Brandon Charlton

Tending to What God Has Grown: Leaders and Ministry for a Second Decade

2026: REAL Community Covenant Church is entering its 10th year of reconciling ministry in Marion, Indiana. The church’s vision is to be a healthy, multiethnic, and multiclass church reflecting heaven on earth, and its mission begins with a single word: reconciling, to God, ourselves, others, and creation. Over ten years, God has grown that vision into more ministry than the church has leaders to carry: a Spanish-immersion preschool serving families below the poverty line, the Bowman-Stone Park, jail ministry, youth ministry, and a building shared with community partners. This two-year project forms reconciled leaders, whole, healed, and faithful people who can carry reconciliation ministry in a hard place without burning out or standing alone. Through two annual cohorts of emerging leaders, monthly gatherings, accompaniment by seasoned mentors, and week-long immersions with churches like Englewood and Lawndale, we join the practice of Christian community development to the interior work that helps a leader last: identity in God, Sabbath, relational health, and integrity. Alongside this, the church will record and celebrate its first decade with the neighborhood and place its preschool on a sustainable footing after the state’s withdrawal of childcare funding. The church’s aim is that the work God has grown would be carried by many and passed on well.