On Rainbow Forest Drive, Just Outside Roanoke

Rainbow Forest Baptist Church sits at 1338 Rainbow Forest Drive in Troutville, Virginia, a small Botetourt County town just off I-81 and a short drive from Roanoke. The church has put down roots in that location long enough to become a steady landmark for families in the Roanoke Valley, with two Sunday morning services, a full children's wing, a student building, a chapel, a gym, and a kitchen large enough to host weekly dinners. Members drive in from Troutville, Botetourt County, Roanoke, Salem, Daleville, and the surrounding hills, and visitors are welcomed with a single sentence that captures the church's whole purpose: Devotional Love, Disciple Believers, Deploy the Church.

The phrase is more than a slogan. It is the working vision that shapes every program from the nursery to the Guatemala mission trip. Pastoral staff write about it, members repeat it, and the church organizes its calendar around it. Visitors who want a quick read on what kind of congregation Rainbow Forest is can start there: a church that wants to worship Christ with deep affection, grow believers in his Word, and send the church out to the neighborhoods of the Roanoke Valley and to the ends of the earth.

A Church Defined by Three Actions

Three commitments form the spine of Rainbow Forest's life together. They are spelled out in detail on the church's vision page, and they show up in nearly everything the church does.

Devotional Love. The first action is a love for God that runs deeper than a Sunday attendance pattern. The church teaches that devotional love shows itself both privately and publicly. At home, believers are encouraged to build rhythms of prayer, Scripture reading, and song. Colossians 3:16 - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God - anchors the church's Family Worship resources. On Sundays, that private devotion meets the gathered congregation, and the worship center fills with the kind of one-another ministry the Bible describes. Members are expected to worship consistently, both in their own households and with the church.

Disciple Believers. The Great Commission is not delegated to staff. Every member is expected to invest in a discipleship group of three to five same-gender believers, modeled on the way Jesus discipled Peter, James, and John. The goal is multiplicative: each disciple, once steady, is expected to lead another group. Discipleship is built into the church's language through Life Groups, which meet throughout the week for fellowship and Bible study, and through the preaching ministry, which walks through books of the Bible rather than hopping between topics.

Deploy the Church. A deployed church is one that sends its people out. Rainbow Forest has a stated passion to take the gospel to people with little or no gospel access, both in the Roanoke Valley and around the world. Every member is asked to play a part by praying, giving, or going. Prayer prompts are delivered by text through the RFBC Missions Text; giving supports missionaries and underwrites short-term trips; going has carried teams to Guatemala, Slovakia, and beyond.

Sundays at 9:00 and 10:30

Rainbow Forest gathers twice on Sunday morning, both services in the Worship Center at 9:00 and 10:30 AM. The two services give families flexibility to choose a time that fits their week, and children's programming runs during both so that parents can drop off infants through sixth graders and join the rest of the congregation for the sermon. Visitors are greeted warmly, given help finding their way around, and pointed to a parking spot. The church describes its services as biblical teaching, Christ-centered worship, and a place where people can come as they are, whether they have grown up in church or are stepping inside one for the first time.

The order of service leans on expository preaching, where the pastor works through a book of the Bible verse by verse. Music is led by a worship team and supported by a regular rhythm of congregational singing. The sermon is also livestreamed through Boxcast and YouTube for those who cannot be in the room, and audio and video recordings are posted so the message can be revisited during the week. A weekly Spotify playlist is curated to help listeners prepare their hearts for Sunday or continue worshiping through the week.

Joseph: From Pit to Palace

Preaching at Rainbow Forest is structured, sequential, and unhurried. Pastor John Richardson has led the congregation through long series that move book by book, and the current series, Joseph: From Pit to Palace, takes the church through the life of Joseph from Genesis 37 onward. The series walks through rejection, temptation, waiting, promotion, and reconciliation, and shows how God uses difficult circumstances to shape his people. Along the way, the sermons draw lines from Joseph to Christ, who was also obedient, betrayed, silent before accusers, and stripped of his robe. Recent messages have included God Sees the Entire Story on Genesis 37:1-11, Evil Plans, Good God on Genesis 37:12-36, and Never Alone on Genesis 39.

