptism by immersion and of the Lord’s Supper.
8. The divine inspiration and authority of the Holy Scriptures.
9. Christ’s leadership of the Church through apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders and deacons, for unity, maturity and growth of the Church.
10. The security of the believer as he remains in Christ.
11. The privilege and responsibility of bringing tithes and offerings to the Lord.