The ILC Riverside campus started with the prayer & desire of Pastor Joel Booker (ILC Rialto). On January 15, 2015, Pastor Booker wrote a note in his Bible next to Isaiah 58:12 asking God to rebuild old, dead churches like the great Apostolic church that was once in Riverside.
In early October of 2018, Pastor Preston Brown was awakened out of sleep by the Lord and called to a prayer meeting in his living room. There in the middle of the night, a deep burden and intercession turned into one word repeated over and over — “RIVERSIDE.” Over the next month God would confirm this call to Pastor Brown and Pastor Booker as an answer to the prayer in 2015. That moment was a call to plant a church or replant a church, building up the old waste places and raising up the foundations of many generations.
In January 2019, Pastor Brown started canvassing the city and getting Bible studies. By April 2019, Bible studies were being conducted in the Santa Ana riverbed to the homeless living there, several of which attended church, were baptized, and have received the Holy Ghost, including Sis Anna Monaghan, who was baptized right there in the river in June.
ILC Riverside officially launched at Pachappa Elementary’s multipurpose room on September 22, 2019 after four monthly preview services during the summer at the Learning Center across from Riverside Plaza.
The next phase of growth took place at a small, leased upstairs suite in the Kylie Building from January 2020 through October 2021, when we moved into our current location — Crown of Life Lutheran on a rental basis. At Crown of Life’s location, our church has been able to grow both numerically and in quality, as the current facilities allow for Sunday school, youth, and B-Free classrooms; fellowship hall and kitchen; and a sanctuary that will seat approximately three hundred.
Through the sacrificial giving of the great saints of ILC Riverside, we are well on our way toward having a mature building fund with the amount needed for a downpayment on our future building. While we look forward to having a building dedicated to the Truth of the Name of Jesus, we are by no means “just waiting.” Until then, we continue to grow in weekly service attendance, conversions, and discipleship.
If you are looking for a church…
- where you and your family can be loved, restored, grown, and involved,
- where you can experience the powerful presence of God, and
- where you will hear the truth of the Word preached with anointing
…then this is the church for you, where your story merges with ours.
