Discovering The ROC
Blaze traveled to Richmond on September 13th to visit Short Pump Mall and attend worship service at the Richmond Outreach Center (The ROC). The ROC is well known for its wholehearted outreach to people cast off by the rest of society (you know, the same kind of people Jesus entrusted to Peter).-
When we arrived at the ROC it did not take us long to realize this was not going to be your typical contemporary worship service. We immediately came upon a gauntlet of about 25 leather clad bikers and others who all extended their hands in fellowship, and with sincere smiles proudly welcomed us to their church. Inside was a basketball court with bleachers and folding chairs and lots of different looking people who all seemed really happy to be there. The United Nations doesn't have the diversity the ROC has. And no jackets or ties. We quickly found our seats in the bleachers and I was soon greeted by Tim sitting next to me who told me he really loved coming to the ROC. The music that started things off was intense and loud and energizing. No one sleeps through worship service at the ROC. And did I say there were no jackets or ties.
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After the music, the church's founder, Geronimo Aguilar ("Pastor G") talked to the crowd of over a thousand about things that were important to him like the souls that were saved that week, the leadership of King David, the Book of Samuel, commitment to each other when things are going well and especially when things are going badly, and Christ. When Pastor G asked first time guests to raise their hands, there was no embarrassment because we knew by then that there was going to be a whole lot of love directed our way, and there was. At the end of the service, Pastor G called people to come forward in a profession of faith and one of our groups' young people surprized us and went forward. It doesn't get better than that; it really doesn't.
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And here was an important lesson I took away from the ROC: This church appears to spend most all its time working in its community assisting people who have no conceivable means of helping the church financially. They focus on the poor and inner-city youth (the church has its own skate board park), and they even offer the homeless bus rides to their worship service. Yet across the basketball court from where we sat was a sign showing the progress of their multi-million dollar building campaign. The amount raised to date was a very impressive and healthy number (in the millions of dollars). So I ask why do so many churches struggle financially? I think the answer is that no stewardship program can possibly succeed in the long run without understanding where the money comes from. The stewardship equation is this simply: Help those in need and God will help you a hundred fold in return. There are no short cuts.
