John Booko was pastor of First Baptist Church for 12 years before starting Three Rivers Christian Fellowship with his son, Paul. The church was started on July 6, 1975 as an Interdenominational Christian Church in a rented facility and with some borrowed equipment.

It was founded with a dream to be a church where honest relationships could be built with God and each other through the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1979, ten acres of land was purchased and a church building was constructed with an office and classroom addition added in 1987.

As the church grew in numbers and the vision for the community expanded, an exciting vision was birthed to purchase the old Three Rivers High School in the middle of town and renovate it into a ministry center that would impact SW Michigan. In the Spring of 2000, the church moved into its “new” campus and changed the name to Riverside Church.