Rev. Dr. Hendrik J. Vorster (Senior Pastor)
Hendrik Vorster is the Senior Pastor of Riverside Community Church. He is a gifted Church Leader with many years of ministry experience. His passion is to see people having a real, living relationship with Jesus and becoming wholehearted followers of Him. His desire is to see the Kingdom of God grow. He has a keen interest in equipping Church Leaders.
Hendrik grew up in a Christian family, in South Africa. At 15, he started ministry as a youth leader. At 20 he became an area pastor, since the Church he was in, grew from 50 to 400 members. He served in this capacity until the completion of his Bachelor of Theology Studies in 1986.
In 1987, Hendrik began his National Service in the army. During his service he took a number of Chaplaincy positions and served as an Associate Pastor at a church of 800 members.
In 1990, Hendrik followed the call of God and moved to a church for which he was the pastor for seven years. During this time, he founded the first ever ‘Place of Refuge’ in the Full Gospel Church of God. This centre could accommodate 150 families at a time; so in a town of 3000 the church was responsible for more than 10% of the people and quickly became a great influence in that community.
Hendrik joined the Institute for Church Growth in Africa, since its early days of ministry to Pastors and Church Leaders, in 1987. During the following years he had the opportunity to speak to thousands of pastors in many African countries, as well as Europe, Asia and many US states.
In May 1999 Hendrik accepted the position of Senior Pastor of Maritzburg Christian Church. During his tenure, he saw the church grow to more than 1200 adult worshippers on Sunday mornings.
In 1999 he was co-opted onto the Board of Directors of Church Growth International (the board of Dr. David Yonggi Cho) for which he continues to play an active role, including having ministered at the world’s largest church. This opportunity also lead to heading up CGI South Africa, training thousands of Pastors and leaders in church planting and growth over the next 10 years.
In 2006 Hendrik joined the DCPI team as a Master Trainer. He has and continue to train thousands of leaders in Church Planting and saw the planting of hundreds of churches through this ministry.
Hendrik also serves as Director on the Board of SCEE, the operational company of ACE, in Oceania since November 2009.
Hendrik’s wife Ursula and their five girls (aged between 12 and 22) have relocated to Australia in 2008 to take up the Senior Pastor’s position at Riverside Community Church. We look forward to the many great things that God is going to do during this new season at Riverside.
