Our Church
Sunday Services
9AM CrossCurrents
10AM Sunday School
11AM Traditional Service
Welcome to Rivermont Presbyterian Church
3319 Hixson Pike
Chattanooga, TN 37415
423-877-8527; Fax 423-877-9426
e-mail: admin@rivermontpc.org
Join us in fellowship at Rivermont!
We are located at 3319 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga, TN, directly across the street from Rivermont Elementary School. We are a vibrant, spiritual community of warm, welcoming, loving people who work to be God’s hands and feet in the world.
We desire to be:
A haven for the hurting
To provide solace to those who struggle
To offer companionship to the lonely
To celebrate with those who rejoice.
Worship and Learning Opportunities:
- Sunday Contemporary Worship CrossCurrents — 9:00 a.m.
- Sunday School — 10:00 a.m.
- Sunday Traditional Worship – 11:00 a.m.
- Youth Banzai Sunday — 5:30 p.m
- Wednesdays Together Dinner — 5:30 p.m.
- Wednesdays Together Classes — 6:30 p.m.
Rivermont is involved in ministries where our faith is put into action. We invite you to unite with us and to invest your time and energies into helping others.
Habitat For Humanity
Hospital of the Holy Cross; Leogane, Haiti
The Community Kitchen
Interfaith Hospitality Network
Alzheimer’s Support Group
Stephen’s Ministers
are among the many ministries in which Rivermonters are involved.
Additionally, we invite you to have fun with us!
- Vacation Bible School
- Church Picnic
- Fall Family Festival
- Family Camp at Camp John Knox
are just a few of the many opportunities for fellowship at Rivermont Church.
Have you been wandering, trying to find a church in which you could become integrated into the ministry and love exhibited within? Come and visit on Sunday or call the church office, during the week, 423.877.8527, and make an appointment to come and tour the church.
View our:
- Sanctuary
- Atrium
- Gym
- Playgrounds
- Restaurant-size kitchen
- Sunday school wing
- Early Learning Center
- Mother’s Day out facilities
Youth room with plenty of “hanging around” space that includes a ping-pong table, foosball, billiards, stage and band instruments
AND, also meet the warm staff. It will be life-altering. Come and see.
If you would like to receive Rivermont’s monthly newsletter in a PDF file by email, please contact the church office at admin@rivermontpc.org.
How to Join Rivermont
Membership information
Anyone can become a member of Rivermont Church by a transfer of membership from another Christian Church, or by affirming or reaffirming your faith in Jesus Christ as the crucified Savior and resurrected Lord. If you have not been baptized we will gladly baptize you as part of joining the church.
We regularly offer NEWCOMERS CLASS FOR RECENT VISITORS. Simply gather in Dr. Sansbury’s office. All visitors interested in knowing more about our congregation are invited to come and participate in this one-session class with the pastor.
Speak to the pastor, dsansbury@rivermontpc.org, or one of the elders about joining Rivermont. Please introduce yourself to the pastor on your next visit to the church.
History of Rivermont
Rivermont Presbyterian Church had humble beginnings, when in 1957, thirty people began meeting in a building that had once housed a tavern.
Although now Rivermont is in the midst of a flourishing area, when it began as a “seed” church, it was on the fringes of the city. The resolute young adults who began Rivermont were so committed to God’s call that they all agreed to positions of responsibility within the church to propel it toward growth and fiscal stability. With God’s blessings, from those few members who conducted Sunday school under the trees and conducted the first baptism using a soup tureen-type font, Rivermont has grown into a thriving and vital congregation of 500.
We continue to be the loving community of faith that was established by our founding members. We believe that our mission is to convey and to demonstrate the love and acceptance of Christ to every person. We live our faith and as a result, we are very involved in outreach in Chattanooga and around the world.
Whether the need is to respond to the illness of one of our members or a global project, we mobilize. Some of our involvement includes the funding and constructing of Habitat for Humanity homes, regularly serving food to the homeless at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, and working with Interfaith Homeless Network so we can use our church facilities at night to accommodate homeless families.
