The angel showed me a river that was crystal clear, and its waters gave life. The river came from the throne where God and the Lamb were seated. Then it flowed down the middle of the city's main street. On each side of the river are trees that grow a different kind of fruit each month of the year. The fruit gives life, and the leaves are used as medicine to heal the nations.
Revelation 22:1-2
Our Church exists...
To embrace in community the life-changing person and teaching of Jesus and to manifest together His kingdom deeply in our lives and broadly in our world.
Our Story
The River is an Evangelical Covenant Church in the midtown area of San Jose (surrounded by Willow Glen, The Rose Garden, and the Washington Neighborhood). We are a diverse community – different in age and cultural background. But, we are unified by our quest to know the fullness of life that Jesus promised and to make his goodness tangible in our community . . . and around the world.
The River was started in 1997 with the vision of embodying the good news of Jesus’ love to a (postmodern) generation that was increasingly disenchanted with the institution of the church. In 2002, we pulled up our “tent stakes” and relocated to downtown San Jose. We sensed that God wanted to give us his heart for those who were different from us in culture and socio-economic background. During our eleven years downtown, God shaped us as a people of Shalom (His peace that satisfies the individual soul . . . and also breaks down the hostilities that divide people groups in our culture). In 2013, we moved into our current property on Lincoln Avenue.
In April 2016, after 19 years as an independent, non-denominational community, The River discerned God's leading to bind ourselves to the larger body of Christ by traveling with a like-minded tribe called the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). We love the ECC's devotion to living out the holistic implications of the gospel in multi-ethnic contexts.
We hope you’ll come check things out on a Sunday morning. Come as you are. And enter into a worship experience that is Biblically thoughtful, spiritually powerful, and relevant to the challenges of life in our current Silicon Valley context.