About Rachel

I was born in the San Francisco Bay Area but spent the later years of my childhood in Virginia Beach. My dad was a Naval officer which in addition to growing up in the midst of peak 90’s Baptist culture, defined so much of what our home life and family rhythms were. It was very common for my older siblings and I to attend church in some capacity multiple days of the week. We were taught very early on the importance and necessity of community. Our nuclear family of 5 always had a strong bond, but our sense of family expanded to include fellow military and church families we saw on a regular basis. 

I professed faith and was baptized at a young age. I feel incredibly blessed to say that I cannot remember many days where I did not know who Jesus is or my need for Him. When my dad retired from the Navy, our family relocated to DFW. 

My parents divorced when I was a teenager. The response of our surrounding community and local church grieved and angered my young heart deeply. I had no interest in any sense of community and placed the entire focus of my Christian life on my personal relationship with God. I struggled to trust the people in my life fearing that a painful falling out was inevitable. For years as a young adult, I lived my life isolated and consumed with patterns of my own rebellion. The tension of desiring a closeness to God but a distance from His people proved to be impossible. God was kind to convict me that my closeness to Him would always be cut short if I denied myself the gift of community. 

A lot of life happened in my 20s that solidified my dependence on God. While navigating seasons of loss, grief, becoming a wife, becoming a mom and simply growing up in general, the reality of the gospel has taken on an undeniable truth. 

My Hope for Citizens Church

My hope for Citizens Church is that we would be a people who embrace the sweetness of Jesus over the bitterness of this world. I pray that we will be a church that faithfully walks with the hopeless as well as the hopeful so that Christ is glorified by the transformation of lives being reconciled to Him.