Before Joseph, the church walked through a six-part series called Present Suffering, Future Glory, which paired a theology of suffering with a theology of heaven. Messages such as Worshiping Through Tears, Entrusting Yourself to God, The Birth Pains of Glory, This City of Joy, and When We See His Face traced a path from lament to hope. Sermon slides are posted online after each Sunday, and the church uses the same text-to-text preaching approach across both services, so worshipers arriving early or late will hear the same passage taught.

Kids, from Birth Through Sixth Grade

Children's ministry at Rainbow Forest is built around three age groups that meet during both Sunday services. The nursery and preschool area serves children from birth through age four, with age-appropriate rooms that include engaging activities designed to help little ones begin to understand who Jesus is. Kindergarten through third grade meets at 9:00 AM in small-group classrooms and shifts to a Large Group room at 10:30 AM for combined teaching and worship. Preteens in fourth through sixth grade gather in the Preteen Area, with small groups at 9:00 and large group teaching and worship at 10:30. The Preteen Center offers games and activities, giving kids a space to belong before, between, and after the structured parts of the morning.

Wednesday nights add a second rhythm to the week. A family dinner is served at 5:15 PM, followed by Kids Club programming from 6:15 to 7:45 PM. Preschool and elementary children meet in the Kids Center, and preteens meet in the Preteen Center. Theme nights, games, and lessons about Jesus are layered into the Wednesday schedule, and the dinner makes the evening an easy on-ramp for busy families. Children's ministry is led by Pastor Jeff Kammerer and Children's Director Brianna McMillan, with Gioia Nicely coordinating Next Gen events. A summer Vacation Bible School is also offered, often in partnership with another local church.

Students in the Student Building

Middle and high school students have their own space on the campus. On Sunday mornings, students meet at 10:30 AM in the Student Building, where they are grouped by grade for small groups and gather as a large group for teaching and worship. Wednesday nights bring another meeting with large group games, teaching, and worship, followed by grade-level small groups. Each quarter, the student ministry hosts an outreach event built around fun, friendship, and the chance to invite friends who do not normally come to church.

The student ministry treats missions as a regular part of student life. Mission Station is a hands-on program that walks students through the daily realities of life in places they have never visited. In recent months, Mission Station students have taken imaginary trips to Northern Africa to pray for a missionary family, learned about the Koya people of India and the clean water work of Global Partners in Peace and Development, and traveled to Slovakia through the experience of a guest English-camp teacher. Each unit ends with a prayer walk that uses the PRAY acrostic - Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield - to turn a geography lesson into gospel prayer.

Worship That Goes Home

Worship at Rainbow Forest is led by a worship team that rehearses and records regularly, and members of the team can step forward by emailing Pastor Jonathan. The music program is not confined to Sundays. A weekly Spotify playlist is curated to prepare hearts for the weekend or to extend worship through the week. The Family Worship page, anchored in Colossians 3:16, gives families a monthly song to learn together, along with a recording from the worship team and a curated book list featuring titles such as Sing! by Keith and Kristyn Getty, Family Worship by Donald S. Whitney, and Family Shepherd by Voddie Baucham.

The Family Worship ministry is run by the Next Gen team and exists to help parents lead their own households in faith. A monthly recording teaches the song the children are already learning in Kids Club and student ministry, so a child hearing the song at church can go home and sing the same song at the kitchen table. Music videos from the worship team are shared for families to enjoy together.

Life Groups and a Plurality of Elders

The small-group engine of the church is its Life Groups, which meet throughout the week for fellowship, prayer, and Bible study. Open groups are listed through the Church Center platform, and visitors can browse groups by location, meeting day, and life stage. The groups are designed to be the natural next step for new members who want to be known and to grow in the Word between Sundays. Discipleship of three to five same-gender believers is encouraged within and beyond these groups.

