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Story | Real Life Community Church

Serving with All Their Heart

Real Life Community Church did their service day at a park. This gave the Real Life team a chance to share their faith and mention their church...

On a beautiful September day in Bel Air, Maryland, nearly half the adults at Real Life Community Church gathered for a workday at Hartford Glen, a large park owned by the local school district to teach environmental sciences.

“We selected this park as our project because we wanted to focus on a kids-related ministry,” said Pastor Jeff Smith. “We’re a year-old church plant of primarily young families with school-age kids, so this was the perfect ‘first’ project for us.”

The teams cleaned out and replanted a number of gardens, to the delight of the teacher in charge and a few other staff who were present that day. “The staff commented that they’d worked with lots of volunteers before – but never a group that was so willing to serve, regardless of what they were asked to do. In fact, they commented that the people served ‘with all their heart,’” Pastor Jeff related.

Other people relaxing in the park noticed the work in progress, and came to check it out, giving the Real Life team a chance to share their faith and mention their church.

“Our people thoroughly enjoyed the day,” said Pastor Jeff. “It gave us the opportunity to get out of the church’s four walls and actually do something for the community. It also allows us to see our local mission field in a different way. Change isn’t accomplished all at once, but it’s a steady building process, even through little things like planting gardens.”

Real Life will continue to serve the community throughout the year. This spring they’re joining with other nearby churches in local service.

“One thing I really noticed about the day was this: serving together as a group opened our hearts to better hear God as he calls us individually to serve him in our everyday lives,” said Pastor Jeff.