For nearly 70 years, Mission Road Bible Church has welcomed its congregation at 7820 Mission Road.
This Sunday, Feb. 22, is the final day parishioners will sit in the sanctuary at Mission Road Bible Church.
The congregation is moving to a larger space in Shawnee — and renaming itself to the Immanuel Bible Church. Its first service in Shawnee is planned for March 1.
As for 7820 Mission Road, that property is on track to become the site of the new Prairie Village City Hall. It is part of the city’s $30 million municipal complex project, which calls for a new building at 7820 Mission Road and renovations to 7700 Mission Road for the police department and municipal court.
(Read more about the city’s $30 million municipal complex project here.)
Senior Pastor Rick Holland told the Post that Mission Road Bible Church has great relationships with the city, the police department and the schools in Prairie Village.
Still, Holland said the congregation needs more space — and couldn’t say no to the space 6601 Monticello Road offers.
“We love Prairie Village,” Holland said. “I’m gonna be really sad to leave Prairie Village.”
Mission Road Bible Church has a nearly 70-year history in Prairie Village
In the early 1950s, the then Kansas City, Missouri-based Central Bible Church decided to open a new space, and 40 families volunteered to leave the original congregation and establish a new one at 7820 Mission Road.
In 1958, two years after establishing a new church and buying the property, Southwest Bible Church was officially inaugurated and dedicated.
The congregation met in the sanctuary as the Southwest Bible Church until 1998, when it was renamed to the Mission Road Bible Church.
Holland became the senior pastor in 2011, which he said has “been a perfect fit” for the past 15 years.
“It’s the people, the people, the people,” Holland said. “They love the Lord, they love each other, they’re bent toward service, they’re unified and they love God’s word.”
The church has outgrown its space
Holland said Mission Road Bible Church has been discussing a move since at least 2018, when the church first dealt with space issues.
The congregation saw a “significant spike after” the pandemic, particularly when in-person services returned, which Holland said exacerbated the existing space problems at Mission Road Bible Church.
Holland said he credits the increase in attendance to the simplicity of the church’s services and practices.
“We had to cancel Sunday school three-and-a-half years ago because we couldn’t put 30 kids in a room fire-rated for 15,” Holland said. “We outgrew it. Our parking and our Christian education just couldn’t hold the numbers.”
Holland said the church had been passively looking for a bigger space when the opportunity came for the new facility in Shawnee.
At 6601 Monticello Road, the new space is 45,000 square feet on 10 acres, Holland said, compared with the current space of 30,000 square feet on three acres.
The new space was formerly occupied by Central Seminary until 2024, when the Baptist seminary realized the space was being underutilized.
“Sentimental sadness” mixed with “excitement”
Mission Road Bible Church is hosting one final service on Sunday, Feb. 22, in its current location. There are normally two Sunday services, but Holland said two “goodbye” services didn’t make sense.
There is a “sentimental sadness” about leaving the space, Holland said, particularly for parishioners who remember baptisms and weddings and other milestone moments from the current space.
“The excitement of moving I think is bigger than that, transcends it,” Holland said.
For the final service, Holland said he will focus on gratitude for the current space and excitement for what’s to come from the new space.
Holland said the current building at 7820 Mission Road served as a facility for ministry.
Holland said “frankly, we can do that anywhere,” and that is what church leadership has been reminding parishioners during this transition.
“This is kind of strange to say, but we’re all transitional,” Holland said. “What I mean by that is, this was never gonna be our home and that will never be our home. It’s heaven.”
Next steps:
- Mission Road Bible Church is in the middle of packing up the current building, and plans to host the first service in Shawnee on March 1.
- Prairie Village is set to officially take possession of the property on April 1, at which point demolition and asbestos remediation prep will begin.
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