ABOUT RIVER OF LIFE
History, Beliefs, Staff, and Elders
The Month of October is Pastor Appreciation Month!
Our pastors do so much here at River of Life and we want to make sure they feel appreciated!
There will be a basket in the foyer during the whole month of October for cards & gifts of appreciation for our Pastoral Staff!
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Below you will find pictures of our Pastors, info about all they do for the church, and gift ideas for each of them!
Thank you so much for helping our pastors know they are appreciated!
Senior Pastor & Co-Founder
Rick Carlson
Pastor Rick Likes:
Gift Cards to:
- Longhorn Steak House
- Panda Express
- Sol Delisco
- Jax Farm & Ranch
- Bomgarrs
- Tractor Supply
- Human Bean
- Owl Canyon
He also enjoys:
- Christian Books
- Black Licorice
- Mounds Candy Bars
Pastor Rick has been the founder and head pastor of River Of Life for 28 years!
What does Pastor Rick Do?
- Pastor Rick writes sermons to preach on Sunday mornings. (This involves praying, researching, writing sermon notes, sermon slides, and planning sermon series.)
- He Councils with members of the congregation and community.
- He is currently in process of building the new building. (This involves planning, research, submitting forms, paperwork, and surveys to CDOT, the Wellington Town Council, and the County.)
- He coaches football at the Wellington Middle/High School.
- He leads staff & board meetings.
- He manages the God-Given vision and presentation to help the congregation and visitors catch the vision for River Of Life.
- He manages and challenges his staff (both paid and volunteers).
- He constantly listens to God for direction and guidance during good seasons and the difficult ones.
- He gives work assignments to his staff that coincide with the vision and their talents & abilities.
Thank you for all you do Pastor Rick! You are greatly appreciated!
Senior Pastor's Wife & Women's Ministry Leader
Julie Carlson
Pastor Julie Likes:
Gift Cards to:
- Hobby Lobby
- Home Goods
- TJ Max
- Amazon
- LongHorn Steak House
- Chick-fil-A
- Qdoba
- Human Bean
She also enjoys:
- Sharpie Gel Pens
- Journals
- Jewelery (earrings)
- Carmels
- Zero Sugar Drinks
Pastor Julie has been the head pastor's Wife & Women's Ministry Leader of River Of Life for 28 years!
What does Pastor Julie Do?
- Pastor Julie leads our Women's Ministry. (This includes praying, researching, using RightNow Media, or writing her own sermons, sermon slides, and planning Bible study series.)
- She leads our prayer team! (This includes praying with people at the end of services on Sundays/Wednesdays.)
- She leads our Benevolence ministry. (This includes reaching out to anyone in our congregation who needs help, organizing meal trains/financial help for them, etc.)
- She greets and welcomes all who enter River of Life!
- She serves on our Hospitality team on Sunday mornings.
- She helps councel women in our congregation & community.
- She regularly volunteers in our Sunday children's classrooms.
- She is the main support person for all our big events such as: Fall Bash / Unleashed Gala / Womens' Soup, Swap, Shop / Women's Christmas Mug Exchange etc.
Thank you for all you do Pastor Julie! You are greatly appreciated!
Worship Pastor
Candace Bilkie
Pastor Candace Likes:
Gift Cards to:
- Longhorn Steak House
- Palomino (In Loveland)
- Maurices
- Bath & Body Works
- Human Bean
- Texas Roadhouse
- Shein
- Sephora
- Ulta Trim Salon - Erin Jerome
- Hobby Lobby
She also enjoys:
- Dots Pretzels (Any flavor except NOT the Honey Mustard.)
- Peanut Buter M&M's
- Teal Zero Sugar Monster Energy Drinks
- Diet Dr. Pepper
- Flavored Water
- Any kind of gum
- Bath & Body Works candles (Warm smells like caramel, or fall smells.)
- Bath & Body Works "Into The Night" body spray
Pastor Candace has been the worship pastor of River Of Life for 11 years!
What does Pastor Candace Do?
- Pastor Candace plans song sets for Sunday & Wednesday services.
- She schedules the band/sound/tech team.
- She Adds worship lyrics and backgrounds into the computer for services.
- She puts Pastor Rick & Pastor Isaac's sermon slides into the computer for service.
- She finds great Holiday bumper videos to play for our Holiday Services.
