Soul Rio - Building Community To Bless A Community

On a fall evening in October 1997, a handful of people gathered in the home of Dan and Tracy Lewis to pray about starting a new and different kind of church – a church for the un-churched. A place where people who were far from God would feel safe, ask their questions, and discover what it means to be fully devoted followers of Christ. SoulRio was God’s idea.

Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” And the Bible says, “He who began a good work in you will complete it.” God put a dream in their hearts as they gathered together on their knees in prayer. He began a work that night and He used some very regular people to step out in extraordinary faith. SoulRio is all about ordinary people living out the purposes of God in a biblically functioning local church community. In 1998 public weekend services began and over the last 9 years SoulRio often reached crowds of more than 700 people.

In October of 2000, God brought together another group of risk-takers to pray and seek God’s direction for SoulRio. The staff and leaders became convinced that in order to truly reflect the New Testament model of community, SoulRio would need to become a network made up of small communities all throughout our city, that live out God’s purposes. They decided to live out what they were learning about group life and take the time to experience it for themselves. They wanted to not just “teach” what they were learning, but to take the time to “catch” it and experience it, however long it would take. That first group gave birth to more groups, and now our “Rio Links” meet all over the West side of Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Corrales.

We use the terms Rio Link, relational church, and simple church interchangeably. For us “church” means small family-like units that are learning to love God and their neighbors. SoulRio is, in reality, a collection of Rio Links. Those Rio Links are growing and multiplying all over Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. For us, Rio Links are like a family and our weekend services are like a family reunion.

Our new Community Center will not only provide a place of blessing for our community, but provide a place for our Rio Links and the entire church family to gather together each week for worship and celebration and community.