Real Life Ministries (RLM) was conceived when God gave two couples the desire to start praying for a new church. As they prayed, God brought others and we had our first small group. This small group met, in a backyard, and the prayers continued to go up for the church. The roots of RLM have always been about relationships and small groups.
Our experiences, at RLM, have come about because of the relational environment that exists both in the congregation and within the staff. In October of 1998 RLM held its first official service in a movie theater. God continued adding to the church and in the next year we grew from 80 to 350. As the growth continued, the movie theater became too small and RLM leased space from the school district. At this point, RLM developed plans to build a church building. In the spring of 2001 the new building was finished. Within 6 weeks attendance was over 1600. As the numbers continued to climb, the elders, leadership and staff continued to pray and seek God’s wisdom for a plan to keep our focus on relationships and small groups. We did not want to lose the relational component that was so much of who we are.
God laid out the same plan to three different groups of people within the leadership. They were amazed how God had shown all of them Jethro’s plan from Exodus 18 This was refined over time and continued to change to the model of discipleship and relationship the Jesus utilized in His ministry.
As we continued to grow, people from around the country began asking what it was we were doing to create such growth. All we could do is point to Acts 2:37-43 – God changed hearts and God added to our numbers. We simply created an environment for God to do that in. More churches came to us and we began to realize the need to share what God was doing here. We have tried to take the time to look back and study what has happened at RLM and hope to share this with you. Realize we do not have this all figured out, we often learn from our mistakes. God keeps teaching us new things daily. Our God is an awesome God and He does mighty things in spite of us getting in His way. We wish to share the message God has revealed to us, so that your church may share in the blessings along with us.
RLM has now created the Disciple Making Partnership (DMP) in an effort to share what God has taught us. This branch of RLM is not supported by those who tithe here, because we feel it is our duty to follow Acts 1:8 and reach our Jerusalem first. 80% of our county does not know the Lord; however, we do feel compelled to share what we have learned with our nation and the world. Therefore, to keep this in balance, our services are offered at a rate which covers our expenses. If cost is the only roadblock you see in taking this journey with us, please let us know – remember Our God is an awesome God.
RLM Doctrinal Statement