Leadership is shaped by a conviction that the New Testament calls for a plurality of elders. Pastor John has written extensively about this conviction, including a multi-part series on the tasks of elders - shepherding, overseeing, and disciple-making. He and the elder team lead the church together, with deacons serving alongside them. The pastoral staff includes Lead Pastor John Richardson, Administrative Pastor Jeff Kammerer, and Worship Pastor Jonathan, and a Children's Director, a Next Gen Event Coordinator, a Young Adults Coordinator, and others fill out the team. Members are welcome to contact staff directly by email for questions about ministry areas. The church also runs an internship program for those considering vocational ministry, coordinated through Pastor Jeff.

What Rainbow Forest Believes

Rainbow Forest's doctrinal distinctives are published in full and are summarized below in the church's own language.

The Scriptures. The Bible is divinely inspired, true without error, unchanging, and the supreme standard for conduct, creeds, and religious opinions. All Scripture testifies to Christ.

God. There is one living and true God, infinite, holy, and perfect, who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe.

Man. God created mankind in his image as male and female. Through the temptation of Satan, humanity sinned and fell from innocence, and only the grace of God can restore fellowship. Christ died for all, so every person of every race possesses full dignity.

Salvation. Salvation is offered freely to anyone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

The Church. A New Testament church is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant, observing baptism and the Lord's Supper, and governed by the Word. Officers are pastors, elders, and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service, the offices of pastor, elder, and deacon are reserved for men as Scripture qualifies.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, symbolizing death to sin and resurrection to new life. Baptism is a prerequisite to church membership and the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act in which members of the church partake of bread and the fruit of the vine to memorialize the death of Jesus and anticipate his return.

Marriage and Human Sexuality. Marriage joins one man and one woman in a single exclusive union. Sexual intimacy is intended only within that union, and any sexual activity outside of it is described as sinful.

Redemption for All. The church affirms that redemption and restoration are offered to anyone who confesses and forsakes sin through Jesus Christ, and that every person is to be treated with compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity.

Regeneration, Justification, Sanctification. Regeneration is the work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Justification is God's gracious full acquittal of repentant sinners who believe in Christ. Sanctification is the Spirit's work setting the believer apart for God's purposes throughout a lifetime.

The church also affirms the value of expository preaching and expository Bible study, and it identifies with the Southern Baptist Convention in background and practice.

Going to Guatemala, Slovakia, and the Ends of the Earth

Global missions at Rainbow Forest is built on three legs: pray, give, and go. The RFBC Missions Text delivers daily prayer prompts for unreached people and missionary families. Giving supports missionaries and offsets the cost of short-term trips. Going carries teams into the field.

The church's flagship short-term trip is to Guatemala, and a typical Guatemala team spends seven to ten days in partnership with local pastors. A recent team worked alongside Pastors Elder, Jamie, and Benidicto, leading a Vacation Bible School for roughly 300 children, conducting home visits with food distribution, serving an elderly lunch for about 70 neighbors, running a nutrition and hygiene clinic for around 50 parents and children, training local leadership, and gathering for combined worship with a Guatemalan congregation. Devotional life on the trip is structured - mornings open with Scripture and prayer, and team members share one-word reflections at the end of each day, words like joyful, faithful, blessed, touched. Two team members from the most recent trip also helped lead a Bible study for young men at a local church.

Global Partners in Peace and Development, or GPPD, is one of the church's primary partners. The organization works among the Koya people of India, an unreached people group in remote villages. Mission Station students have learned about the Koya by trying to carry water long distances on their heads and to wash clothes in muddy water, activities that turn an abstract statistic about clean water access into a visceral lesson. Northern Africa and Slovakia have also been focus areas for prayer and learning. Joshua Project is used as a resource for additional global statistics. Short-term trips are listed on the church's missions platform, and anyone interested in going can sign up through the same system.

