Local Churches

Local Churches highlights stories, updates, and ministry insights from congregations serving their communities. Explore articles featuring church initiatives, outreach efforts, discipleship practices, leadership transitions, and lessons learned from ministry on the ground. You’ll find examples of faithful service, creative problem-solving, and gospel-centered work that can encourage and inform leaders and members alike. Whether you’re looking for ideas to strengthen your congregation or simply want to stay connected to what God is doing through local churches, this hub gathers relevant content in one place.

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Crossroads Christian Church (Macon, MO)

Delivering Groceries and Joy At Crossroads Christian Church in Macon, Missouri, the biggest wins of 2020 came in the form of spontaneous acts of service. In a year filled with unexpected challenges and unexpected ministry opportunities, Crossroads found two simple but significant ways to bless their neighbors. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the owners of the local grocery store asked the church to assist with deliveries. For years, the store had delivered groceries to elderly residents in the community each week, but when the first stay-at-home orders were issued, it was impossible to keep up with the

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Westside Christian Church (Bradenton, FL)

Thanks to COVID-19, Church Culture Changes For years, lead pastor Tim Boyd and the leaders at Westside Christian Church in Bradenton, Florida, felt called to increasingly engage with the surrounding community. The people of Westside periodically participated in small service projects and the church had a relationship with a local nonprofit called Downtown Ministries, but community involvement had never been a defining characteristic of the congregation. Until 2020. In the early days and weeks of the pandemic, Boyd remembered being surprised at how quickly things shut down. Westside suspended its in-person worship, prerecorded its Sunday services for streaming online, and

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Catalyst Christian Church (Nicholasville, KY)

A Church Changing Its Metabolism Catalyst Christian Church of Nicholasville, Kentucky, is a small congregation with a big vision to plant churches. “We want to be a church that has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren,” said senior pastor David Kibler. Inspired by the church-planting legacy of congregations like East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Kibler started Catalyst in 2008 with a goal of being a church that plants churches. Catalyst was a “ground zero plant” with no formal support or backing from an evangelistic association or other organization. Kibler worked multiple jobs to support himself and his family during Catalyst’s

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Catalyst Church (Greensboro, NC)

Reaching Anyone ‘with Garbage’ Catalyst Church is reaching people of all races, educational backgrounds, and socioeconomic levels in Greensboro, North Carolina. And though the congregation is diverse, most attendees share one thing in common: a lack of a formal church background. Lead pastor Scott Haulter estimates that 90 percent of people in the church have been introduced or reintroduced to Jesus through Catalyst. Haulter grew up in a non-Christian family, one of three sons raised by a single mother in a low-income part of Columbus, Ohio. When he was a teenager, one of his brothers began attending an area church

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Discovery Church (Bristol, TN)

Making an Impact Through Service Service is a way of life at Discovery Church in Bristol, Tennessee. The church was founded on a culture of service that has endured throughout the congregation’s 10-year history. Discovery’s current lead pastor, Matt Korell, served as a missionary in Taiwan before accepting the call to lead the church, and his experience overseas impressed upon him the importance of service. “This church has a spirit of serving,” Korell said, and that spirit is part of what attracted him to Discovery. One tradition at the church is “Sent to Serve” Sunday; these take place typically four

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Boones Creek Christian Church (Johnson City, TN)

God’s Word Brings Growth At the beginning of 2019, Boones Creek Christian Church in Johnson City, Tennessee, started a three-year sermon series on the Trinity. Senior minister David Clark planned to spend a year preaching and teaching on God the Father, a year on the person of Christ, and a year on the Holy Spirit. In 2020, the focus was on Jesus. David Eversole, the church’s administrative minister, recalled that the first two months of 2020 were an encouraging time for the congregation because of the churchwide emphasis on learning about Jesus. Not only were the Sunday sermons all about

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Central Christian Church (Toledo, OH)

After 150 Years, Starting Fresh At Central Christian Church in Toledo, Ohio, it’s not uncommon for children to get out of their seats and walk around during sermons. At times, a curious child might even approach the pulpit and strike up a conversation with Dennis Nagy as he preaches. Central Christian is not disorganized, undisciplined, or chaotic. Nor is the church pioneering an interactive approach to teaching the Scriptures. Rather, the congregation is home to a higher-than-average number of families with children who have autism. Nagy is in his second tenure with Central. He first served there around 20 years

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Hikes Point Christian Church (Louisville, Kentucky)

An All-Nations Kind of Church Hikes Point Christian Church is a 22-year-old congregation on the southeastern edge of Louisville. The church meets in a building that originally was home to Southeast Christian Church. Located just outside of downtown Louisville, the Hikes Point neighborhood has changed significantly since Southeast Christian built its first home there decades ago. Today, a growing number of residents in the immediate vicinity are Latino or Hispanic. Many of them speak only Spanish. Ten years ago, Hikes Point began offering a free back-to-school clinic that provided basic medical care, haircuts, certain other services, and academic supplies. Every

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: New Life Christian Church (Chantilly, Virginia)

Bold People Exercising Bold Faith At a church as large and well-established as New Life Christian in Chantilly, Virginia, it might be tempting to get complacent. Prior to the arrival of coronavirus early in 2020, New Life helped create the Exponential Network, planted more than 300 churches, and regularly attracted thousands of people to worship services every Sunday. Still, senior pastor Brett Andrews was convinced the church needed something else: boldness. Andrews and the leaders at New Life wanted to get better at reproducing disciples, not just reproducing churches. For the last three years, the church has striven to increase

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: ONE&ALL Church (San Dimas, CA, and International)

More Than Just a Name Change Until recently, ONE&ALL Church was known as Christ’s Church of the Valley. The church changed its name when it began expanding its multisite model outside of Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley. Today, ONE&ALL Church has campuses as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Bahrain, and Pakistan. Its worship services are also broadcast daily on Christian radio into many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Indonesia. Through partnerships with various Christian radio networks, ONE&ALL Church is transmitting the gospel to remote parts of the globe—what senior pastor Jeff Vines calls “unreachable places.” Vines explained

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