Where We've Been

Throughout the 1980’s, Jim and Kim Wall, while serving as church-planting missionaries to the Philippines, dreamed of planting a church committed to re-creating the dynamics of the first century church, described in Acts 2:42-47. During the summer of 1989, Jim and Kim led a team of volunteers to make 20,000 phone calls to Western Branch and Portsmouth homes. They were looking for families who don’t go to church that might be interested in knowing more about a new church.

On September 17, 1989, Western Branch Community Church was launched at the Churchland Country Day School on Taylor Road. 165 complete strangers packed into a room designed for 110 people. The dream was born! Within four weeks, the fledgling congregation moved to Stonebridge School on Portsmouth Boulevard and continued to grow. Over the next ten years, the WBCC family met in eight different auditoriums for Sunday morning services and rented 22 different sites around the area to house the growing ministry.

The final rented auditorium was the Western Branch Middle School where WBCC found room to grow. In 1997, WBCC launched its community group network designed to ensure that this congregation, now numbering well over 1,000, would remain a close-knit community.

In January 2000, WBCC moved onto the 25 acres that God miraculously provided at 20% of the market value! In February 2003, WBCC completed its Phase Two facilities including Auditorium 2 and the Atrium. Phase Three was completed in the spring of 2008 with a 1,100 seat auditorium, a full kitchen, additional kids’ space, bathrooms and atrium space and parking. God continues to bless this dream of a loving community of fruitfully-mature followers of Jesus Christ!