Mission Statement

 Para missionary and Medical Mission Teams act as agencies in which the manifold wisdom of God is proclaimed throughout the world. They are agencies that bear the responsibility and privilege of demonstrating God’s love through preaching the Gospel, uplifting the community and meeting the primary health care needs of the community.

THE POWER OF VISION

 In February of 1994, the River Road Church of Christ embarked upon a great work in South Africa. With the ending of apartheid, a window of opportunity to engage in foreign missions was opened. The leadership of the River Road Church of Christ did not view this great work as a hungry monster that would devour the church’s budget. It was viewed as a vital part of the New Testament church. The elders exemplified the faith and world vision necessary to put the River Road Church of Christ on the leading edge of world evangelism. They took the risks and had the courage when everybody else said that it could not be done. They had a tenacity of purpose.  

Just as the church at Antioch, the River Road Church of Christ has with enthusiasm accepted, the responsibility as given by God to be a sending agency by which missionaries go into the entire world. This has lead the River Road Church of Christ to form partners hips with Churches of Christ in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Washington DC, New York and Virginia to carry out the great commission as given in Matthew 28. These partnerships have pooled together their limited resources to minister to unlimited needs. This has enabled a stronger infrastructure to facilitate the preaching of the gospel, while providing a mechanism for follow up work and monitoring. This enhances the global approach to missions. 

SAMP, which is better known as the South African Mission Project, is a strategy -to-task systemic approach with a concentration on a holistic perspective to urban missions. This approach entails discipleship and evangelism, church planting and development, and relief to the poor and down trodden through community ministries that meet human needs. In 1995 The River Road Church of Christ led the first African-American Church of Christ Paramissionary and medical mission teams to South Africa to live and work among the people in the black townships. This approach affords the teams the opportunity to assist in solving the same social ills common in the United States such as unemployment, crime, pornography, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, child and spousal abuse, drugs, and sexually transmitted diseases, just to name a few. The medical mission team helps in the development of a more efficient health care delivery system. 

Because SAMP continues to show an interest in the welfare of the people, the message of Jesus is well received. The River Road Church of Christ is known throughout the community and all levels of government as a church who cares for the people. SAMP continues to make the necessary impact on South Africa. It also demonstrates to all that the poison of apartheid can no longer be used as an excuse to do less than Jesus commanded. SAMP serves as a unifying factor, and many of the Lord’s people are rallying to do more for the cause of Christ. SAMP ‘s exchange program sponsors delegations from South Africa who come to study our programs and methods. After the delegations complete their training, they return to South Africa and apply what they have learned. This is part of our church development approach to urban mission.

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:  and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”