Riverview Church

The conregation was founded by Brian Baker and his wife, Valerie. The Bakers migrated from England to New Zealand in 1972 and ran various ministries.{{cite news|title=Brian and Valerie Baker|work=Rhema Life|date=July 1986 |volume=1 |issue=2|pages=3|location=Perth}} Accessed at Battye Library, Perth. They subsequently trained in the United States at the Rhema Bible Training Center under Kenneth E. Hagin, who came from an Assemblies of God background.

The Bakers started the Inner City Faith Fellowship at Holmes Hall in Belmont, a suburb of Perth, in 1979. The church moved five months later to Brisbane Street, nearer Perth's central business district.{{cite news|title=Back to Belmont!|work=Rhema Life|date=July 1986 |volume=1 |issue=2|pages=1|location=Perth}} Baker was ordained by Hagin in 1980. The Bakers were assisted by pastors from Kansas City who returned overseas after helping to establish Faith Christian Academy, which in 1982 began teaching school students from years 1 to 10 within the church's building.{{cite news|title=Rhema Christian Academy History|work=Rhema Life|date=September 1986 |volume=1 |issue=4|pages=12}}

The church changed name to Rhema Faith Fellowship in 1982, and to Rhema Family Church in 1985, when it moved to its current premises at Thorogood Street, Burswood (then called Victoria Park), which previously operated as a warehouse.{{cite news|title=Our 7 Year Celebration|work=Rhema Life|date=December 1986 |volume=1 |issue=6|pages=1, 17}} The school, renamed Rhema Christian Academy in 1985, had grown to 200 students by the following year and had moved to premises in Colombo Street, across Albany Highway from the church.

A bible school, Rhema Bible Training Centre, was opened and started evangelistic churches around Australia, as well as more than 100 home groups operating in Perth's suburbs. At its peak in the late 1980s, Rhema claimed to have over 3,200 members at its church in Victoria Park and was the biggest single church in Western Australia.{{cite news|title=Down Long Routes Along The Road To Heaven|work=The Sunday Times|date=12 April 1987}} By 1989, the church also offered a children's ministry during its main service for those aged up to 15.

In 1989, after a breakdown of the Bakers' marriage and Valerie Baker's resignation from the ministry, Brian Baker appointed his elder son, Philip, as leader of the church. Philip Baker was also a graduate of the Rhema Bible Training Center and had been the pastor of the children's ministry. Philip Baker instituted a financial management plan for the church to handle mounting debts arising from the late 1980s recession,{{cite news|title=Church's Foundation Strong|work=Rhema Life|date=June 1989|pages=7}} including disbanding the nationwide Rhema branding for churches and loosening the relationship with the school, which was renamed Regent College.{{cite book|title=White Pages - Perth 09|author=Telecom Australia|orig-date=1989|year=1990}} The church began music, drama and multimedia presentations to attract bigger congregations, along with plans for television broadcasts called "Rhema Live" and the slogan, "The church for people who don't like church".{{cite journal |journal=Rhema Life Magazine |year=1991 |issue=Summer }}{{full citation needed |date=March 2025}}

In 2009, Brian Baker released a book, From Faith to Reason, repudiating many of his former beliefs.{{cite web |url=http://vividpublishing.com.au/fromfaithtoreason/ |title=From Faith to Reason |website=Vivid Publishing |access-date=25 June 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4515773 |title=Catalogue: From faith to reason / Brian Baker |website=National Library of Australia |access-date=25 June 2023}}

In 1997, Philip and Heather Baker established Riverview Church in the same building as the old Rhema fellowship, with a more ecumenical focus than its past incarnation, and a membership which grew in the early 2000s. Campuses were opened in Joondalup and Cockburn Central.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} Philip Baker was president of the Australian Christian Churches network{{cite news|title=Episode 78 - Riverview Church - Pastor Phil Baker |work=George Negus Tonight |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=22 June 2004 |url=http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/people/Transcripts/s1138334.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040705122522/http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/people/Transcripts/s1138334.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 July 2004 |accessdate=2007-03-03}} {{Dubious|reason=He is not listed as holding this role in the articles Australian Christian Churches or National Conference of Australian Christian Churches, or at https://www.acc.org.au/about-us/ |date=June 2023}} and regularly wrote to newspapers and made media appearances representing the charismatic movement's point of view on a range of issues. He stepped down from the leadership in 2009 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.{{cite web |url=https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/a6f0d7206e9b6a9fc8257615002528fa/$FILE/A38%20S1%2020090813%20p5954d-5954d.pdf |title=Extract from Hansard [ASSEMBLY - Thursday, 13 August 2009] |last=Wyatt |first=Ben |date=13 August 2009 |website=Parliament of Western Australia |access-date=29 June 2023}}{{cite web |url=https://www.riverviewchurch.com.au/our-story |title=Our Story |date=2022 |website=Riverview Church |access-date=29 June 2023}} {{self-published inline |certain=y |date=March 2025}}

The current church building, designed by T&Z Architects, was completed in 2017 at a cost of {{AUD|13{{nbsp}}million}}.

{{As of|2023}}, the senior pastors are Steve McCready and Tania Watson.{{cite web |url=https://www.riverviewchurch.com.au/team |title=Meet the Team |date=2022 |website=Riverview Church |access-date= 25 June 2023}} {{self-published inline |certain=y |date=March 2025}}

• Margaret Court, founder of the Victory Life Centre

{{reflist |30em}}

• {{official website}}

Category:Churches in Perth, Western Australia

Category:Burswood, Western Australia

Category:1997 establishments in Australia

Category:Churches completed in 2017

Category:Evangelical megachurches in Australia