The Story
In the fall of 2007, Westside Family Church received a phone call at the church office from Brian Wright, the pastor of Cedar Ridge Christian Church (now Foundry Church). Brian asked if he and his leadership team could come by our church to pray for us. As you read this, you might think that this is normal. It’s not. I’ve been a pastor for almost 40 years and have never received a call like this before that day. It took me a second to respond, but I quickly said, “Yes!” and we set up a time to meet.
When we met, Brian’s team took the time to walk through our building and pray in every room. He prayed that God would bless our church and strengthen our leaders and our people. It was a profound moment. We also learned that Brian had visited with other churches in our community for the same purpose!
This initial meeting led to conversations between our pastors in the days that followed asking questions such as:
What would happen if churches prayed for each other all the time?
What if we worked together, instead of thinking of each other as the competition?
What if we served the needs of our community together?
Eventually this gave root to the first expression of “What if the Church”.
In May 2008 Westside Family Church, Foundry Church and Heartland Community Church partnered to answers these questions together. The three churches planned a teaching series and invited the teaching pastors to take turns preaching on Sunday in each other’s churches. We also held a joint worship service in a community park and planned a joint serve day in the community.
The response from the congregations was enthusiastic and it was quickly decided we should do this again but invite other pastors into the experience. In 2009 We added six more churches, and in the next year we added 18 more. As of 2019 we have had more than 100 churches participate in the shared teaching series, worship and service to the community. Many amazing things have come out of our churches partnering together, and we are confident in even greater things to come!
“2008
3 churches came together to form the first “What if the Church” triad with a teaching series based on the questions: What if the Church prayed together, believed together and served together. Service projects were held throughout the city and a join worship service at “Theater in the Park” saw more than 3,000 people from the three churches unite for prayer and worship”
“2009-2014
40+ churches linked arms to continue the vision”
“2015
SCHOOL/CHURCH PARTNERSHIPS
Our churches partnered with neighborhood schools leading to many ongoing community partnerships through Caring for Kids”
“2016
FOSTER & ADOPTION
38 churches rallied to support foster care agencies and families who foster and adopt children in our communities, resulting in the ongoing collaboration of more than 20 churches addressing this ongoing need and facilitating an annual conference that encourages nearly 1,000 foster & adoptive parents each year.”
“2017
BLESS EVERY HOME
42 churches embraced the challenge to adopt every neighborhood with the BLESS strategy:
• Begin In prayer, pray intently for the people around you,
• Listen to them as they share their life with you,
• Invite them to have coffee, or to eat a meal with you
• Serve as you learn of their need
• Story - invite them to learn of the Story of Jesus through your life
”
“2018
LOVE KC
47 churches joined to answer the question “What if the church loves the city?” resulting in over 30,000 households adopted for prayer.”
“2019
MARGIN KC
110 churches linking arms to defeat the “Margin Monsters” of time and money. Resulting in $18,000,000 in debt paid-off, $9,000,000 saved. This was the first ever city-wide initiative in partnership with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and has since been replicated in several cities.”