about river of life christian church

River of Life Christian Church and Campus Missions International were founded by Tom and Jan May in 1991. Tom and Jan graduated in 1984 from North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They immediately entered into ministry serving as Youth Pastors for the next two years. Thereafter, Tom and Jan began four years of extensive training and preparation throughout the United States in college campus ministry. By 1990, they came to the northern Illinois area to establish an ongoing campus ministry at NIU. Today Tom and Jan have two children, Rachel and Daniel.

The direction God gave Tom in 1979 while in Bible College, was to reach the lost souls in the Chicago land area. What better way to reach a generation than by evangelizing the young people of today's society!

from pastor tom may

It is our firm conviction that we as "living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priest hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:5

At River of Life Christian Church we have a well defined mission: 
To reach college students at Northern Illinois University with the Gospel and to disciple them according to the Word of God under the authority of the local church. As these young men and women graduate, mature, and grow in grace, they become witnesses of Christ in their homes and work places, salt and light to our city, drawing others to Jesus. As we grow together, we hope that our church might become a model for churches to be birthed on other campuses in the future.

Therefore, we believe that the body of Christ should be made up of active members, that is, members actively worshipping God, actively discovering, developing and using their spiritual gifts, actively supporting the church, and actively loving one another. As a result of this belief we take seriously Ephesians 4:11-12 which says "And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evengelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.

Jan and I, together with those serving in the church desire to serve you in faithfulness so that you may become all that Jesus wants you to be.

Love,

Pastor Tom May

River of Life Christian Church