Rivermont also trains lay people to be Stephen’s Ministers, who then demonstrate care for individuals who have experienced life-altering events. Additionally, we have sent numerous medical mission teams to Haiti to work with the Haitians to promote better nutrition and to diagnose illness and dispense hard-to-acquire medicines. We also have construction teams that travel to Haiti to make improvements in their hospital, eye clinic and schools.
Romania also has seen our members arrive within its borders to spend time helping alleviate some of the pain and suffering of the babies in their orphanages and hospitals. In Mexico, we have worked to improve their children’s hygiene, nutrition and have also operated summer Bible school. Mission teams have recently traveled to Brazil and Honduras to work with Rivers of the World ministries.
We believe that we are Christ’s feet and hands in the world, whether the need is around the corner or around the globe. Our response is one of loving kindness and assistance. Rivermont is an evolving, spirit-filled church. Join us for worship.
Brief Statement of Faith
In life and in death we belong to God.
Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ, Fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick
and binding up the brokenhearted, eating with outcasts, forgiving sinners, and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God’s image male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God’s commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves, accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God’s condemnation. Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people to bless all families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.
Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still. We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church. The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and men to all ministries of the church.
In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth,
praying, Come, Lord Jesus!
With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
CrossCurrents Service
CrossCurrents offers an inviting and warm atmosphere and a casual environment in which to faithfully worship God and to learn more about living out our faith as disciples of Jesus Christ.
You’ll find good fellowship (along with a good cup of coffee) every Sunday morning at 9 am in the Commons at Rivermont Presbyterian.
CrossCurrents means so much to me as it is amore personal and intimate service. I love the music and contemporary feel. It just feels more of a fit for me. I better relate to what I’m being taught.” – Mary Ellen Matthews, new member
“CrossCurrents means so much to me. It is a way the youth can praise God and feel good praising him.” – Laura Secord
"Praise God for the Praise Band and vocalists - they are such a blessing and inspiration. I feels God's presence in their music every week." - Linda Millard
“Praise God for the Praise Band and vocalists – they are such a blessing and inspiration. I feels God’s presence in their music every week.” - Linda Millard
If you are seeking a less formal service, love upbeat music, and want both your heart and your head engaged as you worship, if you have always been a “regular” or even if you haven’t done “the church thing” in a long time, you just may find a home at CrossCurrents.
“I love the music at CrossCurrents; you can feel the Holy Spirit in the room when we are praising God.” - Carolyn Brannon Snyder
“CrossCurrents is full of energy, love and joy. You leave with a smile on your face and in your heart.” – Sharon Johnson
And from an anonymous attendee a simple “Thanks, continue.”
If you are looking for a way to worship God, join us for CrossCurrents Sunday mornings at 9am in the Commons at Rivermont Presbyterian.
Making a Difference Now and In the Future
Permanent endowment funds are a special way to make a difference and these funds may be specifically designated for many purposes. Since missions plays such an important role at Rivermont, the Missions Endowment Fund has been established to supply a source of income for these missions that will also continue to give for generations to come. It is a lasting legacy of faith and generosity. As the fund grows, it will provide increasing support for Rivermont’s many missions.
What makes this type of fund even more appealing is that anyone can make a contribution at any time. Individuals may choose to make periodic gifts in celebration of birthdays, graduations, anniversaries or to honor a loved one. These contributions may be a cash gift, transfer of securities or the proceeds of other deferred giving plans.
For more information about the Planned Giving Policy, contact any member of the Planned Giving Committee, composed of John Guthrie, Susan Hoffman, Jess Hornsby, Hugh Huffaker, Susan Klapman, Tom Kolb, Beth Russell, and Syd Tindall.
Make a gift now to experience the satisfaction of seeing your gift in action.
Planned Giving Policy
Planned Giving Policy — Approved by the Session December, 2005
Rivermont Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, TN
Christian stewardship is an awareness that everything we have is a gift from God. We are absolute owners of nothing; rather, we are stewards of all we receive and we must use such resources responsibly in our life-long work of service in the Kingdom of God. Stewardship heightens an awareness of responsibilities in the matters of material concern no less than in spiritual endeavors.
