We have some news that we are excited to announce officially! After a unanimous vote, the members of The Gathering Place Wardville have affirmed the elders’ proposal to become Wardville Community Church on August 1, 2022.

What it Means

What this represents for us is (1) a departure from The Gathering Place Network, (2) the adoption of a new mission statement, and (3) the continuation of our ministry to Wardville and CenLa under a new name. This was a decision we made slowly and with much prayer, deliberation, and care. It’s our desire in this announcement to convey three things: gratitude, excitement, and commitment.

Gratitude for Our Past

We did not come from nowhere, and we are grateful for all the people who have helped shape our understanding of the mission of the church. We are grateful to The Gathering Place Network (and before that, the other TGP churches) and the leaders therein for the impact that they have made on all of us. We would not be the people that we are without our brothers and sisters in those churches. We are grateful for the friendships the Lord has forged among us, our common history, the Kingdom work we’ve done, the joys we’ve shared, and the sorrows we’ve borne together. The differences that we have in philosophy of ministry neither erase nor diminish in any way our sense of gratitude for our past. God has been immensely faithful, and we pray His continued grace and peace toward the churches in The Gathering Place Network.

Excitement About Our Future

We are excited and expectant about what is ahead of us as we become Wardville Community Church! A big reason for this change is our desire to reach the Wardville community with the gospel. We want all that we do to express to the people around our meeting place that we are a church that loves them and wants to fold them into the life of our body. We are a church that not only meets in the Wardville community but exists for the Wardville community; God planted our church here in this building for a reason, and we want to steward that call faithfully. God is fashioning us into a family of faith as we have the privilege of partaking in the Divine community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we want to invite Wardville into that! We are, therefore, excited for the future ministry of our church in our neighborhood, and we are praying that God would even use our name change to convey to those around us that we are proud to be in Wardville and that we love them!

Commitment to Our Vision

Our name has changed, but our commitment remains the same as it was when we were planted in 2014. We are committed to becoming, by God’s grace, a family of faith devoted to our Lord Jesus, to His Word, to His ordinances, and to one another as we seek to accomplish the shared mission of making Him known among the nations! We are convicted by God that this is who we are and who we are meant to become, and thus we remain committed to carrying out this vision in every facet of our church, owning it at both personal and corporate levels. Our name and affiliation has changed, but our great hope is that if you visited our church before this change and come again afterward, it will feel the same; the direction and trajectory of our church is not changing. We simply see this as an opportunity to centralize and focus on our mission!