- She finds great 5 minute countdown videos that play before our services.
- She runs/monitors our social media pages.
- She leads our New Building Committee.
- She plans our big events (such as our Fall Bash / Galas / Volunteer Dinner / Wellington Christmas Market event etc.)
- She sends out our weekly River Of Life emails.
- She sends new visitors our Welcome Info email.
- She Oversees our Welcome Center.
- She orders new ROLF merch (Such as our new hats & notebooks.)
- She helps design and make our ROLF shirts/hoodies we sell at the Welcome Center.
Thank you for all you do Pastor Candace! You are greatly appreciated!
Associate Pastor
Isaac King
Pastor Isaac wants to take his kids on vacation:
He would appreciate any money you feel led to give toward this dream.
A note from Pastor Isaac: "Kristel and I knew what we were signing up for when we answered the call to ministry, but our kids were born into ministry. This pastor appreciation month, we are asking people to bless our kids, not us. Most pastors never go on vacation because they cannot afford to. Our kids' favorite thing to do is to stay in a hotel. This year, we would love to take our kids out of town and stay in a hotel with an indoor pool for 2-3 nights. Any money we receive from this will go towards a family weekend away to bless our kids. Thank you!"
(Noah is 7 and Elijah is 4)
Our Kids Love:
- Marvel Superheros
- Pokemon
- Wrestling
- Monster Trucks
- Legos
- Coloring Books
- Sour Patch Gum
- Nerds Gummy Clusters
- Sweet Tart Ropes
- (Mom & Dad love these things too!)
Pastor Isaac has previously been the Youth Pastor, Next Generations Young Adults Pastor, and currently is the Associate Pastor of River Of Life. He has been here for 10 years!
What does Pastor Isaac Do?
- Pastor Isaac teaches our Wednesday night sermons. (This includes praying, researching, writing sermon notes, writing sermon fill-in-the-blanks, writing sermon slides, editing notes, printing handouts, paperclipping the handouts, & laying them out in the foyer for service.)
- He preaches on Sundays when Pastor Rick is out of town.
- He oversees our building security (includes installing, and maintaining our facility security cameras.)
- He keeps the outside of the church looking neat. (This includes weeding, mowing, weed-wacking, etc.)
- He keeps the inside of the church looking neat. (This includes taking care of old decorations such as our 4th of July parade display etc.)
- He keeps the foyer looking neat, paints or repairs the walls in teh church if needed, etc.
- He Counsels members of the congregation/community. (Including Pre-marriage counseling.)
- He leads worship in Kids Church on Sunday mornings.
- He leads worship for Kids Camp in the summer.
- He films/edits/creates our announcement videos for Sunday mornings.
- He curently is in process of helping build the new building. (This includes planning, research, submitting forms, paperwork, and surveys to CDOT, the Wellington Town Council, and the County, etc.)
- He coached soccer at Heritage Christian School this past semester.
- He leads/plans/organizes our Connection Groups.
Thank you for all you do Pastor Isaac! You are greatly appreciated!
Children's Pastor & Missions Director
Kristel King
Pastor Kristel wants to take her kids on vacation:
She would appreciate any money you feel led to give toward this dream.
(See the note Under Pastor Isaac's Picture)
Our Kids also love:
- Fort Fun
- Bowling
- Movies
- Longhorn Steakhouse
- Chocolate
Pastor Kristel has been the Missions Director, and (more reciently) the Children's Pastor of River Of Life, and has been working here for 10 years!
What does Pastor Kristel Do?
- Pastor Kristel preaches in our Children's RiverKids room every Sunday. (This includes praying, researching, writing sermon notes, writing sermon fill-in-the-blanks, printing, & cutting the fill-in-the-blanks, designing the sermon title slide, putting sermon slides into the computer, finding or making videos for the service which include a service countdown video, offering video, Where's-It-At-Find-The Scripture video, sermon bumper video, game time video, etc.)
- She plans where our RiverKids ofering goes to (Such as building churches and wells in India, building basketball courts for orphans in Africa, giving Bibles to children in third world countries written in their language, supporting missionaries to South America, etc.) *Our kids have given several thousand dollars to missions in the past 3 years!
- She plans the worship for the kids, sometimes leads worship herself if Pastor Isaac can't.
- She plans the game activity for her RiverKids services.
