THE LSCC STORY
It became a weekly ritual in the mid-1980s.
Tim Honeycutt would move the furniture out of his Lee’s Summit living room to make space for up to 30 guests who would gather for singing, Bible study and prayer.
Tim, a graduate of Lee’s Summit High School, had dreamed of starting a unique church in his hometown ever since he returned to the area after completing military service.
It began as a Missouri-side weekly Bible study for members of Cornerstone Community Church, which is in Overland Park, Kan. Tim, his wife, Gayle, and several other families lived in Lee’s Summit but worshipped just across the state line.
“The Lee’s Summit small group continued to grow, but we were still driving to Overland Park,” he says.
Although Tim was working up to 60 hours a week at a pharmaceutical
company, his heart was in ministry.
“I knew that God was going to call me to be a pastor but I didn’t know how,” he says.
Making a dream reality
The Lee’s Summit group and the parent church shared Tim’s vision to minister to the people of the city. In fact, the home group was already touching lives before the church was launched.
“We spent hours in prayer for Lee’s Summit,” Tim says. “I knew God was going to do a great work. We saw our neighbor across the street come to know Christ through our home discussion group.”
In order to prepare for the meetings, Tim and other key leaders met weekly at 5 a.m.
“People gave up their time,” he says. “Everybody rallied to meet needs. That built some unity and closeness that prepared that team to plant a church.”
Tim’s religious background was ritualistic, with pastors who appeared aloof and church services that seemed irrelevant to daily life. He wanted to be a part of a church that was culturally relevant and connected with people in a personal way.
God was beginning to make the dream reality.
In 1986, Pastor Doug Brown and his family moved to Kansas City from Ohio to begin working at Cornerstone. Doug also began attending the Lee’s Summit small group and caught the fever for the church plant.
Launch time
In 1988, with the moral and financial backing of Cornerstone, the Lee's Summit small group decided to launch a new church, with Doug as its pastor. Tim, who continued to worked full time, would be the right-hand man.
LSCC's church planting team made 20,000 phone calls from a bank basement in 1988, inviting people without a church home to consider the new fellowship.
In August of that year, the group phoned 20,000 residents and rented an elementary school. The church planting team focused its effort on the 2,000 people who said they did not attend a church but were interested in one. The church opened to about 200 people, plus children, on Oct. 16.
After an exciting kickoff, all systems were go for an encouraging first year.
However, a challenge soon confronted the young church. The lease with the school district expired after one year. To everyone’s surprise, it was non-renewable. This temporarily left the church with no place to meet.
Eventually the congregation moved to a large auditorium at a local retirement community where it had to meet on Sunday nights for seven months. Church leaders were thankful for a temporary solution, but searched for something better.
"It was a time of testing for us," recalls Doug.
God had an answer.
A place to meet
A vacant church building in Lee’s Summit had become available along with 10 acres for only $200,000.
The fledgling church received financial support from Cornerstone and found favor with bankers who were willing to take a risk. Church members themselves raised $36,000 cash in 30 days to make a permanent church home a reality.
“It was a miracle that we raised that much with 125 people, including kids,” Tim says.
Shortly afterward, in 1991, Tim left the business world and joined Doug on the church staff to expand the ministry.
Since that time, the church has evolved into one of the larger congregations in the Kansas City area, with a pastoral team in addition to several other full- and part-time staff members.
In 2000, the church opened a new education and worship building to house its rapidly expanding children’s ministry.
After serving LSCC for 15 years, Tim moved on to found a nationwide ministry called PastorAssist.
Tim says his greatest encouragement comes from seeing the spiritual growth of the people of LSCC. Some of the early members are serving LSCC in full-time ministry or have continued as active volunteer leaders.
The steady stream of new volunteer and staff leaders has continued over the years since 1988, with new stories of faith being written every year.
Other highlights
Other highlights in the history of the church have included:
- Reaching people around the globe with God’s love through international outreach trips and a pastoral training ministry. Recent destinations have included: Nepal, East Asia, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Mexico and Jamaica.
- Showing God’s love to thousands of people through a local Kindness Outreach program. Small deeds of love and service are performed in the community – with no donations accepted – to demonstrate that God’s love is truly free.
- H2O, a relevant service for students grades 7-12 started in 2002. A service for junior high students, 02, began in 2003.
- THREE16, a ministry to college-age adults, started in 2004.
- A ministry to single mothers and their families, launched in 2003.
- A growing number of extension ministries, including Character That Counts, TGIW and People Matter Ministries.
- The opening of The Element, our student and young adult facility, in 2006.
- A new church plant, The Avenue, launched in 2008.
Lee’s Summit Community Church continues to grow, change and learn. But the emphasis will remain on touching the lives of individuals, one by one, with the love and truth of Jesus Christ.
“Ministry here, first and foremost, means people,” says Doug. "It's humbling how God how used LSCC in ways that we could only dream of. The work and credit belong to Him."
Lee's Summit Community Church started as a small group Bible study in the 1980s. The group's desire to share God's love with the community led to the church's inception in 1988. The facility shown here opened in 2000.