Connect

About Reality Church

Vision 2024

"SENT LOVE"

About the vision:

Last year our vision was “Living the Relational Kingdom”. It was a season of learning to love and to do life as a church. We reached out to the wider community as a church family, and we were learning to reach out to others in the context of our everyday lives. We were exploring how we do life together as brothers and sisters in the Lord and how to live as children of God in the world around us.

Our vision of Sent Love for 2024 is a natural progression from what we have already been exploring as a church family. It is not a new innovative idea, but rather a reminder of the very way we are to live as Christ’s followers in this world.

It is all too easy to settle into living a life that looks very similar to the culture around us, only with a Christian label. People submit to the same consumerist culture by looking for a church to serve their needs and that suits their personality. Here at Reality, we do not want to play the game of trying to meet the expectations of people, as if we have something to sell, and miss the true call to be witnesses in our streets, our neighbourhoods, and to the “ends of the earth.”

God is at work in the world around us. If we can change our perspective from seeing the locus of God’s work being in the church to a broader vision of what he is doing in the world, we are more likely to discern his redemptive actions already happening. The starting point for discerning what God is up to is prayer. Expectant prayer trusts that God is already at work, that he invites us to be part of his redemptive actions in the world, and that when we faithfully wait on him, he will answer.

We need to trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us and call us to a specific purpose with him, for others. This purpose should not neglect the relational community of believers, but should be a natural, balanced outworking of it; we are called, like the disciples, to minister as a community. There is a relational model to mission: with the Holy Spirit, our church communities, and with the people we are called to serve. Within these relationships humility is essential.

All this, framed in the transcendent work of the Holy Spirit who has gone before us, is with us and brings the hope of the future kingdom into our present, will prevent us from being an otherwise insular church. We want to be a church that trusts that God is at work, that he has called us, and that the work that we do with him has eternal significance.

Four focus topics for Sent Love

  • Term One: Telling His Story
  • Term Two: Telling Our Story
  • Term Three: Our Talents, His Mission
  • Term Four: Humble Beginnings

Five Year Vision (2022-2026)

- to be known as we make Him known -

Our 5-year vision is multi-faceted: to be Known. To know God and be known by Him is not simply to have knowledge, but it is a lived experience of being caught up in His presence. It is a relational term.

As we are transformed, it is then our task to “make Him known”. We are ambassadors of Christ, called to take what we know and experience of Him into the world around us. This should be the heartbeat of our everyday lives. The next level is to believe in the vision for our church. To trust that God has called Reality for a purpose, to be His vehicle for transformation and liberation for our families and communities.

Our vision is that Reality Church becomes known in the community of Traralgon, and the Latrobe Valley. Within the next 5 years we want to see accommodation and retreats, conferences, leadership training, community and outreach events, employment opportunities and church plants. All this along with our existing ministries thriving and participating in the eternal purposes of God.

Reality's DNA

Reality is a place where you can “come as you are.” Believing that the salvation of God is freely given for all people, through grace and faith.

Reality is a place where family is Nurtured, Developed & Demonstrated.
Every part of the body being “valued,” released, and effectively operating in the gifts God has given to them.

Reality is a “safe place” of Love, Growth and Acceptance. Reality will be “known for our Love”.

A place where “Genuine Life Transformation” takes place in the hearts, minds and lives of our people.

Regardless of our numerical size we will always “give beyond measure”. This giving includes, Time, Money, People, Love, Care & Hospitality, always allowing our-selves to be inconvenienced for one other.

Reality will always have a “vision beyond our-selves”, reaching out into the wider community and ultimately throughout the world.

We will be a “strong base” for local churches, from which we will send out supported ministry for short- and long-term ministry.

Jesus is our benchmark, the one we aspire too and the rock we build our lives upon. It is a privilege to be a part of what God is doing and growing at REALITY CHURCH.

Let the whole earth praise Jesus’ wonderful and beautiful name.
We commit to you, Ps Rob & Bec and Leadership Team.
AMEN

Statement of Beliefs

At Reality Church we believe:

  • In the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
  • In God, the Creator, who has revealed Himself in the Persons of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit;
  • In the Divinity and sinless Humanity of Jesus Christ, and in His miraculous ministry, His suffering and death on the Cross as the only Saviour for the sins of the world, and His resurrection from the dead;
  • That Jesus will return to the earth as its final Judge of the living and the dead;
  • That all people fall short of God’s perfect standard and can only find forgiveness through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ;
  • That all people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ will witness a transformation in their lives, exemplified by repentance and holiness of conduct;
  • In Christian Baptism, by full immersion in water, of those who have personally placed their faith in Jesus Christ;
  • In regularly celebrating the Lord’s Supper, remembering Jesus Christ’s saving work;
  • In the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, with the normal initial evidence of speaking in unknown languages;
  • In the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit;
  • That God heals the sick today through active faith in His grace;
  • In the power of prayer;
  • In God’s community of believers, the church and its responsibility to spread the message of the Gospel to all people and nations.

 

Foundations

Reality Church is a Pentecostal church, belonging to the Christian Revival Crusade (CRC). The church is a not-for-profit organization governed by an oversight team. 

Reality is situated on 23 acres at the west end of Traralgon. The church has a rich heritage, being planted in 1972 under the leadership of Pastors John & Jean Leak. 

The church soon grew to a sizeable Christian community, with significant children’s ministry, which saw up to 200 children being bussed to the Sunday School program each Sunday morning.

In recent years the main church building has been extended and the kitchen renovated. With 23 acres, there is plenty of space to grow and we are excited to dream about what God has in store for Reality Church.