The year 2002--It’s a challenge to find anything remarkable about it: The New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-18 to win their first-ever Super Bowl. Salt Lake City hosted the Winter Olympics games. The Mars Odyssey space probe began mapping the surface of Mars. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan and former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize—not much to write home about.
There is a group of people, however, who will never forget 2002: It was the year that the East Tennessee District decided Murfreesboro TN needed another Church of the Nazarene. John and I, appointed to plant the church, began to break the news to our children and a few close friends, some of whom bought into the idea and decided to help us-- a group of 14 adults and 5 children. We set the first Sunday of September to be the opening service of the new church and secured a small meeting room at the Holiday Inn on Exit 78 to serve as the worship center. We were to meet there for three months while a crew of paid workers and volunteers labored to complete renovations at space we had leased at 855 West College Street.
Prior to that first Sunday, the launch team traveled together for 12 weeks, holding “deputation” services in churches across the East Tennessee district—big-hearted congregations who were interested in learning more about and contributing to the vision of a brand new “little sister” congregation. In churches from Oak Ridge to Hillsboro, from Himesville to Montery, Cleveland to Decherd—nineteen of us formed a Sunday morning caravan to any church that would invite us to come and share the story of what God was calling us to do. On Sunday and Wednesday evenings, we would gather to pray, plan, and share our amazement that God had in mind to do the impossible through us.
On that first Sunday morning in September, after weeks and weeks of preparation, planning and travel, Launch Team members commuted about 55 miles from the southeast (Franklin County/Coffee County) to meet in Murfreesboro, a trip some of them would make every Sunday for three or more years. (God richly blessed that phenomenal commitment.) Barry & Kim Bishop and their three children, Christopher, Caitlin, and Carson; Sheila and James Cook, Holly Hayse, Jackie Owens, Terri and Leo Ponder, Bill and Angie Nelson with their two children, David and Malia; Julie Rigsby, Beau Williams, and Clayton Williams. While part of the team carted in sound equipment, miles of cable and duct tape, keyboard, and everything needed for worship, others set up the meeting room. After a sound-check and brief praise team practice, the keyed-up group prayed together and gathered in the lobby of the hotel to wait expectantly. The brave souls who would show up to meet a brand new church family for the very first time were probably pretty overwhelmed by their enthusiastic welcome.
Approximately thirty- five people gathered for worship in the strange atmosphere of the cramped meeting room that day including three families of “locals”: Wayne and Judy Oliff, Cindy, Tim and Max Witzigrueter, Dewayne and Lisa Sadler and daughter, Ashley. Stephanie Timms and her mother from Manchester, one MTSU student, Kirk Dodson, and four TNU students--Martha Moser from Pennsylvania, Ashley Bowser from Michigan, James Ericson from Chattanooga, and Rhett Butler from Cowan, TN—also joined us for that initial service and became part of the Real Life family. Regular attendance grew to approximately fifty before we left “Hotel-Church” at the end of November.
January 12, 2003, was set to be the official launch. The congregation invited hundreds of people to be our guests. A telemarketing firm was even employed to announce the new church to 10,000 homes in a ten-mile radius of the church.
January 12 dawned crisp and clear, the coldest day on record in Murfreesboro. One hundred fifty seven people, including the district staff and advisory board members, friends and family of the launch team, and well-wishers from other churches joined in exuberant worship. (We were so excited that no one even realized until much later that the central unit for the sanctuary had gone kaput and there was no heat except in the nurseries, children’s area, and restrooms.)
Though we had studied extensively and received the best training available through New Church University, nothing prepared us for the overwhelming experience of awe and wonder at what God had in mind for the new church. A comprehensive action plan, written and presented to the District Advisory Board for approval, forced us to address every conceivable facet of the new organization. In group planning sessions, it was exhilarating to sense God’s presence as we chose intentionally the critical components to include in the church’s DNA. Everything we did had a clearly stated purpose, including choosing the name Real Life. The acronym R-E-A-L stood for Relational people, Enthusiastic worshippers, Authentic Christianity, and Loving Leaders.
How does one build a relational church? By building relational people. We began by designing the welcome to be overwhelmingly like a weekly homecoming. We trained our people to make sure every person was greeted in the parking lot, again at the front door, again inside the door at the welcome station, every Sunday, rain or shine, hot or cold; and, every person, upon entering and leaving received hugs from the pastors. We took every newcomer or family to lunch, dinner, or coffee, to begin a relationship immediately, relationships that were to be cultivated by scores of fellowship events, prayers, and intimate conversations over the years. At monthly church chats the entire church family met at the pastor’s home or at a city park to eat banana pudding, homemade ice cream, or watermelon and share stories that would introduce the ‘Lifers’ to newcomers. In everything, relationships came first. It was to be the culture of a relational people.
Worship was to be exuberant, lively, and always God-honoring. John intentionally involved as many people as possible on the praise team, in special music, in interpretive dance, sign language, scripture reading, etc. It was the goal to engage the entire congregation—there would be no spectators in this culture of enthusiastic worshippers.
Real Life would mirror authentic Christianity by becoming a closely-knit community of caring believers, deeply involved in the lives of each other; each attendee consistently involved in discipling and being discipled, serving and reaching out to each other and the surrounding community in selfless ways—the culture of authentic Christianity as modeled by the early church.
We determined to pour ourselves into the young Christians who would lead the church, training them to become loving leaders. We chose to train primarily by spending time together and thereby modeling the desired behavior, as parents model for their children the behavior they hope to see. We modeled prayer, outreach, worship, fellowship, discipleship, serving, giving, and risk-taking faith, and knew we would eventually see that fruit in loving leaders that would rise up and do the work they had been trained to do, all quite naturally.
Time and space fail me to tell of the incredibly beautiful, multi-talented, multi-cultural congregation God brought together; the gifted people who gave sacrificially and joyfully to see God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. No human could have handpicked and brought together in one place such an outstanding group of people.( At one point, every Nazarene college in the U.S. was represented by alumni at Real Life, another amazing feature of the infant church God chose to bless.) Indeed the fact that the church survived “through many dangers, toils, and snares” defies human explanation and showcases God’s amazing grace.
The E TN District Church of the Nazarene furnished the seed, we “planted the seed, [others will] water, but God [has] made it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his/her own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers, YOU are God’s field, God’s building”
(I Cor. 3:6-9 NIV, Williams paraphrase)
To God be the Glory!
Maridel Williams, Founding Pastor
June 1, 2002-May 31, 2007
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