Three Creeks Church
Launched - Feb 2018 | Location - Gahanna, Ohio | Planter - Joel Trainer | Website - threecreekschurch.com
Residency
I never wanted to be a pastor. I didn’t go to college for it. I never went to seminary. It wasn’t my dream. In fact, I was living my dream as a summer camp director for close to a decade, after graduating from Indiana Wesleyan University.
But God was very kind to me in 2015, when he shook up my entire life and clearly called my wife and I to move to greater Columbus and start a new church. It took me over a year to warm up to it, but I couldn’t shake the calling God had put in my heart. In 2016, my wife and I moved to Hilliard, and I joined Movement Church’s staff as their first ever Church Planting Resident.
I had a lot to learn, and Movement generously gave me their time, people, training, and finances to move across Columbus to Gahanna. We started our Launch Team Meetings in the fall of 2017 with 50 people and almost $100,000 to help start our church.
I can’t recommend a one-year residency highly enough. It formed me and prepared me so well. We’ve never felt like we’ve been alone or on our own. The support and friendship of this network has made the planting years so much fun!
Current Church Status
We launched our public services in Gahanna in February 2018. 239 people showed up at our first service, and over the next few years, we watched people put their faith in Jesus, be baptized, and take significant steps of faith. We set out to be a church that would be missed in our community if we ceased to exist, and through the favor of God, we’ve truly been able to make a tremendous difference in our community.
In 2021, after a year-long hiatus as an “online church” due to COVID-19, we moved from the elementary school we started in and into a middle school right in the heart of our city. We’ve grown steadily for a few years, and have had the chance to participate in sending Contrast Church in Grandview in 2020 and Bright City Church to Sunbury in 2024.
We save 5% of every dollar that’s given to our church because we believe in starting new churches, and that it’s the best way to reached de-churched and unchurched people in America. We’re saving money, training people, and talking about church planting a lot at our services. When God brings the right person to us, we’re ready to hire a resident and start the process of starting a new church.
