You Belong Here.

How About The Way Church KC — Our Story

Before I ever thought about planting a church, I spent seven years working for an addiction recovery nonprofit. That season shaped more of my theology than seminary did, honestly. Through that work, I got to meet pastors and church leaders from all over the country — watching up close how churches loved their cities, where they struggled, what made them real. And somewhere in the middle of all that, I started feeling a pull. Not just to support the local church from the outside, but to actually help build one.

My assumption was that meant joining an existing church somewhere and leading a college or young adult ministry, or maybe getting a recovery ministry off the ground. That felt like the obvious path. Then in 2021, I spoke at a gathering of pastors and ministry leaders and met a guy with the NAMB Send Network. He didn't recruit me. He just asked whether I'd ever considered that God might be calling me to plant a church. That question stuck around longer than I expected.

My wife Chelsea and I made 2021 a year of prayer. We genuinely didn't know. But as we prayed, God started confirming it — through people who spoke into our lives, through open and closed doors, and through Scripture in ways that felt too specific to ignore. Isaiah 61:1 kept coming up: the Spirit of the Lord anointing someone to proclaim good news to the poor, freedom to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind. Then we'd read Luke 4, where Jesus stands up in the synagogue, reads that same passage, and says, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." Something clicked. This was the mission. This was the kind of church we were supposed to build.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." Isaiah 61:1 / Luke 4:18 (ESV)

So The Way Church KC was planted with one burden: that people who feel far from God would find real hope in Jesus, and that our neighborhood would be changed by the gospel. Not because Kansas City needed another event on Sunday morning. Because Jesus still saves, still restores, and still sends ordinary people to live on mission right where they are.

The name "The Way" goes back to the early church. Before followers of Jesus were called Christians, the book of Acts calls them people who belonged to "the Way" — shaped by Jesus, walking in His teachings, willing to be different.

"…and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." Acts 9:2 (ESV)

And the name goes deeper than that. Jesus didn't just show a way to God. He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). So when we say The Way, we're not claiming a method or a brand. We're confessing a Person. Christ at the center. The gospel as our message. Discipleship as our rhythm.

That's what we're all about. The Way Church KC is honest about our weakness, serious about the Word, and genuinely glad to have you here.

— Zach Schemmer, Lead Pastor