Our Postcards from the Midwest Conference are short and encouraging looks at what God is doing in churches across the Midwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church – Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, western Missouri, Nebraska and Wyoming. We’re celebrating faithfulness, fresh vision, and the beauty of ministry in all shapes and sizes.
Church: COMMUNITY Covenant Church
Location: 15700 W 87th Parkway, Lenexa, Kansas 66219
Service: Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
Website: https://www.communityks.com/
Celebrating 50 Years of God’s Faithfulness at COMMUNITY Covenant Church
In January 1976, a group of Mission Friends – people committed to following Jesus together – stepped out in faith to begin a new congregation in the growing suburbs of the Kansas City metro.
Fifty years later, COMMUNITY Covenant Church stands as a living testimony to God’s faithfulness – and to how God works through people willing to trust the Spirit, take risks, and send generously for the sake of the gospel.
Back to the Beginning
In the summer of 1974, 16 people met at the home of Eldon and Nyona Erickson to discuss the possibility of organizing a new Evangelical Covenant Church in Johnson County, Kansas. In September, Rev. Quentin (Dusty) Larson, a nucleus builder (church planter) for prospective Covenant Churches in the Kansas City area, came to serve as pastor. This core group held fellowship meetings and by the fall of 1975, they began Sunday morning worship services.
On January 11, 1976, the charter for the new church was opened and COMMUNITY Covenant Church officially joined the Midwest Conference and the Evangelical Covenant Church.
“In the following years, the church family grew significantly through their ministry to youth and families, their heart for outreach and missions, and the love and care they genuinely poured out on those who came through the doors of the two different church facilities they built and worshipped in during their 50 year history,” said Rev. David McCowan, lead pastor at COMMUNITY.
Missional DNA
COMMUNITY was born during a season when the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) was learning how to plant churches in rapidly expanding suburban contexts. Launching in Shawnee, Kansas, and later moving to the city of Lenexa, COMMUNITY was “parented” by First Covenant Church of Kansas City using a model that prioritized shared leadership, sacrificial sending, and deep partnership from the very beginning. This parented approach helped establish a strong foundation for a congregation committed not only to gathering, but to multiplying.
That missional DNA soon bore fruit. In the mid-1990s, COMMUNITY took a bold step of its own – sending approximately 10 percent of its congregation to plant Harvest Ridge Covenant Church with Developer Pastor Eric Sparrman. Conference leaders later described that launch as “one of the purest examples of a parented church plant” they had witnessed, a reflection of COMMUNITY’s deep trust that God’s mission is always bigger than any single congregation.
That spirit of faithful sending continued in 2020, when COMMUNITY blessed and released leaders to plant Engage Church, a microchurch network now active in three states. Far from a departure, this step reflected COMMUNITY’s enduring calling: to meet people where they are and trust the Spirit to do the transforming work.
Rev. McCowan noted some of the significant ways God is ministering through COMMUNITY today is in their food ministries in a local school, in Johnson County, and reaching the houseless in Kansas City; their work toward racial reconciliation in their ministry partnership with a church in the urban core of Kansas City; and their various ministries both locally and globally.
A Celebration of 50 Years
On January 10, 2026, COMMUNITY members past and present gathered to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The evening included hymns from Covenant heritage, recognition of past and present leaders, reflections from denominational and conference leaders, letters spanning generations, and the opening of a time capsule – tangible reminders that God has been at work across decades and lives. The celebration continued in worship the following day, grounding the milestone not only in memory, but in praise.
For Rev. Lexi Lang, Missiologist and Director of Church Planting for the Midwest Conference of the ECC – and a former COMMUNITY staff member – the anniversary marked both a personal and communal moment.
“COMMUNITY shaped me deeply – not just as a leader, but as a follower of Jesus,” Lang reflected. “This has always been a church willing to bless, release, and trust God with what comes next. That posture has changed lives – including my own.”
Fifty years on, COMMUNITY Covenant Church remains a vibrant expression of the ECC Mission Friend movement – rooted in Scripture, shaped by community, and open to the Spirit’s leading.
“As the church family celebrated 50 years of God’s faithfulness and faithful ministry in Lenexa and beyond, they are looking forward to the future and continuing to live ‘For God’s glory and neighbor’s good,'” said Rev. McCowan.
As the Midwest Conference celebrates alongside COMMUNITY, we give thanks for a congregation that reminds us all what it means to be faithful, connected, and sent.
“We are so grateful for COMMUNITY Covenant’s first 50 years,” said MWC Superintendent Rev. Brian Johnson. “They have modeled a deep dependence on God, raised up gifted leaders, and joyfully sacrificed to share the gospel in new communities.”
