A simple meeting room at a hotel, right?

Actually, it isn’t.

This is the scene of an event that will begin a process of bringing a new church to Leland, NC. River of Leland will officially make it’s public debut on December 6 at 6:00 p.m. at the Comfort Inn in Leland.

Birthed from a desire to see people fully living the life of a Jesus follower, River of Leland hasn’t been the result of a moment of fancy; rather, it is the result of years of experience with what church wasn’t. We all have our stories of the failure of the churches we’ve been a part of, visited and associated with. Many of us were harmed by the experience; many of us left it behind — left church, Christianity and Jesus. The bitter taste that remained in our mouth inoculated us against ever making that mistake again. Even if we weren’t radically turned off by the experience, we accepted that church could never live up to its purported fame.

That is the negative side of our vision. The positive—and driving—force is our understanding of the biblical presentation of the church.

River of Leland is born out of a desire to know her and a confidence that the church is indeed the Bride of Jesus, a supernaturally powerful entity that is able to move both heaven and earth. She is the reason that Jesus came to this earth, the power that will destroy hell, the vehicle by which Satan will see his destruction and the relationship that prepares us for our heavenly reality right now. She is our inheritance that is to be spent here, on this earth, not later, one day, in heaven.

The church of Acts is the church we desire to see in Leland. A church embodied with and walking in the full power of the supernatural being who planned her and brought her into existence. Anything less is an insult to Jesus.