A Little Background
Westside Family Church began as a new mission called Quivira Road Baptist Church (QRBC) in 1976. Under the leadership of Pastor Hardy Reese, it quickly grew to 100 people. For the next 12 years, it served the community as a traditional neighborhood church with about the same number of people in attendance.

When QRBC called Dave Cox to serve as pastor in December 1989, neither the church or Dave knew the adventure that they were starting on together. After a few years of working to create the environment necessary for a healthy church, in August of 1994, Dave gathered 25 key leaders and challenged them to make the bold changes needed for the church to reach its potential. It was a defining moment as those courageous leaders embraced the vision to change.

The church adopted a simple, biblical strategy and structure that insures equal emphasis would be given to all five New Testament purposes of the church (worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism). As the church became healthy, growth naturally and automatically occurred.

During the past ten years, we have made eight specific transitions as a church:

Approach – from program driven to purpose driven

Target – from reaching “fellow Baptist” to reaching the unchurched and disconnected

Worship style – from traditional to high energy contemporary

Leadership – from a committee / deacon-led church to a staff-led church

Ministry – from staff doing all the ministry to staff being the equippers and lay ministers doing the ministry

Strategy – from no systematic plan for reaching the lost to developing those who becoming believers through a life development process that is driven by LifeGroups.

Schedule – from one worship service on Sunday to eight services each weekend, plus seasonal Wednesday services for believers who want to go deeper

Small groups – from traditional Sunday School to relational connection groups

These transitions have not been easy or immediate, but they have been effective. We have grown from a church of 100 people in Sunday attendance in August of 1994 to over 4300 people a weekend today.

During that time, we have used apartment buildings, retail space, a middle school, a high school, a community center, a theater, and a town hall for meetings and worship.

On October 31, 1999, we moved to our campus at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Monticello with 500 people in weekly attendance. Our growth since then has made Westside one of the 60 fastest growing churches in the nation.

We are more aware than ever that God is not finished with us. We have completed construction on a new 34 acre site near the SE quadrant of K-7 and 83rd Street in Lenexa, three miles from our previous location. The campus includes a 70,000 square foot facility, 1200 worship seats, space for 350 preschoolers, children’s space for 250, youth space for 275, a Gallery Café and Bookstore, outdoor basketball, volleyball and two playgrounds.

Westside is committed to growing larger and smaller at the same time. Larger, in that we want to reach everyone we can on the west side of Kansas City with the message of hope. Smaller, in that we want to develop a network of LifeGroups that serve as the discipleship arm of the church and the place where real community is experienced.

We’d love to have you join us for worship this weekend. You’ll find Westside is a place where real people, with real problems, are finding real hope in Jesus Christ! Westside is a place where people really matter!