10 JUNE 2026 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition PASTOR PROFILE Tom Hendrikse never imagined the word "pastor" on his resume let alone the designation of Senior Pastor of Rio Vista Church, a Presbyterian church planted in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale in 1941. Tom was a counselor of a different kind as a personal injury defense attorney, defending insurance companies like State Farm. "In Boynton, we attended a small Baptist church led by a dynamic pastor, John Hawkins. His first assignment was for me to teach a Sunday school class. I guess it went well, so I ended up running the Sunday school program with probably 500 adults, recruiting, training, doing all of it. And I really loved it. When did the pastoral calling became undeniable? People I respected asked me, “Have you considered that maybe this is what the Lord wants you to do?” My response was, “I haven’t said it out loud, but I’ve begun to wonder.” I called Collins Weber at Knox Seminary and he said, “Tom, you need to go to Knox.” I enrolled in night classes on the ten-year plan. I told my wife I thought God was calling me, and her direct quote was, “I think maybe he should call back.” The Lord was also working on her at the same time. What brought you to Rio Vista Church? I became friends with the former senior pastor here, Dave Dorst, through Knox Seminary. In 2001, Dave said he felt I should take over as senior pastor. I was still in seminary so wasn’t sure that was even a possibility. But we found a path through the credentials committee, and I became the senior pastor in October of 2001, so this October marks 25 years. Has your understanding of pastoral leadership evolved over the years? Things shifted when I realized that when Jesus says in John 15:5 “apart from me, you can do nothing,” he actually means that. It led me into studying spiritual formation, pressing into the gifts of the Holy Spirit, studying revival, and then into prayer. I’m a lot more God-reliant now than when I started. What one decision changed the trajectory of your church? The most consequential decision was our deep investment in the 24-7 Prayer Movement. It started with personal desperation — I said, “There’s got to be more to ministry, to Christianity, than what we’re experiencing.” I began devouring books on revival, studied the contemplatives, read Thomas Merton, and dug into Lectio Divina. In January of 2018, we went to an Alpha conference, and we came back and changed our leadership meetings entirely: worshiping together, praying together, studying scripture, doing Lectio Divina together. That changed the culture and spiritual temperature of our leadership and our congregation. What keeps you up at night when you think about the future of the Church? Honestly, I’m generally excited about the church in South Florida, but if I press into a concern, I think the church in general spends more time thinking about leadership principles than the ancient paths of the Holy Spirit, of prayer, of digging into the Word, of spiritual transformation. What does being involved in Church United mean to you? I love what I’m seeing the Lord do relationally between pastors here in South Florida. We’re cheering for each other, counseling each other, even financially supporting each other behind the scenes. We helped launch Pray South Florida, a citywide united prayer initiative of Church United with the mission of ‘uniting the church in South Florida to pray for an awakening of God’s people.’ As Dr. A.T. Pierson said, there has never been a revival anywhere that was not preceded by united prayer. Tell us about your family Beth and I have been married 34 years this August. She was a CPA when we married, but she became our church’s prayer ministry coordinator in January 2019. She’s transformed our prayer culture in a way that I and everyone else could not have done without her. To have a champion whose job it is to infiltrate everything with prayer is culture-forming and culture-changing for a church. Morgan is 31 and married to Will Bushman. They have two children: Everette and Parker. Our daughter Haley, 26, lives with her husband Sam Machado in Tallahassee. They are fostering to adoption a five-month-old baby. Our son TJ is 23 and getting married in November to a wonderful girl named Sarah Sousa. Sunny was a Chinese exchange student, and we consider her our fourth kid. She works in finance in New York. What is something often misunderstood about Rio Vista or its mission? I wish more people knew that we’re not just a solid Bible-teaching church, although we are that. We’re also deeply committed to prayer, to the Holy Spirit, to the spiritual gifts, to Alpha and evangelism, and to spiritual formation. I’d want them to visit our prayer house — a 900-square-foot space on our property that is open to anyone. We want people to come, be transformed, and take that back to their own churches. We have three incredible podcasts that reach far beyond our walls: The Bible Show, Under The Hood, and In God We Trusted. The Bible Show is in the top half of 1% of all podcasts of any kind in the world, reaching listeners in over 190 nations. Where do you see God moving most unexpectedly in our community right now? I believe the Lord is on the move worldwide. All the statistics are changing, especially among young people. It’s a rising tide, and churches that are faithful to Jesus and to his Word are rising on it. In 1 Kings 18 Elijah sends his servant out to look for rain and finally the servant says, “I see a cloud, the size of a man’s hand.” I think right now we can see that cloud. The question is whether it’s going to be a light rain or a downpour. We need to pray that it fully manifests and breaks out in revival. To learn more about Rio Vista Church or to reserve a time in the Prayer House, go to RioVistaChurch.com A House of Prayer: Pastor Tom and Rio Vista at 25 Years Anitra Parmele GOOD NEWS Senior Writer Tom Hendrikse
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