The Rubio Family
Rudy Rubio IS THE THE HEAD PASTOR FOR Reformed Church of Los Angeles in Lynwood, California. WE ARE HONORED TO PARTNER WITH HIM AND THE CHURCH COMMUNITY BEGINNING IN 2018.
How have you seen God working in your life?
God has been doing amazing things in my life since we’ve planted RCLA! He’s humbled me by reminding me over and over that I/we need to be completely dependent upon Him, yet work hard for the sake of the Gospel and the ministry we’ve been called to. He’s grown my marriage, my kids, and to see my family as a whole take on the task of leading the way by planting has been amazing. He’s been working on me by stretching me, in loving folks at all times, making me think twice about the things I say and do, that I would be very mindful of my CORE Team, encourage their strengths and help build up their weaknesses. I’ve witness the Gospel of Christ transform a group of people that according to the world should not be hanging out, but for the sake of Christ and our ministry we are, and everyone is using their gifts to do what we’ve been called. I’m blessed in learning how to maintain a healthy relationship with my co-pastor Chris, appreciating how we complement each other and sharing responsibilities.
How have you seen God working in your family?
My family has always been close, not perfect, but close. We’ve been serving the Lord in ministry for close to 8 years now. It’s a joy to see how we’ve remained faithful throughout the course, though we’ve had stumbles, we’ve matured in our love of each other and Christ. The subject of planting has been something we’d been talking about for the last 4 years and we’d actually put that conversation on hold, thinking we wouldn’t be planting for a while, but God had other plans. There’s been additional pressures and at times even strains, but we’re a close knit family that has been through so much in the past that the things we encounter now aren’t even close. I think that we’ve all matured and in essence our love has grown stronger, my wife and I know when it’s time to sit down and talk about things that need to get addressed, we listen to each other, and make sure Christ is at the center of what we’re talking about and deciding on.
How have you seen God working in your church?
The most impactful thing I’ve learned in planting a church is that things don’t always happen on my time schedule. God has really been teaching me to be patient, to lean more on Him, and to remain flexible in modifying, adapting, and changing things up. I’ve learned that I need to stop and listen more, process longer, pray more often, and then move forward. I’ve learned to step out of my comfort zones in fundraising, asking for help, and being reminded that I/ we can’t do it on our own. I’ve also learned to be ok with being vulnerable, and to have a much deeper appreciation for accountability with multiple men in my life. I used to always struggle with time management and by planting a church it’s taken me to a higher level of doing this not just for ministry purposes, but also school, and especially time with my family.
Church Vision
As a church, we are committed to building a community of believers that are passionate about knowing God and walking in obedience to him. We seek to accomplish this by preaching the Bible in an expository fashion with passion and clarity, and by making disciples of Jesus Christ through small group communities. We are also devoted to engaging and impacting our neighborhood through evangelism, social justice and cultural renewal. We believe the Christian faith is best articulated by the historic reformed creeds and confessions, but we also believe in teaching these truths in a way that is authentic and understood in the language of the people we are ministering to.
We hope to impact our community by targeting the 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos for the first 18 months and when we’ve stabilized CORE Team begin preparing for a Spanish service to target 1st generation (Spanish speaking) community and have two separate service instead of a bilingual service. We’ve already made great partnerships with local government and school district with plans to commence multiple community project bringing them both together as well as involving other churches as we’ve learned from the Compton Initiative (www.justdogood.org). We hope to partake of the efforts to drastically reduce prostitution along the Long Beach Blvd. corridor that runs through Lynwood and Compton and plant a church by our 5th year’s end.
If you would like to reach out to Rudy, you can visit the church's website at www.reformedchurch.la.