Serving Roanoke Valley, Week by Week

Local engagement at Rainbow Forest is steady rather than occasional. Members serve with a rotating cast of partner organizations around the Roanoke Valley.

Good News Club is an after-school program at a local elementary school where a team of RFBC volunteers shares the gospel with children who stay after school. The first week of a recent fall session drew fourteen kids, and the curriculum walks through verses like Psalm 139:14. Helpers are always needed and can volunteer by emailing Pastor Jeff.

Samaritan Inn receives regular serve days, with teams cleaning and organizing the kitchen, tackling projects around the Thrift Store, and spending time with residents.

Blue Ridge Women's Center is supported through baby showers and ongoing engagement. BRWC serves local men and women facing unplanned pregnancies.

Straight Street in downtown Roanoke is described in the church's own posts as not all fun and games. RFBC volunteers serve alongside Straight Street's ministry in ways that go beyond the surface.

Friendship House Roanoke hosts quarterly Community Days, and RFBC teams have partnered with them on cleaning and moving days for neighbors in transition.

Piecemakers is a group of women from Rainbow Forest who meet in the lobby and halls of the church to make quilts and tangible goods that support ministries around the world, including International Charity Day initiatives.

PMI Ministries, The Lampstand VA, Rescue Mission, and Upward Sports are additional ministry connections listed on the church's volunteer pages, with opportunities for both kids and adults to serve.

The church also offers its campus to members for facility use, including weddings, funerals, and other events, with detailed use policies available through the facility request page.

Sermons, Podcast, and the Blog

The preaching ministry extends well beyond the Sunday hour. Sermon audio and video are published weekly through YouTube and Boxcast, and full sermon notes are available as downloadable PDFs. The current sermon series and recent messages are listed on the sermons page with links to each installment.

The podcast is called Between Sundays. Episodes such as This City of Joy and Students on Mission give the congregation a way to keep thinking about the Bible between gatherings, and episodes are available on Spotify.

The blog, written mostly by Pastor John, is a teaching platform in its own right. Posts walk through the meaning of words like toledot, unpack what expository preaching is and why the Sermon on the Mount models it, explain the Southern Baptist Convention's history and the role it played in Pastor John's own training, and trace the biblical case for a plurality of elders. A series on what elders do - shepherding, overseeing, and disciple-making - has been serialized across the blog. Martha Spencer and Brianna McMillan also write for the blog, with posts on the fear of the Lord, wisdom from Proverbs, and counseling in the life of the believer. An eNewsletter keeps the wider network connected.

The Building and How to Get Plugged In

The Rainbow Forest campus is a working community center. The Worship Center anchors the Sunday services. The Student Building houses middle and high school ministry. The Kids Center and Preteen Center give children their own rooms. The Crossing, the Chapel, the Gym, the Student Life Center, the Main Kitchen, and a range of classrooms are available for ministry use. Members can reserve space for approved events through the facility request page, and reservations are reviewed weekly by the pastoral staff.

For visitors, the easiest on-ramp is the Plan a Visit page. Angie Waldron is the contact for questions about services, scheduling a visit, or plugging into a ministry or group. New Member Classes are offered for those ready to make Rainbow Forest their church home. Life Groups are the recommended next step for getting to know people and growing in the Word. Giving can be done online through the church's giving page, and volunteer roles are listed on a separate volunteer form. Prayer requests are welcomed through the church's prayer page, and a member care form exists for those who need help and want a pastor or staff member to follow up.

The church's name, address, and phone are listed in plain sight on the home page: 1338 Rainbow Forest Drive, Troutville, Virginia 24175, and (540) 977-1789. From there, the church's online home is rainbowforest.com, and its social channels are active on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube under the Rainbow Forest Baptist Church name.