River City started conceptually in 2017, as Rodney & Jodi Gehman and Nate & Janene King began to seriously entertain the idea of planting in the Kalona/Riverside area. The Gehmans had been involved in ministry for several years already, and the Kings were ready and willing to see something happen in their hometown, and moved to the east side of Kalona to be ready for the plant.
Both couples were attending Grace Community Church in North Liberty, which had a lot of attenders from the Wellman, Kalona, and Washington area already, so putting a campus in Washington Country was already on the radar when the Gehmans started attending in 2011. But the timing wasn’t right, and the personnel was never in place, until the Gehmans and Kings started putting things in motion.
God, in His infinite wisdom, brought about the right people at the right time, and in Fall of 2017, Toby & Erin Thompson joined the Leadership. They had a passion for Biblical Counseling, which fit the vision for the church very, very well. But the team still wasn’t sure where they would actually launch.
In early 2018, they decided on Riverside, IA for its proximity to Iowa City, and limited church presence, and started praying that God would open the right doors at the right time. In the summer of 2018, River City Church began by holding monthly preview services in the Kings’ home, and a home in Riverside. The first public service was held November 19, 2018, and after a couple months of meeting every other week under Grace’s supervision, on April 14, 2019, River City was officially on its own!