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PUBLISHED IN THE [Murfreesboro, Tennessee] DAILY NEWS JOURNAL, AUGUST 6, 2004

            River Oaks Community Church is relocating from the YMCA to Blackman High School on Sunday.

The worship service will be held at 10 a.m. this Sunday and each Sunday for the remainder of the summer. Beginning September 12, two services will be held on Sundays, at 9 and 11 a.m.

            Lead Pastor Mark Norris explained the move is occurring because the church body has outgrown the facilities at the YMCA.  The Blackman auditorium will provide twice as much seating, and much more space will be available for children and youth activities. This increase in the amount of space will allow the church to broaden the scope of its ministry to both children and adults.

River Oaks Community Church was established in September 1997 with a core group of nine people. The first service on September 7 was attended by 382 people. The church had only a staff of two full-time volunteer pastors at that time. Now there are approximately 600 regular attendees and a five-person staff made up of three full-time and two part-time employees.

River Oaks is known for being a little different from traditional Southern churches. There is a band instead of a choir, and other forms of artistic expression, such as dance and drama, are frequently used to help convey that week's spiritual message.

Norris emphasized that the church is not different just to be different, but to make a difference in people's lives.  "We're not the perfect church. There's no such thing as one. We're just a bunch of people, not just doing church—we're doing life together. That is the difference that marks us," Norris said.

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