Our Story
Thank you for taking the time to look at our website. People often ask what kind of church are you? What will you emphasize? What makes you unique? Why should I consider coming to your church? Here is a short synopsis of what we are about but quite honestly the best and only real way to find out about us is to attend a Sunday service, life group and if you have time a personal face to face with myself. I would love to have the opportunity to turn this into a dialog instead of this monologue.
Allow me to start our story with our name Real Life Christian Church. I grew up in a pastor's home; in fact I am a fourth generation pastor so I didn't have much of a chance to become a Bond trader and a good thing too. I realized something a while ago that for most people, outside of those who are on staff at a particular church, Real Life doesn't happen on Sunday mornings. Sunday mornings for the hour or so are really an escape from our "Real Lives". Real Life happens during the week, after we leave church, and interact with our family, friends, neighbors, enemies and deal with our jobs, traffic and all the ups and downs that come with Real Life. As I read the words of Jesus and search through scripture, I am reminded that nowhere does it tell about the importance of going to a church service. The emphasis is in taking our beliefs and lifestyles into our Real Lives. So we wanted a church that emphasized the church being about people experiencing God in everyday situations.
Our mission flows from our name which is to "connect people to a Real Life with God, a Real Life with Others and a Real Life with Purpose." This mission statement is not just one for us as a church but it is for me personally as well. My goal in life is to continue to connect to a Real Life with God, a Real Life with Others and a Real Life with Purpose. These aren't just words on a wall or website for us. This is a change in philosophy and thought that many who have grown up in the church are not used to. As a result, although we value Sunday services, we measure success on if people are bringing Jesus into their real lives and it starts for us in our life groups. For 2009 we are calling this, "Live Different" which you can check out on a different page.
So we officially kicked off these life groups (mid week get togethers in people's homes) in June of 2007. Then on October 28,2007 we had our first official Sunday service with a great kids program to go along with those services for birth through fifth grade. We have had incredible opportunities to partner with the school (Williamsfield High School), the district and even our neighboring city of Queen Creek for city wide events as well as our very own movie nights in the park with our ice cream truck. Yep, we have an ice cream truck. We have seen a steady growth in people's desire to become like Jesus and reaching out to other around them. So our story continues as we start looking for land, and continue to grow and expand our life groups and community outreach opportunities. There is also some incredible things God is allowing us to be a part of in the world. I would ask you to consider looking into the idea of being a part of this incredible story.
I look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon. As you can probably tell we/I am going to be as Real (transparent, genuine, a fellow sojourner) as I can be in my relationship with you and with our church. We want to make a real impact in each other's lives and in our community. Again, come check us out, or better yet, as I mentioned above, lets do coffee to talk about this more.
Thanks,
Dan Shields
Lead Pastor