“We can accomplish great things because we join together.”

Pastor Chris Williams and his congregation are putting their faith to work revitalizing a local church.

Calvary University (CU) alumnus Chris Williams is excited about the new direction God is taking his congregation. Williams graduated from CU in 2003 with a Master of Science in Christian Studies, and a Master of Divinity in 2013. He is now senior pastor of Fellowship Church, Greenwood (FG), in a role he has filled for six years.

Recently, FG undertook the project of revitalizing another local church, First Baptist Church of Raymore. Williams pointed out that, “We are a recipient of another church pouring into us and investing in us when this church had died… and our dream was always to pay forward what Lenexa [Baptist Church] did for us.”

When First Baptist of Raymore approached Williams to discuss pursuing revitalization, he brought it before the church leadership and members to discuss it and pray over it. Ultimately, they felt that God was giving them the chance they had been praying for to invest in another church body.

Williams and the other leaders at FG see the hand of God at work as they prepare to send fifty of their members to the new church site. “We’re doing exactly what was done for us. We’re giving them people; giving them dollars. We’re giving them mission and vision to see that church become a vital part of its community.” Williams said that Raymore is the fastest growing city in Cass County and the third fastest in the KC Metro area, so the opportunities for engagement and impact are vast.

The body of FG voted unanimously on the proposition to delegate their time, money, and leadership to First Baptist of Raymore. Williams said FG is unified in their enthusiasm to see the Raymore campus “living for the good of that community, the glory of Christ, and the salvation of all.”

When Williams first came to CU in 1997, he was untrained. He said, “I didn’t even know what a quiet time was.” His time at CU proved formative for his spiritual growth. “It was transformative in my faith journey. I really learned and grew a desire to love God’s word and to study it in a dispensational, verse-by-verse manner, with that literal historical grammatical approach to Scripture.” Williams believes CU helped him develop his love for the Word of God and states, “It was at Calvary that I learned what a disciple was and actually became one.”

Pastor Williams is clear about his mission at Fellowship Church. “I want to help everyone who comes to the Fellowship to understand that they were created on purpose and for a great purpose.” Having received training in how to know and serve God, Williams now works to provide others with the training they need. “I want to help them discover that purpose and then give them the encouragement and the tools and the training that they need to go live in that purpose.”

When Celeste Williams came to Calvary as a freshman, she had no idea where God would lead her or what she wanted to do for her career.

“I just knew that I would always want to be pursuing Christ,” Williams said, “and I knew Calvary would be the place that prepared me for a lifetime of that.”

As her love for children surfaced, she chose Elementary Education, even though the classroom wasn’t her favorite place to be. But in retrospect, she sees that, “Studying elementary education led to my dream job.”

She graduated with her Bachelor’s of Science in Elementary Education in Calvary’s most recent graduating class of 2019, and she has hit the ground running. She now works as the Education Director for Global FC, a local organization engaging and equipping youth from conflict and war zone areas of the world. The organization uses soccer opportunities, one-on-one tutoring, and mentorship to inspire and invest in children that are too often overlooked.

Williams found her way to Global FC through their partnership with Calvary. She had attended soccer games and interacted with the kids, and when Global FC started their education program. “This is somewhere that I can fit,” she realized. She plugged herself into the community, and keeps busy developing and organizing the ever-growing education program. As the program expands, Global FC finds new ways to reach the displaced communities of Kansas City.

“We have this new program,” she said, “that we’re figuring out called soccer literacy, which is for kids who have been in the states a year or less, so they don’t speak English much or read it. So we combine soccer drills with vocabulary and sentences to give them something a little different as they’re learning.” The kids Global FC reaches are almost universally enthralled with soccer, and it has proved a powerful tool for connecting with them.

Other programs are in the works for family literacy and high school graduates transitioning, so Williams stays busy recruiting volunteers, training tutors, and looking for partnerships for grants and other funding. But once work is done and the computer is closed, she’ll take any excuse to pay a home visit to one of their students. “Once I show up at a house, I end up being there for a couple hours usually.”

Despite spending more time on her computer than she ever expected to, Williams loves where she is and the opportunity she has. The community at Global FC has become invaluable to her.

She said, “[We] come and start to invest, not because we pity them and feel bad for them and think they have nothing, but because we believe that they have so much to give back to us.” Their capacity for unconditional love astounds her, and God is teaching her that, “It has to be a choice for me to allow God to love [these kids] through me…I can’t do everything… but I can be faithful to my role and allow God to work though me and through others.”

When Williams talks about her work and the kids, she can’t stop smiling. “I call my current job my dream job because it combined my love of children, families, culture, relationships, teaching, sports, missions, and even random things.” She points out how God has been at work, directing her steps here.

“The crazy thing is, this job did not exist when I started college; I was simply following God’s leading at each step along the way, and He graciously brought me here.”

With college behind her and exciting opportunities ahead of her, Williams has fallen in love with the mission field in her back yard. “I think a lot of life lessons that I learned here at Calvary are helping me… and there’s a part of me that’s 100% ready to go to another country and share about Jesus… But another part of me is like, this is the mission. Right here.”