October 23, 2023
Rusty George was welcomed as the new lead pastor of Crossroads Christian Church, Grand Prairie, Texas, on Oct. 15. He had served with Real Life Church in Valencia, Calif., for the past 20 years . . .
November 20, 2019
Compiled by Jim Nieman and Chris Moon Real Life Church in Valencia, Calif., dedicated its worship services this past Thursday and Sunday to Saugus High School following a school shooting there last week that killed two and injured three. One of those killed, Gracie Anne Muehlberger, 15, and two girls that were injured were part of a high school ministry at Real Life, senior pastor Rusty George told the Los Angeles Times. “People further away from the situation wonder ‘Why?’ and might even blame God,” George told the Times. “But the people who have been directly affected don’t blame God.
October 28, 2019
As wildfires rage across California, fueled by dry weather and strong winds, Christian churches are doing their best to operate in a difficult environment and step up to help those in need. Sebastopol (Calif.) Christian Church was unable to worship at its building on Sunday due to mandatory evacuations. That community was being threatened by the Kincade Fire near Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco. According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 2 million people had no power because of electrical company blackouts, and more than 180,000 people were evacuated. The fire has consumed more than 66,000 acres, The
March 25, 2019
Multisite in a New Light By Justin Horey The multisite model has been gaining momentum for years among large churches and megachurches nationwide. But when Real Life Church in Valencia, California, embraced the multisite model of ministry, it did so differently than many other churches. Real Life launched two new campuses in 2018, both in nontraditional ways: one campus was created through a merger/acquisition, and one campus was designed to reach people online. For more than a decade, Real Life Church had a close relationship with Discovery Church in nearby Simi Valley, California. Both churches were planted by Shepherd of
February 13, 2019
A few weeks after losing one of his pastors to suicide, Rusty George of Real Life Church in Valencia, Calif., spoke on radio station KHTS’s “Aging With Power” program about coping with the suicide of a loved one. “It was shocking for all of us, and it was devastating,” George said of campus pastor Jim Howard’s suicide Jan. 23. George said Howard had struggled with a mental health issue and was on and off medication for years. “We react the way everyone reacts with something like this—with sadness, with a bit of anger, a bit of guilt. And we just
March 2, 2015
By Jennifer Johnson According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, churches spent close to $9 billion on new construction in 2002 and $3.5 billion in 2013. (Thanks, Great Recession.) Organizations analyzing church spending report congregations that own or rent existing buildings spend 20-30 percent or more of their budgets on loan payments, maintenance, and related expenses. For most churches in the U.S., buildings are necessary for building ministry, and the process isn”t cheap. I”m not interested in the tired debate about whether a church should have a nice building that costs a lot of money when so many
March 2, 2015
By Jennifer Johnson A few years ago, Rusty George had the opportunity to participate in a meeting with the mayor and local business leaders to discuss area needs. “A local car dealer mentioned how nice it would be if nonprofits could work together and share costs,” says George, lead pastor of Real Life Church in Valencia, CA. “We were just getting ready to open a second site, and I thought how great it would be to have a church building that didn”t sit empty during the week and, instead, housed a variety of nonprofits that could share coffee pots and
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