by Marianne Reed

Heartbroken, Suzanne Davis drove through the streets and felt devastation so deep it took her breath away. She was searching for a place to hold the funeral of her 17-year-old son, Cash, who had died in a tragic car accident the day before. The Davis family was not affiliated with any church, but Suzanne knew the funeral home could not accommodate the number of people who would attend Cash’s funeral. She and a friend drove in search of a larger venue, not even knowing where to begin. Her friend suggested a church her brother had recently attended. The size and location seemed to fit their needs, so they pulled into the parking lot of Faithbridge Church.

Normally the church would be locked up and quiet on a Saturday. But on this particular Saturday, a special training session had been called for the church’s “Stephen Ministers”… Faithbridgers who felt called to help others through difficult and sometimes tragic seasons of their life.

She walked into the quiet building not knowing what to expect. “They probably won’t be able to help me,” Suzanne thought. “Who am I? I’m nobody.” The first person she saw, walking alone in the large hallway, was the leader of the Stephen Ministry team on his way to the meeting. She began to share her story and soon found herself in the center of their meeting place. They encircled her and one-by-one began to pray with her.

The church’s Care Pastor was called at home, where he confirmed that Faithbridge would help Suzanne in every way possible. “From that moment on,” Davis said, “they took me under their wing and nothing was left undone. The support was overwhelming–everything you could possibly think of was taken care of by the members. I couldn’t believe it.”

Suzanne had no way of knowing she was experiencing the culmination of a vision that was born in March of 1998 when Pastor Werlein took a trip to Seoul, South Korea. It was there that he felt challenged to examine his own prayer life.

One pivotal night, he made a personal commitment to “become a pastor, husband, father, and friend who prays so fervently and deliberately that others know me for, and associate me with, my prayer life.” Moments after declaring his pledge, Ken felt the distinct impression of the Lord saying, “I am going to call you to start a new work when you get home.”

The first night upon his return home, he received a phone call from his District Superintendent inviting him to begin a new church.

From this beginning, Pastor Ken established “Fervent Prayer” as the foundation and the chief core value of the new church and recruited 40 prayer partners from all over the country to pray for him and his future congregation each day for one year.

The first of many “Come and See” information meetings was held that summer, where people were invited to explore the possibility of helping to start a new church. A core group soon formed and the seven-member team began visiting other churches in the Houston area and meeting each week to create the heart of the new church together; sharing ideas, challenges and prayers. Thus began the co-creative style of leadership that has contributed to what Faithbridge is today – an authentic community of believers where each person feels a sense of ownership in and deep connection to the church, and a personal stake in its reputation.

Ask any member of Faithbridge what the church is all about and you will most likely hear its mission statement, “To make more and stronger disciples of Jesus Christ by being a bridge of faith to people every day.” Many can tell you about the six strongly-held core values of the church: Fervent prayer, ministry excellence, intentional loyalty, authentic leadership, generational relevance, and life-changing community.


Some may even share a portion of the church’s vision statement: We envision a church that shines brightly with the transforming light of Jesus Christ into a world of darkness, where non-churched, once-churched, and badly-churched people of Northwest Houston find their lifeless souls resurrected to abundant life in Christ.

All new members are brought into the story of Faithbridge through the church’s membership procedure. Each step in the process is designed to convey a strong emphasis on commitment, both to Jesus Christ and to Faithbridge, providing another component in developing a unified congregation of believers.

The mission, strategy, core values and vision of the church are fully outlined and illustrated at an introductory session called “Faithbridge 101.” Pastor Werlein teaches the class during which he underscores the value of life-changing community, ideally demonstrated by sharing life together with honesty, selflessness, and transparency.

Fellowship and service are seen as fundamental components of accomplishing the mission of the church. Faithbridge calls it “practicing the rhythm of worship plus two,” which simply means that, in addition to joining together in Sunday worship, each person is connected with two types of small groups:

An authentic group of people to grow with spiritually… a Grow Group
A team with which to serve others through ministry… a Serve Team

In these groups, each person learns to live out the mission of Faithbridge or as Werlein puts it, “To put shoe leather on their faith.” Small groups comprise the central focus of the church, reinforcing its main objective to connect and tie people together both to the church and to each other. These groups of volunteers, or unpaid servants, are responsible for everything from lawn maintenance to building stewardship, from hospitality to prayer ministry.

Members of these groups are encouraged to share the stories of their own journey and struggles. In this way, storytelling has emerged as part of the very core of Faithbridge, providing real and authentic situations to experience by example. A favorite Faithbridge tradition is the retelling of an event that occurred while the church was still meeting in a local intermediate school.

Sixty-five acres had just become available for purchase and, true to its focus on fervent prayer, Faithbridge held a series of seven prayer walks on the property before any decision was to be made about acquiring the land. As a group of Faithbridgers roamed the not-yet-purchased parcel of property while praying, a stranger approached one of the members and asked to speak to the person in charge of the gathering.

The man introduced himself to Pastor Werlein as a local business owner. He said he had a church home of his own and wanted nothing other than the chance to convey a message God had asked him to impart while jogging by on the adjacent road. He said, “I don’t know who you are, or what you are doing here, but as I ran by this property, the Lord told me to find who was in charge here and tell him that this was the spot where a mighty church would be built. You will confront some hurdles and challenges, but I’ll take care of those, and ultimately many people will come to worship here.”

The church went on to purchase the property, breaking ground on a 55,000 square foot building and quickly doubling its attendance. And so it was, from that day forward, the story of “The Jogger” became a permanent part of the Faithbridge story.

Throughout all the different chapters and challenges in the story of Faithbridge, the main ideas have remained constant. The mission, strategy, core values and vision of the church will never change. Faithbridge will always strive to be an externally focused church working to reach others for Jesus Christ, comprised of real people with real stories and real lives lived with authenticity.

Just ask Suzanne Davis and she will tell you about the day the transforming light of Jesus led her directly to the midst of a gathering of people uniquely qualified to minister to her at the darkest point of her life. She will tell you about the day she experienced Christ for the first time, and she will tell you about the people who showed her how to live and breathe the gospel of Jesus Christ. She will also tell you about the day she and her daughter were baptized together and became members of Faithbridge.