“In a community like this, you’ve got to have churches to serve and reach all those people,” he said. “Celina deserves churches that will come and say, ‘This is our Jerusalem and we’re going to reach this city.’ What you’re seeing here isn’t just [people moving away from the Metroplex]. They’re coming here from all over. There’s an Asian population here, an Indian population here. There’s a California migration happening here.”

Welch said Legacy Hills is scheduled to hold its first “monthly preview service” this month, which will include worship, a sermon, and activities for families. Those monthly services will continue each month until February, when the church plans to begin meeting weekly at an elementary school.

Until then, he and his family—which includes two teenagers and a grade-schooler—will continue to sink deep roots into the North Texas soil. Legacy Hills has already made inroads in the community by giving gift cards to every teacher in the school district and buying ice cream for unsuspecting patrons at a local shop.

“Not to take away from the established churches I’ve previously led, but this is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done,” Welch said. “But what God has called us to here, and going on this journey as a family … it’s just been humbling and incredibly rewarding and fun.”

“When we don’t have one for a period of time, our church just kind of lags a little bit,” Crandall said. “It’s part of our DNA that we’re always going to have someone with us getting ready to be sent out by us as a church plant.”

Some of CityView’s plants have remained small, with COVID limiting growth at times. But West Oaks Church in West Columbia-Brazoria County runs some 200 weekly, despite being less than three years old.

Its emphasis on planting has given CityView a unique growth curve, Crandall said. Currently, the church runs about 140-150. When numbers reach that level, it’s time to plant another congregation.

“We grow for a while. Then we send a planter with some people. Then we grow for a while,” he said. The cycle repeats as attendance again approaches 200.

CityView recently moved into its own building, a welcome relief from “eight-and-a-half years of set up and tear down,” Crandall added.

The church has devoted five percent of its tithes and offerings from the beginning directly for Houston-area church planting, funds separate from Cooperative Program and associational giving, the pastor said, adding, “We decided we were going to live on less and see the gospel go.”

After about five months of ministering at the school, The West Church received an award of appreciation from Best Elementary, Omopariola said. 

The church also partners with The Landing, an anti-trafficking organization in the neighborhood. “They’ve been one of our biggest advocates in the community, and a lot of our missional outreach is in large part due to the relationship we have with them,” he said. 

West Groups, the small group ministry at The West Church, has been “a source of life and community,” the pastor said. “We’ve been so impacted not only by what the Lord has been doing in the church but also outside of it.” 

So why has John 4 become the missional thrust of the church? Omopariola says it is because Jesus viewed it as a divine necessity to enter a place so many avoided. Samaria, like Alief, was a place with so many difficulties, yet Jesus engaged in a theological conversation with a woman there in order to show His care for all people. 

“She isn’t ashamed or even talked down to, but she’s encouraged to want to live a different life, and as a result of that, she becomes one of the greatest evangelists in the New Testament because after her interaction with Jesus she goes back to her community and tells them, ‘Come see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done,’” Omopariola said.

Alief is a community that has been neglected by most, but The West Church is striving to “bring the love and light of Christ into the community and be able to point people toward hope,” the pastor said. 

“Our church is slowly starting to resemble the diversity that is around us,” Omopariola said. “It’s going to be a long process, but we want to see the reality of John 4 in our church.” 

So far the response from people in the community has been positive toward the church, the pastor said, particularly because they sense church members are authentic about what they believe and how they practice those beliefs. “Surprisingly, they want more of it.”

For churches that want to reach out to hard communities, Omopariola advises developing a strong prayer strategy first.  

“The needs are so great, and you feel overwhelmed all the time,” he said, “like there’s no way one single individual or one church or organization is going to be able to solve all the problems.”

“I asked in the post if it would be a good idea to create a YouTube channel with my daughter’s cartoons,” Pastor Reyna said, “and many wrote me to hurry up and do it! … Since she is doing these cartoons and has been doing devotionals, this is a great opportunity to combine them both to share the Word.”

Seeing an opportunity for Kamila to use the app and its abilities to minister to and motivate other children and people in their community, Pastor Reyna and his wife have encouraged Kamila to continue creating videos with biblical content. One of the potential opportunities Pastor Reyna sees in creating cartoons like this is that they can be used as a vehicle for evangelism. He said Kamila has already talked about Jesus with many of her friends at school, which is located right behind the church. 

Because of his background not only as a music teacher, but in video editing and sound production, Pastor Reyna said he plans to team up with Kamila to make more animations that will continue to utilize a more modern style.

Kamila now has a YouTube channel and is creating content for children of all ages (the channel is called “Kami’s Vlog”). She and her family said they hope God will continue to open doors for them to impact the children in their community with the gospel.

“My desire is that kids know about Jesus and receive Him into their hearts,” Kamila said.