Introduction 

When you think of the terms membership and partnership, what comes to mind?  If you are like most people, membership conjures up images of clubs, monthly dues and paying for services rendered. It tends to paint a consumerist image. Partnership on the other hand often evokes the image of the family or marriage and giving of oneself to the betterment of the whole.  It tends to paint a more active and participatory image.  Partnership is the term we use at River Rock to describe people who are committed to making a kingdom difference together as the body of Christ in Folsom and beyond.

Partnership is ultimately and foundationally an expression of salvation in and through Jesus Christ.  Partners are sinners saved by grace and who strive to exhibit the humility, gratititude and obedience that comes with a new life found in Jesus.  Partnership in its simplest terms is followership - following Jesus as our Lord and Savior within the daily rhythmns of our life - from washing the clothes to making corporate business decsions, from talking to your neighbor to burying your father, from mowing the lawn to attending a worship service.  Partners worship Jesus and seek first his priorities and values.  They long to be closer in their experience of his perfect love in a broken world and find him to be their deepest stability, strength and comfort. 

Partners are not perfect.  Far from it.  They are broken vessels carrying a priceless treasure.  Partners are not better than others. In fact, they consider themselves less in order to serve and give with greater abandon.

Partnership then, is a dynamic expression of who we are as the people of God and a celebration of each person's unique story and giftedness as valuable expressions of the grace and love of God.  Because Christianity is a way of life where believers are co-equal participants in God's grand mission of making all thing new (Revelation 21:5), we are striving to develop partners who value and depend on each other to maximize their and the churches effectiveness as bodily witnesses of Jesus and his love for God's world.  Together, as a community of believers we are a light to the world and a city on a hill that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5). The Partnership Manual is a description of the three Life Signs that every partner trains at growing: Passion - loving God; Connecting - loving each other; Renewal - loving creation.  This manual introduces life at River Rock and can be a great tool for training in the Life Signs. 

Partnership Manual Download