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West Lake Church is just a decade old and still meeting in a middle school, but it already has helped start three other churches because it grasps the urgency of reaching the people God has placed in Texas.
Church planter Wenfu Zheng said Chinese Reformed Baptist Church, a new Mandarin-speaking congregation in Houston, “is a living testimony to the strategic vision and gospel-hearted generosity of West Lake Church.”
“Since our inception, West Lake has functioned as a true mother church, embodying the biblical model of sending and support,” Zheng said.
Two years ago, West Lake helped launch Salt City Church in College Station, which now averages 460 people on Sundays. West Lake is the sending church for Southside Fellowship in Houston’s Third Ward, which is a little over a year old and averages 65 people on Sundays.
"We want to see 515 people know, worship, share, and serve Jesus Christ—come to faith, be baptized, be part of our church family, and then join us in the mission of continuing to see lostness decrease."
“We can’t plant every church, but we can plant some,” said Cameron Whitley, West Lake’s lead pastor. “We can’t fund 100% of every church plant that we are a part of, but we can fund some.
“Part of our vision that we want to keep in front of our church family is the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is not just our little fellowship,” he said. “It is what God is doing across our community and our city and our state and in our world. What we call local impact and global impact is a part of how we communicate that and practice that as a church.”
Across Texas, roughly 20 million people do not know Christ. If just 1% of those were going to be reached by existing churches, that would be 2 million people, Whitley noted.
“Especially in a city like Houston, one congregation is not going to adequately nor efficiently reach an entire city,” Whitley said. “It takes not just one church planting churches. It takes every church sending to help reach the lost in our city.”
Whitley also serves as a Send Network SBTC church planting catalyst in Houston. Demographic data indicates about 51,500 lost people live in the immediate vicinity of West Lake, so 1% is 515 people. About 355 attend worship there on Sundays.
“We want to see 515 people know, worship, share, and serve Jesus Christ—come to faith, be baptized, be part of our church family, and then join us in the mission of continuing to see lostness decrease,” Whitley said.
“As a city, though, it’s going to take all types of church planters, different churches, different languages. Houston is the most diverse city in America, so one church, one congregation, is not going to be able to do that.”
That understanding is what led West Lake to get involved in Chinese Reformed even though no one at West Lake speaks Mandarin, including the pastor. West Lake recognized that God was equipping them to reach Chinese people when He provided Zheng, who came to the U.S. from China in 2014 for theological training and then felt called to plant a church in the rapidly-growing Chinese immigrant community in Houston—what he calls a “vast and ripe harvest field.”
Zheng listed three ways West Lake plays a crucial role in Chinese Reformed: It sponsors Zheng’s R1 visa, its pastoral team mentors and encourages Zheng, and its leadership team has granted Zheng significant autonomy to develop a culturally relevant yet theologically uncompromising ministry.
Chinese Reformed has an average worship attendance of 45 after just one year, and at Easter the church saw one person come to Christ after the congregation had been praying for that person.
“We have three keys for all three church plants: We support them in prayer, we support them in person, and we support them financially,” Whitley said.
They have sent teams to canvas and prayer walk for Salt City. They have partnered with Southside Fellowship to distribute blessing bags, which are big bags of food, water, and supplies packed by West Lake and given to those in need downtown.
A couple of times each year, church planters preach at West Lake or at least stand on stage and give an update about their work. After the service, West Lake members can interact with the church planters.
“One thing I would encourage churches or pastors to consider is to get involved in what is already going on in some way,” Whitley said. “Get involved through Send Network SBTC. Get involved by becoming a sending church. Get involved by becoming a supporting church.
“There are so many different ways. It’s not all or nothing.”