Objectives
The endowment of Rivermont Presbyterian Church is a vital resource which will be used to support the mission of the church. The endowment includes the Missions Endowment Fund, which is under direct management of the Planned Giving Committee, and trust accounts with specific instructions for their use from which income flows to the church. It is the church’s objective that the funds be prudently and responsibly invested to achieve attractive total returns. This will enable the church to withdraw such funds as needed to support mission projects approved by the Session and the Board of Deacons and still permit growth in the value of the varied accounts.
Statement of Purpose
Rivermont Presbyterian Church’s endowment is one of the resources which God has provided this congregation to be used on God’s behalf. Our endowment will be built up by the gifts and bequests of “faithful stewards”, both members and friends, to strengthen the ongoing work of the church. The Missions Endowment Fund at Rivermont will be used to supplement the work of missions and is not intended to meet the annual budget. Just as stewardship giving is a means to return to God a portion of our annual income, contributions to the endowment provide a means to share the accumulated gifts which God provides us as a durable support for Rivermont’s ministry.
Giving Options
Rivermont Presbyterian Church encourages its members and friends to think seriously not only about their annual support of the church, but also how they can help maintain the church’s ministry in the long term. The pastor and members of the Planned Giving Committee are always available to discuss the full range of giving options, including cash, securities, life insurance, and life income plans (annuities, pooled funds, and trusts).
It is recognized that some gifts will be more specifically directed. Donors of such gifts will be asked to include language such as the following: “Should a time come when the purpose of this gift no longer meets the mission and objectives of Rivermont Presbyterian Church, the donor gives the ruling boards permission to use the resources in a manner consistent with its objectives.”
To avoid any misunderstanding, donors who propose to give gifts which contain designation, restrictions or some potential liability are urged to discuss these issues with a pastor or member of the Planned Giving Committee as the gift is being planned.
Investment Counselor
The church’s Missions Endowment Fund will be managed by an outside investment counselor, recommended by the Finance Committee of the Diaconate, and approved with the amount to be invested by the Session. The Investment Counselor is to be responsible for fund, stock, or bond selections, subject to guidance from the Planned Giving Committee.
Spending Plan
In proposing this spending plan, it is expected that the capital of the Missions Endowment Fund and other trusts will be preserved providing income at a sustainable level. The spending plan for specifically directed funds will not deviate from said instructions. The spending plan for the Missions Endowment Fund is as follows:
Annually to withdraw up to 5% of the average total value of assets in the Missions Endowment Fund over the prior twelve (12) quarters and to receive distributions from other trusts; to allocate same funds for missions use beyond the budgeted missions work included in the Annual Operating Budget.
Procedures for Encouraging Planned Gifts
The intent of the Planning Giving Policy being to encourage these gifts, the Planned Giving Committee will periodically provide information in order to encourage planned gifts. This information may include but is not limited to:
- A simple but clear brochure placed in the narthex or mailed to the membership.
- A minute for mission once or twice per year.
- A planned giving seminar once or twice a year for particular groups within the church.
- Newsletter items about current use of previous gifts.
- Announcement of gifts where prior consent has been received.
- A bulletin insert once or twice per year.
- A direct mail piece once or twice per year reporting on the current use of previous gifts and their impact within Rivermont’s missions, and encouraging new gifts.
- Insert information on planned giving when mailing the mid-year contribution statements.
Procedures for Soliciting, Receiving, and Acknowledging Gifts
Where possible the church keeps track of anticipated donations and donors’ intent about acknowledgment and similar issues. When the donor of a bequest dies or deferred gift becomes available to Rivermont Presbyterian Church, the family, legal or financial advisor should notify the pastor. Once received, gifts are acknowledged by the church to the donor (if a living gift) or their kin (if a bequest) and, if they consent, made known to the congregation or acknowledged in other ways.
Review of Endowment Policy
This statement of Endowment Policy will be reviewed annually by the Session, the Finance Committee, and the Planned Giving Committee and revised or confirmed as appropriate by the Session.
