From 'the church in the bar' to a church home

“I have a very vivid memory, a ‘Kodak moment,’ if you will of being around 4 or 5 years old. It was a rainy day, and I was sitting in the front doorway coloring a page in a Bible coloring book of Samson breaking the pillars. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I never want to be a preacher, it’s too hard for their kids.”

Danny Robertson was raised in a Christian home in Plymouth. He attended school, played sports and had the intention of attending law school or becoming a physical education teacher and a coach.

Danny attended both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then East Carolina University in Greenville, earning a master’s degree in counseling and then earning his doctorate degree at the University of Tennessee.

During his college years, he continued to love and study the Bible, incorporating his knowledge into his work as a guidance counselor, youth minister, coach, college professor, campus minister and psychologist.

He met his wife, Angela, while at a Christian Service Camp at the end of the road from where their church is now located. She also shared his love of studying Scripture. They had three children and currently have six grandchildren with another one due soon.

Danny has led the non-denominational congregation of River City Christian Center in Washington since 2002. At the beginning, friends met with the Robertsons on Saturday nights to worship, study and pray.

During that time, the call was clear: they were to begin a church in Washington, Robertson said. The group met at such places as a daycare, a gym, and they even convinced a local business owner to use his location during off-hours, earning the church the nickname, “The Church in the Bar.”

When construction of the new path of U.S. 17 through Washington began, they began looking for a new location.

Then, after an all-night prayer watch asking for guidance, they determined their present place of worship, Robertson recalls.

From the outside, it’s easy to mistake the pretty blue metal building on the corner of River Road and Christian Service Camp Road as a small warehouse, rather than a church — which is no surprise because in the 1970s, the building was once the home of Jones Brothers’ Flooring.

However, once inside, attendees will be floored by how this building was transformed into a welcoming church including not only a wide open worship area with seating to accommodate 150 people, but also a media room used to stream worship services for those unable to attend, a nursery, a classroom for children, a meeting room, a prayer room and even a kitchen.

Danny shared two examples of God moving memorably in his ministry:

A long time ago, there was a high school girl who was eligible for a softball scholarship to college, but she had gotten injured on the field and the X-ray showed she had broken bones in her foot.

Because of the scholarship being on the line, a specialist from Duke had been called in for advice. Danny, Angela and two or three others had prayed about her foot and when the specialist arrived, there were no signs of any broken bones.

The second memorable example happened after Danny and the overseers had been pursuing guidance on how to be faithful for future generations. New property and a prayer pavilion seemed to be the answer Danny, Angela and the overseers agreed upon.

Having looked at property, the perfect location, 20 acres of land, seemed to have been found in 2017, but the selling price was far above their financial capacity. However, Danny continued to carry that property listing with him. He often found himself being drawn to the spot, so he would often go to the property to sit and pray.

On Super Bowl weekend in 2020, Angela approached Danny and said she felt the “need” to walk that property. That morning at church another couple came to Angela with the same sudden urge to walk the property.

They soon realized the listing price had dropped and the overseers decided to make an offer on the property. Friends of the Robertsons heard what they were doing and came to them with a generous offer of $100,000 interest free with five years to pay it back.

River City closed on the land in March 2020, and paid the entire loan back in November 2020. The beautiful wooden prayer pavilion is currently in construction just a short distance from the church.

Everyone is welcome at the River City Christian Center. There is Bible Study on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., worship on Sundays at 10 a.m., Prayer Watch every fifth Sunday, women’s gatherings, conferences and other events as scheduled.

Their website address is www.rivercitychristiancenter and the church can be found on Facebook at River City Christian Center.