Planting a Church in an Unexpected Place

Woodlands Church (EFCA) was thriving—making disciples and multiplying gospel impact in Plover, Wisconsin. Two members of the elder board, though, had a vision beyond Plover.

These elders, Brice and Doug, wanted to see healthy evangelical churches in other communities throughout central Wisconsin—specifically, Wisconsin Rapids. They had a vision to expand the gospel into this city, just 20 miles east, where there were far more unreached people than reached.

So Brice and Doug attended a church planting conference. They checked out resources. They followed every lead for a potential location for this multisite campus to meet, but every door seemed to be closed.

Then, when Brice was driving by the local strip mall one day, he had an idea: What if we formed our own corporation and bought this strip mall? What if one of these storefronts became the new home for our church?

Sure enough, in 2017, this new church celebrated its first service as Crossview Church—dedicated to reaching the people of Wisconsin Rapids with the gospel through the doors of the Shopko mall.

One Sunday, the storefront-converted-church caught the eye of a Wisconsin Rapids resident. His name was Dan.

"I was a man with [my heart and soul] missing. I felt no worth anymore. I didn't come [to Crossview] presentable, like I would normally be. I was just like, 'I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing, but let's go check this out.'"

A couple hours after Dan walked through Crossview's doors that Sunday morning, he gave his life to Christ. Watch Dan's story in the video below.

To join us in celebrating "New Churches to Reach New People," visit the Church Multiplication Sunday 2019 webpage.