A 166-year-old church in Spring Hill will be the future home of the newest branch of Resurrection United Methodist Church, already one of Johnson County’s biggest houses of worship.
Cathy Bien, Public Relations and Special Projects Lead Director for Church of the Resurrection, says they hope to attract new families and congregants in that area of southern Johnson County.
“That is the dream,” she said. “It takes a lot of courage and selflessness to want to do something for future generations.”
The new Spring Hill branch, set to hold its first official worship next month, will be Resurrection’s seventh campus throughout the Kansas City metro, with its flagship location based in Leawood.
The Spring Hill church pre-dates the Civil War
The 100-seat church building, which stands at 112 E. Nichols St. in Spring Hill, was built in 1911.
For decades, it served a congregation that first formed as a Methodist church in 1858.
Pastor Angie McCarty has been the part-time pastor there since 2021 and says the site has been in mind for a new location for Resurrection for the past 10 years, along with 27 acres of land the Spring Hill church owned.
“This is such an exciting night,” McCarty said at an official ribbon-cutting event Monday evening.
“For those of you who haven’t experienced Resurrection, what we hope you will experience here is a place to belong, a place to find Christ alive, a place where non- and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians. That is what we hope to bring to Spring Hill,” she added.
“We weren’t closing the doors forever”
McCarty said the original church was a small community “eager to make a difference” but its resources dwindled in recent years.
The process to become Resurrection’s newest branch began in January 2023, when the Spring Hill church reached out to the Leawood-based megachurch that boasts more than 24,000 active members and runs satellite campuses from Blue Springs and downtown Kansas City to Overland Park.
The original Spring Hill church members shared their grief of closing through prayers, tears and joy, McCarty said, and the old church officially closed on May 19.
“On that day when we closed, we knew that something new was to come,” McCarty said. “We weren’t closing the doors forever, we were closing the doors to move forward into what we believed our mission is for this community and the church as a whole.”
Hopes for growth in southern Johnson County
Adam Hamilton, Resurrection’s senior pastor and the public face of the church, founded Resurrection in 1990 at a funeral home off State Line Road.
He said it was never his plan to expand to multiple locations, but the opportunities have kept arising.
“But when we looked at Spring Hill, this is a totally different thing,” he said. “Let’s give it a try.”
Hamilton said they seek to build on the shoulders and legacy of the Spring Hill church that existed there for more than a century and a half.
“And see dreams fulfilled in the community and find lives changes through wholeness, joy, life and hope,” he said. “Help us be a light in the community.”
Resurrection ultimately has plans to move to a bigger space in Spring Hill and become a regional hub for the church in southwestern Johnson County.
Dates to remember
- Soft Launch: Sunday, Aug. 25
- Parking Lot Fellowship: Sunday, Sept. 1
- Grand Opening: Sunday, Sept. 8
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