- She plans lessons and crafti activities for the younger kids services.
- She plans/organizes kids events and Kids Camp.
- She schedules all of her children's workers.
- She helps film herslef for the Sunday announcement videos.
- She plans future missions trips, organizes missions meetings, helps select our missions teams, plans the trip agendas, total cost, mission fundraiser events, and helps keep in touch with all the missionaries River Of Life supports.
- She oversees our RiverSpring Homeschool Co-op.
- She oversees our M'Pact Girls and Royal Rangers groups.
Thank you for all you do Pastor Kristel! You are greatly appreciated!
Youth Pastor
Nevin & Aaliyah Olson
Pastor Nevin is our Youth Pastor, and his wife Aaliyah is our youth worship leader.
Pastor Nevin & Aaliyah Like:
Gift Cards to:
- Amazon
- The Cheesecake Factory
- Human Bean
- Hobby Lobby
- Sierra Trading Post
- Chick-fil-A
- Texas Roadhouse
They also enjoy:
- Candles
- Redbull
Pastor Nevin has been the Youth Pastor of River Of Life for 2 years!
What does Pastor Nevin Do?
- Pastor Nevin preaches on Tuesday & Wednesday nights to the youth. (This includes praying, researching, writing sermon notes, writing sermon fill-in-the-blanks, printing and cutting them, writing sermon slides, adding the sermon slides into the computer, finding sermon bumper videos, finding sermon background/title slides, & planning future sermon series.)
- He plans youth events (such as all night lock-ins, Christmas Parties, trips to Waterworld, BBQs, and summer bonfires.)
- He plans Youth Summer Camp / Youth Con trips (Includes registering spots, getting youth to sign up and fill out forms, renting vehicles to transport youth to camp, creating camp shirts, organizing leaders over rooms of youth, etc.)
- He meets with youth/takes them out to lunch during the week.
- He is in charge of keeping the Amp looking neat and clean inside & outside.
- He paints the parking lines and the basketball lines in the Amp parking lot.
- He oversees his youth leaders, & leads leader meetings.
- He designs/makes ROLF & AMP shirts & hoddies etc. with Pastor Candace.
- He runs all of our Amp social media pages.
- He coaches football at the Wellington Middle/High School.
- His wife Aaliyah leads worship for our youth group on Tuesday & Wednesday nights.
Thank you for all you do Pastor Nevin! You are greatly appreciated!
Senior Pastor & Co-Founder
Rick Carlson
Pastor Rick has a vision in his heart for Wellington, Northern Colorado and the world. This vision requires a depth from God's word in every message, class, event, and activity that happens at River Of Life! The Holy Spirit touches people's hearts when truth is taught and brings Godly help, healing, and wholeness to every area of people's lives!
In his free time, Pastor Rick enjoys serving in the Wellington community. He coaches football and is in position to compete at the highest level in the sport of Cowboy Mounted Shooting.
Pastor Rick and his wife Julie Carlson Co-Founded River Of Life in October of 1995 with their four children and only twelve people in the church. River Of Life is now a spirit-filled, Word-based church empowered by a vision from God to connect with people and connect people with God!
In his free time, Pastor Rick enjoys serving in the Wellington community. He coaches football and is in position to compete at the highest level in the sport of Cowboy Mounted Shooting.
Pastor Rick and his wife Julie Carlson Co-Founded River Of Life in October of 1995 with their four children and only twelve people in the church. River Of Life is now a spirit-filled, Word-based church empowered by a vision from God to connect with people and connect people with God!
Senior Pastor's Wife & Women's Ministry Leader
Julie Carlson
Pastor Julie leads the Women's ministries of River Of Life, leading our Women's Bible study on Tuesday Mornings, organizing our women's retreat, and planning fun ladie's events throughout the year!
Pastor Julie is often the first smiling face you see when you walk into River Of Life and she serves in our Children's department, on our Hospitality Team, helps at the Welcome Center, and leads our Benevolence department, often bringing meals to families in the church who are sick, had a newborn, or need a little extra help.
For more information on all Julie is doing with our women's ministries, click the button below!
Women's MinistriesPastor Julie is often the first smiling face you see when you walk into River Of Life and she serves in our Children's department, on our Hospitality Team, helps at the Welcome Center, and leads our Benevolence department, often bringing meals to families in the church who are sick, had a newborn, or need a little extra help.
