Christ Community Church has been part of the Willoughby community since the mid 1950’s. Formerly known as The Willo Gospel Chapel in the 50’s – 70’s. Then in the late 70’s, the name was changed to New Testament Fellowship Church. The reason for the name change was simple. During this period God was doing a new thing and a great many young people were getting saved and coming into fellowship with God and other believers in Christ. We wanted to model the Church after the “New Testament” believers that we had read about in the book of Acts.
During this time period the church grew to about three hundred disciples, approximately twenty small groups and we started two other Churches in the area. Finally, in 2000, we felt as though the Lord wanted the name of the church to reflect that Christ was the head of His Church and that the Church is part of the community. Therefore we voted to change the name to Christ Community Church of Willoughby.
Pastor Greg has faithfully served the Church as pastor for over 30 years. We believe longevity and faithfulness to God and each other are important and therefore strive to that end!
Christ Community Church of Willoughby is not a large congregation. There are of course benefits to being part of a large congregation. We also are convinced that smaller congregations are both valuable and useful to the Lord. Consider some of these statistics:
“According to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, there are 177,000 churches in America with fewer than 100 and 500 in attendance each week. There are only 19,000 churches or 6% of the total with more than 500 attendees. Mega Churches, (regular attendance over 2000) make up less than 1/2 of one percent of Churches in America.
The fact that the overwhelming majority of Churches in America are fewer than 500 attendees, permits us to feel comfortable with who we are, while continuing to hold forth Jesus Christ as The Way, The Truth, and The Life to a needy community and world.
(JN.14:6)
What we believe
Christ Community Church of Willoughby is a non-denominational Bible believing Christ honoring Church. Christ Community Church strongly believes that all truth begins with God and Christ. He is the originator and fountain of all truth. It was Jesus who declared to Pilate “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (Jn. 18:37)
“He is the Way, the Truth, and The Life” (Jn 14:6) We boldly proclaim this message of truth that is found in Christ. Jesus went on to say “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (Jn. 8:32)
Dr. David Wells writes in his recent book of note, “The Courage to be Protestant”, the Church must remember two points in particular: First, that Christianity is about truth and second, that those who say they are Christians must model this truth by their integrity.” We at Christ Community Church agree whole heartedly with this statement. We do not attempt to show this in some rigid or legalistic manner, but instead rely on the grace of God that has not only saved us but teaches us to live holy and upright lives! We believe strongly that God’s truth does transform lives! “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:14,7)