Our Mission
As members of the body of Christ known as Richfield Christian Church, we believe that we are called to share the Good News that leads people to Jesus Christ; called to provide a place of worship, spiritual support and nurture to all who come; called to support the growth and development of outreach and mission at home and abroad; and called to help train and educate those persons chosen by God to service in ministry, both lay and ordained—so help us God.
You
are invited and welcome to join
Us
a family bound together in faith, hope, and love for one another and
God
whom we serve.
About Richfield
We are a non-profit corporation, a congregationally controlled religious body, chartered by the State of Texas on September 10, 1954. We are committed to the historic principles of the Disciples of Christ denomination. The purpose of this church, as revealed in the New Testament, is to win people to faith in Jesus Christ and commit them actively to the Church; to help them grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus that they may increasingly know and do His will; and to work for the unity of all Christians, engaging with them in the common task of building the Kingdom of God.
–from the Constitution of Richfield Christian Church
We are happy to have you visit our web site and will look forward to greeting you in our worship service. As a member congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we celebrated our 60th anniversary in 2015. We are a medium-sized, but growing congregation. We have a very active Christian Women’s Fellowship (CWF) group; a part-time youth director for the junior high and high school; a part-time Children’s Ministry Leader for our younger children; Sunday school classes for children, youth, and adults. We have eight functional committees that are actively involved in ministry both within and outside the walls of the church. More than a church, we consider ourselves to be a family that is bound together in faith, hope and love for one another and the Christ we serve.
A Community of people loving God and each other
Disciples of Christ
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is the first Protestant movement founded on American soil. It was born out of a backlash against rigid Presbyterian dogma and sectarianism in the 1800s. From those beginnings, the Christian Church has grown through the years to over 900,000 members, and continues to be one of the most open, informal, and diverse Protestant denominations.
The Disciples have no official church doctrine. Membership is granted after a simple statement of belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and communion is open to all. Lay persons play a large role in the daily operations of the Church. Working in partnership with ordained ministers, lay persons often preside over the Lord's supper, preach, and perform other pastoral duties.
Meet our Staff
Alec Ylitalo
Rev. Alec Ylitalo has served as the Senior Minister at Richfield Christian Church since September 2013. He was born in Montana but got to Texas as quickly as he could at 18 months old. After being raised like several generations before in the Disciples church in Longview, he set off for Waco and Baylor University where he received his Bachelor of Arts in University Scholars, focusing on Math, Linguistics, and Languages. Following graduation, he sought to fulfill his call to ministry by attending Brite Divinity School at TCU in Fort Worth, where he graduated in 2009 with a Masters of Divinity. He was ordained into the ministry by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest Region in March of 2010. Previously, he served as the Associate Minister at First Christian Church, San Marcos, Texas. On his off days, you can usually find him enjoying the outdoors with his dog, Selah, kayaking the river, or hacking away on whichever golf course he can get into. He simply loves to be immersed in God’s creation! He lives and bleeds Baylor sports and the Green and Gold — SIC ‘EM BEARS! Finally, the key to happiness for him has everything to do with fresh, gooey, chocolate chip cookies.
Alec says he is happy to be on this wonderful journey of faith with Richfield, and looks forward to the adventures that will be shared as we seek the sacred in the world around us.
Connie Jefferson
Connie Jefferson is the Administrative Assistant and Church Treasurer. She has served in this capacity since April 1990. She and her husband, Charles, are parents to three children, Christa, Correy and Chad, and grandparents to 6 grandchildren, Cierra, Camille, Maddox, Chloe, Cannon, and Charlotte.
Vic Ward
Vic Ward is our Music Director and has held that position for over 10 years. He earned a Bachelor of Music Ed. (vocal emphasis) from Baylor University in 1981. He has also held positions as: Elementary Music Teacher for 14 years, Science Teacher for 14 years, Air Conditioning Technician for 10 years, cabinet maker for 3 years, and most recently a childcare provider at China Spring Elementary. He has been married for over 40 years to his best friend, Becky Ward. Becky is a piano/organ teacher and longtime organist at First Presbyterian, Waco. Retired and residing in China Spring, Victor is father of 3 children and Papaw to 9 grandchildren. His hobbies include reading and woodworking.
Egle Uljas
Egle is our pianist. Egle was born in Tallinn, Estonia. She entered Tallinn Music High School when she was four years old. She studied piano under the guidance of Reet Ruubel and later with Alexandra Juozepenaite-Eesmaa at the Estonian Music Academy. She received several top three places at the Estonian Young Pianist’s Competitions and Concerto Competitions throughout her studies. As a senior at High School, she qualified to the Athens Olympic Games and ran Estonian Record in the 400m with the time of 51.91 seconds and qualified to the semifinals. Shortly after entering Estonian Music Academy, she was recruited to represent the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. There, she studied piano performance under the guidance of Prof. Paul Barnes and later at Baylor University (BA, MM, and APC) under the guidance of Krassimira Jordan and Prof. Brian Marks. She has given concerts in Tallinn, Yekaterinburg, Riga, Vilnius, Helsinki, Prague, Houston, New York, Chicago, etc. During her studies with Prof. Joyce Jones at Baylor University, she worked as an organist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Waco. In Prague, she attended an internship at HAMU (Music Academy in Prague) under the guidance of Dr. Martin Kasik and was teaching piano at the International School of Music. In 2017, she gained rank No. 4 in tower running and qualified to the World Championships. In 2020, she started working as a Sports Ministry Director at UCF Wesley Foundation at Navarro College. She is married to a computer scientist, a professor at Baylor University and they have two daughters and a rabbit.