In August 2010 we moved to Sutton Coldfield with a team from the Community Church, Bishop Stortford to start Real Life Church.
We began meeting in homes and then on Sunday mornings in Bannersgate Community Hall (January 2011 - July 2011). On our first Sunday morning, to our surprise, 20 people turned up to worship Jesus with us.
We were quickly too big for the Community Hall and moved to Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls (September 2011). People started making Real Life their home and babies kept being born. We had our first baptism (July 2012) - in a hot tub, in the garden!
God's church was being built and it was real and full of life. We loved the Bible and will teach it always. We loved HIS presence with us by the Spirit and we know that worship is our way. We were all about Jesus and still are. We were small but in our hearts we were large, influential and reproducing. We wanted to be good to our community so that if we were to leave overnight our community would want to know where we were.
We moved to Clifton Road Youth Centre (July 2012 - December 2016) and we flourished in that place. In September 2014 Sutton Christian Fellowship came to join the story which spread our age - some grey hair and teenagers. They were such a beautiful gift to us! We saw people decide to follow Jesus, get healed, walk in freedom and so many baptisms. We started Messy Easter, Messy Christmas, church@prayer, some fantastic teaching series, Men’s and Women’s Events, Kids Work, Youth Work, Woodland Hunts, Acoustic Costa, Knit Night… We joined in with the Royal Sutton Fun Run, the Community Games, Boldmere Street Festivals, Food 4U… We hosted Alpha Courses, Marriage Courses and Freedom in Christ. We camped together at the Catalyst Festival and Newday with our young people. We celebrated our 5th birthday in that place and we had grown to well over 100 of us!
We left the Youth Centre in December 2016. We were so sad to go because Jesus had done so much - the stories people told on that last Sunday had us in tears and whooping for joy!
It was time for Real Life to move back into Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls and so in January 2017 we moved house and we are still there now!
We survived lockdown (March 2020 - December 2021). We learnt lots about technology, church, people and Jesus. There were things we stopped doing and things we started doing. We read so many government guidelines and worked hard to keep our people safe and loved! This season in lockdown and leading out of it has been our toughest season so far. We kept making sure we were all about Jesus and asking how can we help people have a relationship with Jesus.
God has spoken to us now and said it is time for us to grow up. We are ready! We are all about Jesus and in our hearts we know that God has called us to be large, influential and reproducing. We want to be good to our community, this city, the nations and nations of the world.
We are looked after by the Catalyst Network with input from Andy and Heather Martin and the other Birmingham Church Leaders. We are part of Churches Together locally and Birmingham Church Planting Collective in the City.
We have a Leadership Team, Elders, Directors, Staff Team, Ministry Team Leaders and Workers - we call them Mum’s and Dad’s in Real Life. We meet on Sundays and midweek in small groups that we call Life Groups. The young are everywhere and because they are everywhere our story won’t end with us!
So watch this space for more stories to be told, more pages to be filled… Or better still why not consider jumping into the story and let’s see where Jesus takes us by the Spirit, doing what the Father asks!
