Our Story

So there they were…Pastor Mark and Joy England…He was diligently serving as Associate Pastor. She was a purposed Children’s Ministry Director. Both were serving at a Calvary Chapel church. Both fulfilling what they thought would be a long happy tenure in ministry there.  Then God…

And the story begins and continues there…

Then in the Spring of 2008, God began, through a series of unanticipated visions and dreams, to make it abundantly and undeniably clear, that He had very different plans for the Englands.  As the Father revealed over a series of nine months His plan, it was clear that He desired Pastor Mark to step out in faith just as Abraham to plant a new work…non-denominational and unsupported by any other church. This was to be a church that would be birthed completely in dependence upon the moving of Father God Himself through His Holy and alive Spirit!

Awaiting assurance and confirmation, Pastor Mark had two powerful encounters with Daddy (God)…

The first was a conversational prayer with God that went something like this:

 “Mark,” Father said, “ you don’t trust me.” Mark replied, “What do you mean, of course I trust You.” “Ok, then resign from Calvary Chapel tomorrow,” Daddy continued.

Followed by Mark’s honest reply:“It’s not that I don’t trust You.  It’s that I don’t trust me. I need to know this is truly You speaking..” He ended the night shook up a bit and saying to the Lord, “I just need Your confirmation.”

Pastor Mark, humbled, decided the only way at that point was just trust and obey,

The next day, Mark attended a bible study of like-minded believers, whom he had not shared yet any of his journey with the Lord concerning a change in ministry.  During a prayer time at the end of the class, “Daddy” (God) gave a woman in the group a word of knowledge concerning Mark’s call to this next step in ministry…this, of course, without any foreknowledge of Pastor Mark’s request for Daddy’s confirmation.  This word was followed with the strongest three hour manifest presence of God that Pastor Mark has ever experienced! His description… something like electricity, pure joy, liquid love…to the point where he considered asking the Lord to stop!

So he resigned from a comfortable, supportive, salaried position the very next day (announcing it to the church body the following Sunday).

The calling and the confirmations culminated in the final step of Joy’s willingness to follow a husband with a word, dreams, and visions from God for their lives. In an abandon of faith, knowing well the heart of her Father, Joy agreed to step out.

  This was their beginning, like Abraham, to begin walking in a new direction, not knowing exactly where the road led. All that Daddy had made clear was to plant a new church. And that the name would be “River of Life.”

Within one month’s time, “Daddy” had already gathered His first provisions, without any announcement on the part of the Englands. It began as a few ladies were in prayer for the Englands, generally, when He downloaded strongly upon them that it was His plan for them to be the first two members of the new church!

Then while meeting in a home, the son of commercial real estate owner, attended and decided to find River of Life a place to meet publically. Overnight, God provided him our our current location in the North Stuart Plaza… ours for six months free! 

Then, another felt led to commit six months of financial support for the England family as well as provide all the hundreds of dollars needed to fund signs and chairs. Another decided to loan sound equipment indefinitely. Another funded curtains to cover our store-front windows for more freedom in worship.

And the story continues…

River of Life Ministries has remained committed to its roots in dependency upon the Spirit of God to lead, guide, and provide for its purpose to exist. There have been limited attempts of man to create and design this ministry, or to draw others to be involved. And an awesome work Daddy’s hand is molding it to be.

Numbers are slow and steadily increasing, but will never be the goal or purpose to exist, unless Daddy should make it clear as such. Those that faithfully attend and serve, are not the faint-hearted or visionless, but those whom God has impressed upon their hearts and who are willing to allow their God to move as He wishes in this ministry.

Yes, RoL is a church, but we are known first as a ministry. Perhaps a helpful analogy: We meet for the purpose of ministry. As in football, we don’t huddle, just for the sake of huddling, but we huddle for the sake of playing the game of life. River of Life exists to minister and equip those that huddle for the purpose of bringing Christ’s Kindgom of Light into this dark world! His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!

Through faithful weekly intercessory prayer gatherings, and personal fasting prayer in the leadership, God has revealed four pillars River of Life Ministries is being built on (which are as follows):

I.   WORSHIP- Like the one after God’s own heart, David…We are to be passionate lovers of God, followers of no reputation,  who are focused on touching the heart of God, not so much on capturing the vacillating opinions of man…this, of course, we express corporately through musical worship and praise reports, but continues throughout daily life outreach

II.  HEALING- Just as Jesus set the captives free and healed the sick….We are His body to be actively pursuing and releasing healing, both for the inner man and the physical body.

II.  EQUIPPING-  Just as Jesus equipped the Apostles and early disciples…We are to be effectively calling forth and leading people in the foundation of the Bible, the intimacy of relationship with God, and walking out of God’s calling and gifts.

IV.  OUTREACH-  Daddy has a dream, 6.7 billion, “that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord”…   We are to be filled with God-like compassion action for those who do not know Jesus as Lord.  Without Christians reaching into the darkness how will they be saved.  Therefore we are strategically equipping for and reaching out to the lost.

To sum it up…River of Life is a Spirit-filled church based out of North Stuart, FL characterized by Passionate Worship through music, the Empowering Preaching of God's Word, and the Awesome Presence of the Holy Spirit