For more information on all Julie is doing with our women's ministries, click the button below!
Worship Pastor
Candace Bilkie
Pastor Candace leads our worship team, and all the music ministries at River of Life. She schedules all our band members for Sunday mornings and mid-week services, organizes practice times, selects our worship songs, prints the worship chord charts for our musicians, adds all our lyric slides, sermon slides, and intro videos into our soundbooth computer for our services, and helps to facilitate and run all our big events such as "The Fall Bash", "Unleashed", "Faith & Freedom", "Refresh", "Football Sundae" and more!
In her free time, Candace enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, baking, watching movies, playing games, and watching football.
The favorite part of her job is helping people enter into worship.
In her free time, Candace enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, baking, watching movies, playing games, and watching football.
The favorite part of her job is helping people enter into worship.
Associate Pastor & Young Adult's Group Leader
Isaac King
Pastor Isaac is our associate pastor here at River of Life. He preaches verse by verse at our mid-week service on Wednesday nights, and makes amazing fill-in-the-blanks notes for his sermons so everyone can easily follow along. Isaac also films and edits our announcement videos, teaches and leads connection groups, helps with pre-marital counseling, building maintenance, special events, assists with hospital calls, weddings, and funerals, leads worship for RiverKids services and so much more!
In his free time, Isaac enjoys spending time with his family, and loves doing woodworking, creating bridges, chairs, and benches for his yard.
His favorite part of his job at River of life is teaching God's word verse by verse.
For more information on all Isaac is doing at our Mid-Week services, click the button below!
Mid-Week ServicesIn his free time, Isaac enjoys spending time with his family, and loves doing woodworking, creating bridges, chairs, and benches for his yard.
His favorite part of his job at River of life is teaching God's word verse by verse.
For more information on all Isaac is doing at our Mid-Week services, click the button below!
Children's Pastor & Missions Director
Kristel King
Pastor Kristel says, "My main job at River Of Life is the Children's Director. I love providing a great service every Sunday for your kids to attend.
I help as well to organize our special events we do." (Such as the "Fish Fry", and "Unleashed, a Gala event to pay off our youth building.")
"As our Missions Director I help find missions trips our Church can go on that are both local here in the USA, and international around the world.
For more information on missions, click here to visit our Missions Page!
I serve pretty much anywhere else in the church that needs help! I am the Pastor's daughter, so I've worked at River Of Life a lot, but was actually officially hired in 2014 as our Missions Director. I have taken a few breaks from working here because of my kids, and moving out of Colorado for a short time. I've currently worked here since 2019. I love spending time with my volunteers and my church family. Kids are wonderful and I love nothing more than helping kids build a foundation for Jesus."
In her free time, Kristel enjoys spending time with her family, riding her horse, competing in Cowboy Mounted Shooting, being in the mountains, and going on adventures to new places.
For more information on all Kristel is doing with our River Kids Children's ministries, click the button below!
River KidsI help as well to organize our special events we do." (Such as the "Fish Fry", and "Unleashed, a Gala event to pay off our youth building.")
"As our Missions Director I help find missions trips our Church can go on that are both local here in the USA, and international around the world.
For more information on missions, click here to visit our Missions Page!
I serve pretty much anywhere else in the church that needs help! I am the Pastor's daughter, so I've worked at River Of Life a lot, but was actually officially hired in 2014 as our Missions Director. I have taken a few breaks from working here because of my kids, and moving out of Colorado for a short time. I've currently worked here since 2019. I love spending time with my volunteers and my church family. Kids are wonderful and I love nothing more than helping kids build a foundation for Jesus."
In her free time, Kristel enjoys spending time with her family, riding her horse, competing in Cowboy Mounted Shooting, being in the mountains, and going on adventures to new places.
For more information on all Kristel is doing with our River Kids Children's ministries, click the button below!
Youth Pastor
Nevin Olson
Pastor Nevin says, "I am the Youth Pastor here at River Of Life. I have the best job because I get to work with the youth. I love and believe in this next generation! I plan and run youth group services every week for both Junior High and High School youth, as well as plan events for the youth. I also teach a discipleship class on Sunday mornings to our middle school and high school students during third service.
In my free time I love to be outside fishing and camping, or riding my bike and hitting dirt jumps.
