A wonderful friend said to me over a lunch meeting, “Let’s do it!  You can launch your house church in our basement and I will make sure that you will have groceries on your table”. That was in the early part of 1982.  I was employed at a large church (1,500+ people). I was, However, convinced that it was time to launch out into the vision that the Lord had put in my heart.

My personal calling from God is to make disciples of Jesus Christ by being instrumental in setting up communities of heaven wherever the Lord leads me (Matthew 28:18-20).  I have understood the best facilities for these “communities of heaven” were homes.

- Philip Wood, Senior Pastor

In March, 1982, Philip begin his first house church, incorporated under the name, Community Discipleship Ministries (CDM). He and his wife, Cathy, met in the home of Mike and Betsy Jeffries, together with Cecil and Ophelia Cole—a grand total of six. In those days, he and Cathy had a six-month old son, Jonathan.  Their only source of income was a poor attempt at developing a multi-level marketing business. Although their business was struggling, their house church was blooming, and the Lord provided through the house church as their numbers increased.

In June of that same year, Philip began a second house church in the home of Dorothy Markley.  Dorothy, at that time, was on disability due to having several back operations.  The Lord had given CDM a very simple principle, “If people cannot come to church then the church would come to them”.  Dorothy lived close to Wichita State University which would later give opportunity to reach out to some of the students.

In the beginning, the second house church included Dorothy (an older divorcee), a bar tender and a hostess from the Wichita Country Club.  An addition six people were gathered, making a grand total of ten. In a short time that number dropped to only four. On few occasions only Philip and Dorothy were present.  The Lord tested Philip’s commitment to the whole idea of setting up “communities of heaven”. Over time, the Lord sent many wonderful people and the house church grew to more than fifteen members.

Philip and Cathy shared their hearts with the people whom the Lord sent. Those people, in-turn supported the ministry. CDM committed itself to set aside the first twenty percent of everything that was given to them to be used for the poor among them and to support missions. The Lord provided abundantly all that was needed through those two house churches.

In September 1982, CDM rented McLean Elementary School at the request of the people in the house churches. It was during this season that they adopted the current name—Faith Community Church (FCC).  The number of house churches continued to grow as more leaders were trained.  Many received Jesus as their Lord and Savior and were baptized. When it was too cold to baptize in the river or someone’s back yard pool, FCC was blessed to be able to use the baptistry at Riverlawn Christian Church.

By January 1983, Faith Community Church were renting the Pleasant Valley Middle School auditorium for the worship service and children's classes.  It was during this season that Philip’s father, George Wood was invited to come and preach. Many people were drawn to FCC during that period of their ministry and the number of house churches continued to grow.

However, setting up and tearing down the sound equipment and the need for a more permanent office location soon became a challenge. The leadership began praying for a facility and by October 1989, Faith Community Church had leased a building located at 1750 N. Gow from First Mennonite Brethren with the intention to purchase after two years.

FCC still lacked $50,000 to meet the $250,000 purchase price of the building at the end of those two years. First Mennonite Brethren agreed to count the past two years rent as payment and by October 1991 FCC owned their own building. To this day, FCC is exceedingly thankful to the Lord and to His gracious servants at First Mennonite Brethren for this act of generosity.

The current goal of FCC is to make disciples through small relational communities in the city.  This is done through leading of the Holy Spirit.  Every attempt to set up long term plans has contributed very little to furthering the Kingdom of God here on earth.  As a result, FCC is committed to living daily, acknowledging their need for the Lord’s presence and continual guidance.  Members at FCC desire to do all that the Lord Jesus has called them to for His glory. Perhaps the Lord would have you become part of that with them.