The Story of Unifying Church and City Collaboration in Kansas City
How It All Started
In the fall of 2007, Westside Family Church received a phone call 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.
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, helped one another, and served their communities together all the time?
Eventually this gave root to the first expression of “What if the Church”.
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 - KC 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 creating an ongoing collaboration of more than 20 churches addressing this need and encouraging 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, Eat a meal or share a coffee together, 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.
2020+
UNITE THE LIGHT - These initiatives are ongoing and are managed by the organization… The fruits of these collaborations and connections continue to yield measurable and immeasurable impact for the Kingdom and the residents of Kansas City.
2021
The Community Minister Network was founded, and What If the Church became a nation-wide nonprofit.
You could be the one to spearhead the process of connecting churches and non-profits in your area!
We’ll show you how.