Outside of being a youth pastor at River Of Life, I am also a football coach for the Wellington High School Eagles!"
For more information on all Nevin is doing with our Youth ministries, click the button below!
Youth MinistriesIn my free time I love to be outside fishing and camping, or riding my bike and hitting dirt jumps.
Outside of being a youth pastor at River Of Life, I am also a football coach for the Wellington High School Eagles!"
For more information on all Nevin is doing with our Youth ministries, click the button below!
Administrator Intern
Kailey Kahanek
Kailey is our Administrator Intern. She is currently assisting our office staff with any extra administrative work that needs done in each department.
In her free time, Kailey enjoys listening to podcasts or sermons and spending quality time with friends and family, especially in nature! She also rarely turns down some coffee/quality food from a good Café!
Kailey started this admin internship during the summer of 2022 and is so thankful for how God has used it to grow her. "I love being able to work among the spiritual giants that I do! It is very fulfilling to serve the Lord through administrative tasks and work for His kingdom!"
In her free time, Kailey enjoys listening to podcasts or sermons and spending quality time with friends and family, especially in nature! She also rarely turns down some coffee/quality food from a good Café!
Kailey started this admin internship during the summer of 2022 and is so thankful for how God has used it to grow her. "I love being able to work among the spiritual giants that I do! It is very fulfilling to serve the Lord through administrative tasks and work for His kingdom!"
Accountant
Gay'l Yocom
Gay'l is our accountant and takes care of all the accounting duties that go along with a church business. Some duties include entering all the tithes and offerings into the River Of Life's accounting software weekly, making bank deposits and paying all the necessary bills to keep the church running smoothly. She prints weekly reports for filing and for Pastor Rick to oversee, as well as compiling monthly Board Meeting reports. She is also responsible for the church staff payroll and all the tax responsibilities related, as well as many other tasks in the area of finance and accounting for the church.
In her free time, Gay'l loves spending time with her family, and cheering her kids on in sports and other endeavors. She is a maker/artist at heart and loves to paint and spend time in her silversmithing studio, creating jewelry for her personal small business.
To visit our River Of Life giving page, click the button below!
GivingIn her free time, Gay'l loves spending time with her family, and cheering her kids on in sports and other endeavors. She is a maker/artist at heart and loves to paint and spend time in her silversmithing studio, creating jewelry for her personal small business.
To visit our River Of Life giving page, click the button below!
Administrator & Graphic Designer
Brittney Bearly
Brittney is our administrator & graphic designer, and has been working at River Of Life since the spring of 2021. She answers the phones, greets those who come in the door during office hours, designs all our announcement slides, creates, prints & cuts all of our handouts, brochures, signs, announcements, & sign up sheets, buys supplies for the church, updates the website, posts all our sermons on our app throughout week, and so much more.
In her free time, Brittney enjoys riding horses, painting, drawing, writing, playing piano, hiking, paddle boarding, swimming, taking walks, cooking, baking, studying the Bible, reading, and spending time with friends. She volunteers in our high school youth group, serves on the worship team, and is often found running slides in the sound booth for mid-week service.
In her free time, Brittney enjoys riding horses, painting, drawing, writing, playing piano, hiking, paddle boarding, swimming, taking walks, cooking, baking, studying the Bible, reading, and spending time with friends. She volunteers in our high school youth group, serves on the worship team, and is often found running slides in the sound booth for mid-week service.
What to Expect
River of Life is a friendly church. We go out of our way to make you feel welcome. Our motto is:
Connecting with people and connecting people with God.
We believe in the literal teaching of the word of God and the demonstration of the Holy Spirit.
What we Believe
- WE BELIEVE...The Scriptures are Inspired by God and declare His design and plan for mankind. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
- WE BELIEVE...There is only One True God–revealed in three persons...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (commonly known as the Trinity).
- WE BELIEVE...In the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As God's son Jesus was both human and divine.
Elder / Deacons
The Elders/Deacons of River of Life Fellowship are selected by the Senior Pastor and ratified by the congregation during the annual business meeting, usually held at the end of February every year. The men currently serving in this capacity share the Senior Pastor's vision for River of Life Fellowship and have a heart to serve, and do so in other capacities within the church. Deacon/Elders are appointed for a 1, 2, 3, or 4 year term.