Our Journey

YEARS AGO, “REAL CHURCH FOR REAL PEOPLE” WAS JUST A DREAM…

The Journey began in 2007 inside an industrial park off route 72 in Newark.

 

We began out of a passion for reaching people with the life-giving message of Jesus, especially those who’d never experienced church or had given up on it. We wanted something different from the traditional approach we’d all been used to with a long list of programs and responsibilities and protocols.  So we started something simpler – real church for real people.  We decided that the sole purpose of our existence would be to help people find Jesus and follow him fully – and that’s exactly what we did.

 

As we carried out our mission of helping people in our community find Jesus and follow him fully, we were looking ahead. We knew we’d eventually need a larger space to help sustain all of the growth God blessed us with. We began our search for a new property, and we didn’t take that search lightly. The new property had to be in our price range, within two to five miles of our current space, and highly visible and accessible. (While we loved that industrial park, about 11 cars drove by our campus every day. Being hard to find was not a great strategy for reaching our community!)

In 2012, after a long and diligent search, God answered our prayers.

 

We witnessed some truly radical generosity from our church which allowed us to purchase our first property, located at 721 E. Chestnut Hill Road, Newark. On March 16 & 17, 2013, we officially opened our doors at 721 for our first weekend gatherings.

 

Less than two years later, we had grown exponentially and were full in our prime gathering times. Through much prayer and planning, we shared our vision of expanding our current space (we were only in about 40% of our building), allowing us to make room for more and more people to find Jesus and follow him fully. Once again, our church responded, generously giving over $1 million above and beyond their regular giving to make this vision a reality. In December 2017, we finished our campus expansion, making space for thousands of people to join us in a single weekend.

Journey City: Established in 2018

 

There are 1.8 million people living within a 30-mile radius of our Newark location — in 2018, we started calling this area of our region “Journey City”. We have a dream to plant locations all across it to help more people find Jesus and follow him fully.

 

This journey took us to West Wilmington. We launched at Brandywine Springs School in September 2019, and then moved the location to Wilmington Christian School in Hockessin in October 2020. But we didn’t stop there!

A new location launch in 2023.

 

In the fall of 2023 we launched at Middletown High School with over 500 guests joining us for launch day!

 

We believe planting multiple locations of our church is the best way to meet both the spiritual and practical needs of our region, not just in the present, but for years to come. We are one church, multiple locations working together with you to put a dent in the darkness.

Our mission is taking shape week after week, month after month, in the form of changed lives.

 

We have a deep heart for serving our state — and we refuse to stop until everyone we know experiences a life-giving relationship with Jesus.

 

That’s our story, our journey. But our story isn’t the one that matters most to us. Your story (your journey) is far more important in our eyes. That’s why we designed this place to be a unique, vibrant community of faith that you can fit into… a place to come as you are and be who you are; and a place to move forward toward God’s best for you.

 

A REAL CHURCH FOR REAL PEOPLE: More committed than ever!