Radiant Life Church sits along Post Road in Dublin, Ohio, a few minutes from the I-270 outerbelt, and has been a steady presence in the northwest Columbus suburbs since 1980. The congregation, part of the Assemblies of God and the Ohio Ministry Network, describes itself not as a place to attend but as a family to belong to, and the nickname its members use - the RADFAM - shows up across everything from youth ministry to small groups. Sundays begin with a single morning worship service, and the rest of the week fans out into Bible studies, prayer meetings, children's discipleship, youth nights, and a licensed childcare center that opens its doors Monday through Friday.
From a Thursday Night Bible Study to a Dublin Church Family
Radiant Life Church traces its roots to 1980, when Pastors Dave and Kay Gross opened their home to another couple for a Thursday evening Bible study. They imagined a church where people would discover the love of God, encounter the power of His Spirit, and serve the spread of His story around the world. Over the following decades that Thursday gathering grew into a congregation on Post Road, and in 2018 the leadership of the church was passed to their son and daughter-in-law, Pastors Chris and Rachel Gross. The mission they inherited is summed up in three phrases that appear throughout the church's materials: changing lives, developing leaders, and sharing the love of Jesus everywhere.
A Sunday Morning at Radiant Life
Worship at Radiant Life centers on a single Sunday morning service at 10:00 AM, with a livestream offered at 9:30 AM and again at 11:00 AM for those joining from home. The service runs about seventy minutes and follows a familiar Pentecostal arc: a worship team leads several songs with lyrics projected on screens so anyone can sing along or simply take it in, and then one of the pastors comes forward to preach. The atmosphere is described as engaging, casual, and relaxed, and newcomers are invited to come as they are. A First Impressions Team meets guests in the Main Foyer at a New Here area, offers a small gift, and answers questions before or after the service.
For families with children, the Sunday service runs alongside a full kids' ministry for infants through fifth grade, and a secure check-in system with printed parent-and-child name tags. New families are encouraged to arrive about ten minutes early to get signed in, and a text alert system is used if a parent needs to be reached during the service.
Radiant Life Kids: From Kingdom Kritters to Treehouse
Radiant Life Kids is split into age-specific environments that share the same goal: helping children encounter God in ways that fit their stage. Kingdom Kritters is the nursery for birth through age four, a loving environment where little ones are taught about God. Treehouse Kids is the K through 5th grade service, described as high-energy and packed with music, media, drama, games, lessons, and prayer. On Wednesday nights, the same wing shifts into three discipleship tracks: Girls Ministries for girls ages 4 to 13, Royal Rangers for boys ages 6 to 13, and a Teen and Junior Bible Quiz program that challenges students to memorize and recite large portions of Scripture.
Radiant Youth: Sundays and Wednesdays for Students
Radiant Life Youth, often shortened to RADYouth, is the church's ministry to students in grades 6 through 12. It meets every Sunday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, and on Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM through a high school program called Summit. Pastors Matt and Lizz Clark oversee the ministry, and their focus is on giving students room to ask honest questions, express themselves in worship, and find a community of faith with other teens. Summit is designed to develop a strong, authentic faith through biblical discussion, gender-specific small groups, and service projects in the church and surrounding community.
Midweek Discipleship on Wednesday Nights
Wednesday at 7:00 PM is the church's main discipleship hour, when adults, kids, and students are all in the building at the same time. Adult Discipleship Classes open with a short time of worship and prayer in the sanctuary and then break out into smaller classes across the campus. The offerings rotate but have included New to Jesus, an introductory class for those exploring faith, Bible Foundations, a foundational study through Scripture, and Leadership Training, a more advanced track for those stepping into ministry roles. Kids' discipleship in the same hour includes Royal Rangers, Girls Ministries, and Summit for high schoolers.
LIFEgroups and the Foundations Course
Small group life at Radiant Life is organized around LIFEgroups, with a fall season that begins in September. Groups are organized across the Dublin area and are designed to be the place where faith turns into friendship and accountability. A Foundations course, offered both as a LIFEgroup and a Sunday morning class, is required for anyone who wants to lead a group, teach kids' ministry, or serve on the worship team. The course is also open to anyone who wants to dig into the basics of the Christian life.
Men's and Women's Ministries
Throughout the year, Radiant Life runs separate men's and women's ministries with their own Bible studies, conferences, and social calendars. The women's ministry hosts coffee socials, garden parties, craft nights, movie nights, seasonal hikes, and park playdates, while the men's ministry gathers for NASCAR races, movie nights, sporting events, and game nights. Both ministries are built on the idea that the church is a family where singles and married, young and old, are called to do life together.
Prayer as a Weekly Rhythm
Prayer is treated as a regular rhythm, not an occasional event. All-church prayer meets every Tuesday morning from 7:00 to 8:00 AM and on the first Saturday of every month from 9:00 to 11:00 AM, with worship and personal prayer time followed by a group prayer time. Morning prayer takes place in the sanctuary and is reached through the Daycare entrance. The church also runs an annual 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting at the start of the year, with a downloadable prayer and fasting guide and a journal designed to help members make prayer part of everyday life.
Reaching the Neighborhood and the Nations
Radiant Life supports a long list of community partners and missionaries, both local and international. Closer to home, the church works with organizations such as Convoy of Hope, My Village Ministries, Royal Family Kids Camp, Heartbeat International, Revive Church Hilltop, Teen Challenge Columbus, Victory Ministries, and several Chi Alpha campus ministries across Ohio, including Chi Alpha at Ohio State. Internationally, the church supports missionaries in countries across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, ranging from church planters in Costa Rica and El Salvador to a Bible engagement effort through the Great Wall Corridor. The annual budget reflects this same mix, with goals set each year for outreach and campus expansion.
Radiant Kids Childcare, Monday Through Friday
Sharing the campus is Radiant Kids Childcare, a licensed childcare center that runs Monday through Friday for working families in the Dublin area. It serves infants through elementary age, with programs for infants (a 1:4 ratio under 12 months and 1:5 over 12 months), toddlers, preschoolers, and a Latchkey before-and-after-school program that transports children to several area elementary schools, including Eli Pinney, Glacier Ridge, Wyandot, Deer Run, Scottish Corners, St. Brigid, and Plain City. The center is a separate operation from the Sunday kids' ministry but shares the church's campus and faith emphasis.
What Radiant Life Believes
Radiant Life teaches a classical Pentecostal set of beliefs drawn from the Assemblies of God statement of faith. The Bible is held to be the verbally inspired, infallible rule of faith and conduct; God is one in three persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and Jesus Christ is confessed as virgin-born, sinless, crucified, resurrected, and exalted. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, and the two ordinances the church practices are water baptism by immersion and Holy Communion. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is taught as a distinct experience subsequent to salvation, with the initial physical evidence of speaking in other tongues, along with other gifts of the Spirit. The church also teaches divine healing as part of the atonement, the imminent rapture of the church, a thousand-year reign of Christ, a final judgment, and the promise of new heavens and a new earth.
Joining the RADFAM
Anyone exploring the church for the first time is encouraged to plan a visit through the church's I'm New page and to stop by the New Here area in the Main Foyer on a Sunday morning. New to Radiant, a monthly lunch and class held right after the 10:00 AM service, is the next step for getting to know the pastors and finding a place to serve. From there, members are invited into a LIFEgroup, a serve team, or a Foundations class, with Open House on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:00 PM serving as the on-ramp for anyone considering volunteering. Online giving, a sermon archive, and a Church Center app for scheduling and communication round out the everyday tools of the congregation.