Real Life Association
Real Life Ministries was planted in 1998 by a group of four families. Since that time RLM has become one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. Ten years after it began, Real Life Ministries had increased from just four families to weekend attendance of over eight-thousand. God has done a mighty work here and He is the one (and only one), who gets the credit.
Our growth seems pretty impressive and many would call us successful just by our shear size – especially considering the limited population base in our area. We’d agree, if success were measured by the number of people in weekend service. However, that’s not success as the Bible defines it.
In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them all the commands He has given us. We don’t believe that we can make disciples by putting on a show each weekend. That’s not to say there’s no value in the weekend service, but what’s more important is what goes on the rest of the week.
Our vision is to reach the world for Jesus one person at a time. Our mission is to make biblical disciples in relational environments. We’d never consider ourselves successful based solely on weekend attendance – it’s about so much more than that. It’s about people coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It’s about people plugging into deep, authentic relationship with God and other Christians. It’s about living life in relationship with others where we can learn about God and apply His word to our lives. It’s about loving others and being loved – caring, shepherding, helping, ministering, encouraging and holding one another accountable. It’s about discipleship – making disciples who can make disciples.
Real Life Ministries has grown – not because of a great weekend show, but rather out of people finding what they were created for: a relationship with God and authentic, real, loving relationships with others. We have a picture of this model dating back approximately 2,000 years – the first century church: people doing life together, sharing everything they had. They worshiped together, met in homes and shared the Lord’s Supper, and shared meals with great joy and generosity. They did all of this while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. As they did this, people from the outside were looking in – much like people are doing today. But rather than seeing the dysfunction and lack of relationship in the church today, people back then saw something they were literally dying to have: purpose, meaning, hope, real relationship and love. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:47b
The only thing that has changed in 2,000 years is our idea of church and definition of what winning is. The Real Life Association would consider it a privilege to come along side of your church or organization to help you learn what God has been teaching us. We currently offer the following assistance: (Click on any link for detailed information.)
We look forward to working with you!