our mission: who we are
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Christ Community. We are thankful for your interest in discovering more about who we are as a local church. Christ Community is one church in multiple locations where people of all ages experience life together and seek to live out this purpose:
We desire to be a caring family of multiplying disciples,
influencing our community and world for Jesus Christ.
While our purpose remains unchanged from the beginning, we believe God has brought into sharper focus the mission He has entrusted to us: multiplying churches, multiplying disciples, and multiplying leaders.
Multiplying Churches
Christ Community is about multiplying churches because we believe the local church, as God designed it, is the hope of the world. A healthy church is one that generously gives itself away for the glory of God and the good of others.
Multiplying Disciples
Christ Community is about multiplying disciples who desire to follow Jesus in every facet of life. We seek to be the people God designed us to be by entering the yoke of Christ.
Multiplying Leaders
Christ Community is about multiplying leaders who serve the local church and the common good of our communities. We seek to be quiet catalysts in our vocations as the scattered church wherever God has placed us.
From the inception of Christ Community, we have been on a quest to more fully embrace God’s integral design for all of life.
Tom Nelson, Senior Pastor
our mission: where we are headed
Five areas of focus capture the heart of our leadership team and our sense of corporate calling in the coming years. As we work together to embody this important calling, we will seek to sharpen and be sharpened by partners in our city and around the world.
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our values
While there has been great change since the beginning of Christ Community, much has not changed. Who we are called to be, what we value, and the focus of our disciple-making mission has remained the same.
After each value listed below, you will find an opportunity to click to read more. These links will take you to articles where several of our pastoral leaders articulate a core value that is both precious to us and is profoundly shaping us as a congregation. It is our hope that as you read their carefully crafted words, you will get an open window into the heart and soul of who we are called to be as a church family.
We are excited about who God has called us to be and where He is leading us in the days, months, and years ahead. We hope you will prayerfully consider joining us in making Christ Community more effective in our mission and more beautiful in our expression. We would love to have you join us!
our beliefs
As a member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, Christ Community adheres to the following ten articles of faith.
The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association of autonomous churches united around the following theological convictions:
More about the Evangelical Free Church of America
The Evangelical Free Church of America
Christ Community Evangelical Free Church is a member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, an association of some 1,500 autonomous and interdependent churches and church plants united by a mutual commitment to serve our Lord Jesus Christ under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and obedience to the Word of God. We are committed to cooperate with one another in ministry and fellowship as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission which Christ has entrusted to His Church. The growing ministry of the EFCA currently extends to over 80 countries of the world.
We do not see ourselves as the “only” church or even as a “perfect” church. We are but one exciting part of Christ’s universal church seeking to be filled with His Spirit and serving Him to the best of our ability. We believe in the total Lordship of Christ and the Great Commission to which He calls all believers.
our history
Our great adventure began in 1988 when Tom and Liz Nelson sensed God’s calling to plant a church in the Kansas City area. During the fall of that year, a small group of pioneers met weekly for Bible study and prayer, and on March 5, 1989, the first Sunday morning worship service was held at the Corinth Office Building in Prairie Village, Kansas.
Our first decade was a time of development. In those early years, our core values, church culture, and disciple-making mission emerged. As our second decade of ministry unfolded, we experienced a season of deepening. During that time we were given greater clarity as to our core calling to nurture and equip integral and influential apprentices of Jesus. We also began to grasp in new and compelling ways that the local church as God designed it is truly the hope of the world.
Now in our third decade, we believe God is calling us to a time of greater deployment—of giving ourselves away in gracious gospel proclamation and in generous gospel living.
When Tom and Liz Nelson started Christ Community Church in their apartment in 1988, they had no idea how or where God would lead them. They merely wanted to lead a church that would follow where He was blessing.
“We didn’t look down the road at specifics,” Tom said. “We just felt like God wanted us to plant a church that would influence our culture for the long term. We never had the sense of being ‘mega’ or really flashy. We just wanted to be the kind of church that our culture needed.”
Read more about our history
Our History
“The values and things we hold dear have been there since the beginning.”
Our great adventure began with God calling Tom and Liz Nelson to Kansas City in the summer of 1988. During the fall of that year, a small group of pioneers with a dream met weekly for Bible study and prayer. This small group grew into the “fabulous forty” which, on March 5, 1989, started the first Sunday morning worship service of Christ Community Church. This first service was in the Berakah Room of the Corinth Office Building in Prairie Village, KS.
Continued growth necessitated a move to Mission Valley Middle School and subsequently to Overland Trail Middle School in October of 1990. To serve this growing body, God called a pastoral staff team to give leadership in areas of discipleship, administration, youth, worship, and children.
In 1994 ten beautiful acres were purchased on Kenneth Road in southern Leawood. Construction began in 1999 and in February of 2000, Christ Community moved its worship services to its current Leawood facility. In February of 2004 a new addition was opened with offices and more space for children.
In December 2006, Christ Community launched its Olathe Campus, located on 119th Street between Woodland and Lone Elm. The original building quickly reached capacity and an addition was built in 2011 to meet the needs of the growing congregation.
In 2010 a small group of Christ Community members began meeting in downtown Kansas City, MO to begin a congregation in the Crossroads district. The Downtown Campus is located on Baltimore Avenue, north of 18th St.
With the blessing of an incredible church building, Christ Community began a fourth campus in 2012 in the Brookside area of Kansas City, MO, located at 67th and Wornall. After months of planning and building restoration, services began in September 2012.
In January 2015, Christ Community started its fifth campus with an eager and committed group of people. The Shawnee Campus currently meets at Trailridge Middle School, at the corner of 75th and Quivira.
Through the years, we have experienced wonderful growth in all areas of our ministry. Our church has had a joyful and God-directed past, and we look forward with great anticipation to our future. It is anticipated that, with God’s timing and guidance, Christ Community will continue to become integral and influential apprentices of Jesus.