Our Story begins with the vision of the elders and pastors of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas to establish other Reformed, Bible-centered, and historically grounded churches in the region. Lee’s Summit, Missouri was a target, because it is a sizable, rapidly expanding city with a closely-connected metro area. Several individuals and families from Lee’s Summit, eastern Jackson Co., and Belton were traveling to worship at RPC in Kansas and had become members, including two elders and two deacons.
In 2015-2016, senior pastor Dr. Tony Felich led a steering committee that explored planting a daughter church in Lee’s Summit, as the Lord willed. The RPC Session studied and then recommended initiating this effort, with the vision that the new Lee’s Summit daughter church would mirror RPC-Overland Park in worship style and ministry philosophy, and ultimately be autonomous upon particularization.
The approach was to start with a third Redeemer worship service on Sunday evenings in Lee’s Summit, which began in September 2017. The Lord provided a very conveniently located church building for us to rent and hold our services in: St. Anne’s Episcopal Church. These initial services were on Sunday evenings for about 15 months, and were led on a rotating basis by the pastors at RPC-Overland Park.
As the body grew and we sought a facility to accommodate morning worship services, God again graciously provided a church facility and accommodating hosts who allowed us to lease space, and on January 6, 2019 we held our first morning service in the New Springs Community Church building. The Redeemer Session called the Rev. Aaron Suber to begin overseeing the worship services under the guidance of RPC-Overland Park.
Our journey really accelerated in the spring of 2020, when our young and growing Lee’s Summit daughter church transitioned to Mission Church status, with the goal of particularization to a fully independent Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) church within roughly a year, as God wills. The new name Christ the Redeemer was chosen, and we welcomed Rev. Suber as our full-time pulpit supply pastor. Were these developments not blessing enough, the opportunity to own the New Springs facility became available, and the purchase and the dream of having a permanent home was realized in June 2020 through much prayer, the amazing grace of God, and the generous and sacrificial financial support of many. That this came to fruition in a very short timeframe and right in the midst of the COVID situation is truly a testament to the amazing providence of the Lord, who has worked out every detail and opened every door throughout the process, even when it did not seem possible.
In the summer of 2023, Rev. Suber and family returned to their home state to pastor a church in Mississippi. God most certainly superintended our pastoral search process as we prayerfully sought to identify a well-qualified servant to faithfully shepherd our congregation and carefully exposit the Word. On November 19, 2023, Pastor Jason Wegener was installed as the new senior pastor of Christ the Redeemer.
In the days and weeks to come, we look forward with anticipation to how God will have us use this church for His glory, the equipping of His saints, and the furthering of the Gospel. We are excited to welcome others that the Lord will bring to join us in love and fellowship. And we wholeheartedly agree with the psalmist in Psalms 145:3: Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
Soli Deo Gloria!