About

Why Weekday Impact?

My name is Chris, and like you, I’m surrounded by significant needs within my community that I have often felt powerless to address. They seem too weighty for one person to even make a dent.

But what if we could band together as people of faith, learn from others who have successfully launched needs-based ministries, and apply them in our own communities?

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Weekday was born out of a simple conversation I had during a walk with my pastor.

As we talked about starting a new, significant ministry in our church that required a sizeable investment, he suggested we fly to California to observe a similar project undertaken by another church.

“Fly to California?” I asked. “Isn’t there a website that documents how other U.S. churches have launched similar ministries—detailing their budgets, challenges, successes, failures, and lessons learned?” Aren’t there people we can contact to find out what we need to get started, what worked, and what didn’t?

To our surprise, no such a resource existed.

Faith Fuels Action

Since the pandemic, many churches are coming to grips with how they may be underutilizing their facilities and their people. They use their buildings for weekend services and mid-week prayer meetings or youth gatherings—but often not much else. They are now awakening to their potential for gospel impact by providing space for community sports events, hosting weekly addiction recovery programs, offering training space to local police and fire departments, and any other community causes their facilities can support.
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In addition, many church attendees have a passion for serving the church in ways other than volunteering to teach kids’ Sunday School, greet visitors, or take the offering. They want to be more hands-on in meeting tangible needs within their communities—like counseling those going through mental health crises, helping immigrant populations struggling to establish themselves, or solving food scarcity issues—to demonstrate the care and compassion of Christ.

I have been attending church for most of my adult life. And even though I acknowledge the importance of “within-the-building” ministries, I’ve never felt drawn to serve in these areas. My church involvement was basically limited to showing up, engaging in the worship and preaching, and giving to the church. I would often find myself looking out the window wondering about the people on the outside—their lives, their challenges, their struggles.

If what they say about church ministry participation is true—that 20 percent of churchgoers do 80 percent of ministry—then what about the other 80 percent of churchgoers? Could the thought of caring for the marginalized and suffering people in their communities ignite a fresh passion for their church’s outward-focused ministries?

Through my own church experience and in talking to several pastors, it’s become clear that we are losing entire generations of churchgoers. The number of college students and young adults attending churches has dropped off dramatically in recent years. Fewer and fewer young people and families are finding ways to engage in the traditional ministries of the church. Yet, this is a generation that cares deeply about compassion and justice and would likely jump at any opportunity the church would offer to extend tangible help and care to the marginalized and afflicted people around them.

These realizations sparked an idea in me. I began to notice the multitude of unique, effective, and vibrant ministries that churches were initiating, often in isolation, each reinventing the wheel without a blueprint to guide them.

As I stepped into semi-retirement, I saw an opportunity to devote my efforts to addressing this gap with an enduring mission to equip local churches to make a tangible impact in their cities from Monday to Friday. Our heart lies in inspiring individuals and churches to serve “the least of these” in their communities without the burden of starting from scratch every time.

Our Vision

Our vision is to foster relationships where like-minded individuals, churches, and community organizations can connect, exchange ideas, celebrate successes, and support each other through the challenges as they strive to bring the gospel into the neediest corners of their communities.

We fulfill this vision through 5 key church/community partnership approaches:

  1. We help identify key unmet needs within local communities.
  2. We uncover churches and other ministries or community organizations that are meeting these needs.
  3. We help other churches and organizations ignite ministry initiatives to meet the unmet needs in their communities.
  4. We connect people with opportunities to volunteer in these church/community-based ministries.
  5. We network with like-minded individuals, churches, and organizations throughout the U.S. that have successfully launched and sustained specific needs-based ministries within their communities—and are eager to help your church launch yours!

Join Our Community

If you are part of or know of a ministry that aligns with our mission, we invite you to share your story with us. Better yet, we encourage you to document your journey in ministry—interview leaders, outline strategies, share the lessons you’ve learned—and contribute to a collective wisdom that can empower churches worldwide.

Together, we can make sure that no church has to launch its outreach from scratch again.

Connect with us