Why would you start another church in Waxahachie?

“Good grief, that makes 84. Why would you start another church in Waxahachie?"

That's the response I received when I told the Chair of our Chamber of Commerce that Soma Waxahachie is a new church for our city.

Yup, we're the 84th church in Waxahachie, a city of only 35,000 people. That's a lot of churches for a city our size. So how do we justify ourselves as yet another church for Waxahachie?

In reality, Soma is not a new church at all. The church was actually started in 2001 and we've simply rebooted and reorganized an existing church around a new identity and vision. But more than that, we really try to avoid thinking about what we’re doing as starting a new church. Instead, we envision ourselves planting and cultivating the gospel of the Kingdom into the heart of our city and leading the church that Jesus decides to water and grow.

That makes our situation different from some of the other good Jesus-loving churches you’ll find here in Waxahachie. We do not find ourselves to be in the position —nor do we have any desire— to do our church services in such a way that we attract Christians away from other churches here in our city. There’s no value added to Jesus’ kingdom or Waxahachie with that approach to church starting. That means we are committed to evangelize and disciple our church family into existence.

So why start (or restart) an 84th church in Waxahachie? The only way that that question makes sense is to assume that we’re here to compete with the other 83 churches in our city, vying for our market share of the Christians already living here. And that’s exactly what we’re not here to do. We’re not a new business. We are citizens of an everlasting kingdom sent to Waxahachie to colonize heaven on earth by making disciples of Jesus.

And that's why our city needs a new church like ours. As long as there are places in Waxahachie not yet affected by the good news of Jesus and his kingdom, there is room for a family like Soma.