Multiply Christian Church is alive and well! Planted on Easter Sunday 2020, amidst the beginning weeks of the COVID pandemic, MCC is now 14 months old, a church in its infancy, and as we all know, infants take a lot of care! WCC’s Hope Initiative was launched in 2019 to do just that, plant 3 churches and nurture them until they can sustain themselves. This seems like a daunting task, but we are confident in success because this is a vision given to WCC from God – moving from a “single tree” church to an “orchard mentality’. Today MCC is meeting at the Gahanna Municipal Golf Course Club House most every Sunday, and online as well. They have a great web presence and regularly reach out and serve the community. MCC’s weekly influence in person and online has averaged well above 200 for the last 8 weeks. While they are a relatively small congregation compared to WCC, they have a strong core that meets regularly, has committed themselves to setting up and tearing down every week, maintains a strong small group discipleship plan, and is intentional about success. Their Pastor, Dan Stoffer is well qualified to lead this congregation into their future! They are doing the planting and watering and watching as God makes things grow! Monthly updates can be found at https://www.wcchurch.info/blog. Please log on to the MCC website at www.multiply614.com to find out more.

A four-million dollar campaign is a BIG ask. We serve a BIGGER God and fearlessly step out in faith to try and accomplish this goal. We also realize that only God knows what he will provide through his people. So, we follow his lead and promise to do the best with what is provided through the campaign, be that less, more, or right on! We do recognize that we have not created a prioritization list, which is intentional because we continue to listen to the Lord’s guidance and seek information on what is feasible and practical on the land we own.

Gen Z is made up of a broad age group – people born between 1997 and 2012. While we already have ministry in place for the younger portion of this group – 4th grade through high school, we are lacking significant programming for high school graduates and older – those individuals who are 19 – 24, and in three years will be 27. WCC is led to intentionally fill this gap in an extraordinary way. A church plant that looks and feels like the older GenZ crowd can accomplish this, which is why updating our facility is so important. A fresh look will energize the current congregation and simultaneously help attract the GenZ population.

At this point, the direction is to plant a church for GenZ, right on our campus at 471 E. College Avenue, as a separate church but still part of us. This is similar to WCStudents and especially WCKids which exist with programming designed specifically for their age groups and culture…separate, but still part of WCC.

Within a five-mile radius of Westerville Christian Church, 37% of the population is made up of non-Caucasian. This is a large number. Our current congregation certainly does not represent this kind of diversity. Since WCC is called to reach the greater Westerville community it makes sense for us to become more diverse. At this point in our history, it appears that planting a church with a DNA to attract multiple ethnicities can accomplish increased diversity faster than trying to change the DNA of our body meeting at 471 E. College. We have applied efforts in the past with some progress, but not what we would like to see. A multi-ethnic church plant enhances our WCCares efforts and provides a deeper reaching touch to these communities. We all are created in the image of God. Let’s reach beyond our walls and meet needs!

Yes! We love to partner with churches to plant churches. We have been a vital part of three church plants in the area over the past few decades, not to mention a church plant in Haiti through Lifeline Christian Mission. Tri-Village Christian Church in Pataskala, Ohio is supporting Multiply Christian Church with a monthly gift and Discover Christian Church in Dublin, Ohio donated a trailer for use in transporting and storing church plant equipment – we are thankful for their partnership in planting churches with WCC. We have also met with and/or spoken with the lead pastor of almost all our sister churches on the north side of Columbus and surrounding communities. They are aware of our efforts. We will continue seeking opportunity to partner with churches who are like-minded to further build the Kingdom!

All commitments to Fearless will be used for the building of God’s Kingdom through Westerville Christian Church. As we progress through the coming days and weeks, the scope of the capital project(s) and associated cost will become clearer. These “capital” commitments/pledges will be used for “capital” projects. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary’s 4th definition of “capital” applies here:

4: of or relating to capital especially: relating to or being assets that add to the long-term net worth of a corporation

In other words, the commitments will be used to add value to the physical holdings of WCC and/or her church plants with the vision to conduct ministry therein and, therefore, multiply spiritual value for Christ – providing places where all people can find hope, in JESUS! It really is part of the “places” in our mission statement.