Who We Are
• We are a community of believers excited about Christ
• We are a center for spiritual development and salvation
• We are a place where you can belong
River Oaks Baptist Church is a community of members, missions, and professional staff. As a community, we are dedicated to the physical, intellectual, and spiritual growth of our church. Our statement of beliefs can be found in the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. To lead us in Christ's path, we have articulated the following guiding principles to direct us in our work.
Our Mission
"To be Christ-centered"
We exist to impact our community for Christ by developing disciples of Jesus Christ through facilitating inward spiritual growth that demonstrates itself in loving, outward ministry to others.
Our Vision
"to be transformed through Christ"
River Oaks Baptist Church, in its essence, is a growing, loving, Baptist church with a vibrant, traditional style, making disciples in the heart of Houston.
Our Values
We go about serving God and our community through ministry, with these values as our guide:
God reveals his purpose to us and calls us to salvation and service. We give ourselves fully to the plans revealed by God through the living Word, Jesus Christ, and through his inspired Word, the scriptures, and made contemporary by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Faith grows by giving worth to God. Personal disciplines that nurture faith – worship, study, devotional life, prayer, and stewardship – are essential to our own spiritual development. We encourage our community to be devoted followers of Christ, by living in a personal, love relationship with Christ. We encourage our community to grow in Christ by committing to a life of personal and corporate worship.
We believe the work of God is best done through community. To have a love relationship with God means we are brought into a love relationship with one another. We strive to build our community by sharing life’s experiences, giving each other mutual support, and responding to one another by “speaking the truth in love.”
To be a part of the family of God is to be a devoted follower of Christ. We will not claim to be other than what the grace of God has made us.
To glorify Christ, we will give our very best to the calling of God. We set high standards in everything we do. We make our standards explicit so we can evaluate our progress.
With intention and clarity we define ourselves doctrinally and establish moral and ethical boundaries for our life in Christ. Yet we understand that God’s work is far bigger than our own fellowship and that Christ’s body is inclusive of all who follow Him. In that light, we value cooperative efforts with other Christian groups to accomplish our mission on a global scale.
Our History
River Oaks Baptist Church began as a vision engendered in the hearts of a group of Christian people to further the cause of Christ in the community. On May 22, 1950, this group met in a private residence to discuss the need for a Baptist church in the River Oaks and adjacent areas. By June 6, 1950, the first worship service was held in the River Oaks Garden Center and Forum of Civics with 58 members in attendance.
Meeting in various locations for the next 3 years, the new congregation worked hard and prayed much more before moving into permanent buildings at our present-day location on December 13, 1953.
From our early years of meeting in multiple locations, to our current home at 2300 Willowick Rd., River Oaks Baptist Church has been a Christ-centered community for generations of families in Houston. We encourage you to come visit and meet our family!