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Pastor Wants 'Church To Come To The People'

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By JOHN CEBALLOS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

WIMAUMA - The River of Life Assembly of God has two South Shore campuses - one in Wimauma and one in Riverview.

Johnny Honaker, who, along with his wife, C.C., of 20 years is a senior pastor at the church, believes this is the best approach for reaching the largest number of people.

"Our approach is that we'd rather have multiple locations as opposed to one megachurch with 1,000 seats," Honaker said. "Instead of making people come to one church, we'd much rather have the church come to the people."

A member of the church formerly known as the South Shore Assembly of God in Riverview, Honaker and his congregation moved to East Bay High School at the start of 2006 before merging with Riverview Assembly of God in August 2006 to form River of Life.

"One thing we're very proud of is that we're very multicultured," Honaker said. "We have 14 different nationalities in our ministry."

The north campus, 6605 Krycul Ave., is the former home of Riverview Assembly of God.

The newer location in Wimauma, 161105 U.S. 301 S., recently commemorated its one-year anniversary Feb. 4.

"We're very excited about the anniversary, and we're even more excited about the outreach and ministries we have to offer moving forward," said Kevin Cox, executive associate pastor.

Those outreaches include "Light up the night," a free carnival in the south campus that Honaker describes as a safe alternative for Halloween.

"Other places have safe alternative events for Halloween, but they usually hold them the weekend before, so kids go out and celebrate on Halloween night anyway," Honaker said. "We always have ours on Halloween night so we know they're safe on that specific day."
Honaker said the ministry also distributes meals for hundreds of families during their "Feed the Multitude" initiative every Thanksgiving.

While the north campus's congregation has grown to about 425 each week, the south campus has grown from a handful of people to about 100 in its first year.

Even as the ministry continues to expand, the church's goal remains making a difference in people's lives.

"If someone took a Publix in the area away, there would probably be a lot of people who would ask 'Why did they do that?'" Honaker said. "Our goal is to be a church that, if we were yanked out of our community, we'd be missed."

GET TO KNOW

WHAT: River of Life Assembly of God
WHERE: north campus, 6605 Krycul Ave., Riverview; south campus, 161105 U.S. 301 S., Wimauma

SUNDAY SERVICE: north campus, 10:30 a.m.; south campus, 9 a.m.

INFORMATION: (813) 677-4453

Reporter John Ceballos can be reached at (813) 865-1555 or jceballos@tampatrib.com.

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