When Brandon Guindon looks back over the past decade, it is with a sense of awe of God’s faithfulness. “Our church never should’ve gotten off the ground,” he said of Real Life Ministries Texas. For Guindon, Real Life’s founding pastor, his own walk through the fiery furnace forced him to take a hard look at his faith and whether it was enough to sustain him on the hardest days. “What this trial did for me was deepen my resolve in what Jesus calls us to in the Great Commission,” he said. “I watched it work in the most difficult time for me personally.”
On Oct. 28, 2016, two weeks before Real Life was scheduled to hold their first service, Guidon’s daughters Emma and Olivia, ages 16 and 14, were in a car accident that left both girls with devastating injuries. Olivia sustained a traumatic brain injury and was given a three percent chance of survival. For 21 days, Brandon and his wife, Amber, sat at her bedside while she was kept alive by a ventilator in what Guindon described as the depths of the human experience. “I’ve seen Jesus walk with me through times that were really dark,” he said. “We remained committed to what God called us to whether Olivia lived or died.”
“I’ve seen Jesus walk with me through times that were really dark. We remained committed to what God called us to whether Olivia lived or died.”
It was in a dark time that Guindon originally sought Jesus. He was first exposed to church through high school youth group but remembers his first impression was that church was foreign and strange. While majoring in health sciences at Linfield College in Oregon, his best friend was killed in a motorcycle accident, a childhood friend was lost to suicide, and an injury ended his football career. The combined traumas brought Guindon to the end of himself, and in 1994, he surrendered his life to Jesus in his dorm room. His relationship with the Lord grew thanks to regularly attending Bible study with his track teammates and the mentorship of his future father-in-law. Three years later, he married Amber, who has been the biggest champion of his ministry. “My wife has sacrificed so much through all of this,” he said. “I’ve been able to lead our church because I have a wife who is grounded and consistent in who we’re called to be. She’s an incredible woman of faith.”
The couple had returned to his hometown of Post Falls, Idaho after college when Guindon received a call from his dad. A couple named Jim and Lori Putman were interested in renting his movie theater for a church plant called Real Life Ministries. Guindon’s dad wasn’t a Christian, so he asked his son to join him for the initial meeting, during which the movie theater deal was sealed. Guindon began attending the church that was planted in his dad’s movie theater, and a year later, he was invited to become their small groups pastor. He served in that role for seven years before transitioning to executive pastor, where he served for another seven years. When he felt the call to plant a church in the Houston area, it was not without sadness for what he’d leave behind and fear of the unknown. “I’m good with taking big steps of faith, but it’s scary when you don’t know where that’s going to lead,” Guindon said. “But God isn’t the one who’s limited; it’s us who are limited.”
Real Life Ministries Texas began as a small group focused on disciple-making that met in the Guindons’ living room, expanding to their backyard and then the community center. They branched into multiple small groups that initially gathered monthly before increasing to weekly. In 2016, The Solomon Foundation (TSF) partnered with Real Life Ministries to help them purchase and renovate two buildings in downtown Tomball.
They were the first church TSF provided a loan to before they’d held a single service. When they moved into their new facility, the congregation was made up of about 60 people. Guindon admits to remembering little of that time as Emma recovered from a massive concussion and glass cuts, and Olivia’s life hung in the balance. Along with their sons Grady and Garrett, the family was torn between leading a new church while managing their daughters’ injuries. Yet during the time Olivia was hospitalized, the congregation more than doubled in size. “I got to watch the church be the church in a really difficult time,” he said.
“I got to watch the church be the church in a really difficult time.”
Following Olivia’s miraculous recovery, she went on to play division one softball four years later. She graduated from college in May and ran a sports camp at their church this summer. Emma also demonstrated incredible resilience, doing the hard work to manage the memories and emotions of the accident. Through that experience, God used her to become a counselor and therapist for people with PTSD.
Through the highs and lows of his family’s journey, Guindon has learned that God will do His part if he walks in obedience. “God asks us to take steps of faith that are outright terrifying,” he said. “I just need to keep doing the next right thing and be obedient. He’s the hero of the story.”
In 2018, two years after moving into the smaller of their two downtown Tomball buildings, Real Life moved into the bigger building, increasing their weekly attendance from 320 to 500. Despite the COVID pandemic, the church flourished, hitting a weekly attendance of 1,000 in 2021. Guindon attributes the church’s success to their commitment to following Jesus’ methodology.
Guindon recalls 2022 being an exploratory year in which church leadership sought God’s direction for Real Life. In 2023, with TSF’s help, they acquired an 86,000 square-foot light industrial building that they transformed into their new church home. They held their first service in the new space in December 2024. It includes a 1,600-seat auditorium, 11 kid’s classrooms, 10 adult classrooms, a versatile gymnasium, soccer field, and three children’s outdoor play areas.
Since Real Life’s founding 10 years ago, they’ve planted six churches with three more in the works and have trained up countless ministry leaders. In their new facility, attendance has increased by as much as 800, bringing the number of people the church is pastoring to 2,500. They’ve baptized 150 people and are hosting 120 small groups. Their counseling center for veterans and first responders dealing with PTSD is seeing as many as 11 clients a day.
Guindon said that any words he tried to formulate in response to how TSF’s partnership has influenced Real Life’s trajectory would fall short. “Our church has been a spiritual hub of this community. It operates as a launchpad to make disciples and minister to the needs of the community,” he said. “That doesn’t happen without TSF’s investors.”
Guindon said that even though Real Life hadn’t held a single traditional worship service, CEO Emeritus Doug Crozier told him he needed a building and believed in his vision to be an example of what biblical, healthy, disciple-making church planting looks like. Guindon said that while their new facility has been a huge stretch financially, TSF understands the church’s mission to fill the gaps in Tomball. “I’m incredibly grateful on a personal and organizational level because I get to see our church impact the community for Jesus Christ.”
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