HISTORY OF KINGDOM COME
A Story of Partnership
From One Initiative to a Growing Kingdom Network
Since 2006, Kingdom Come has grown from an initiative launched by The Chapel into an expanding network of partnerships serving communities locally, regionally, nationally, and around the world.
What began as a way for The Chapel family to participate in God's mission has developed into a story of churches, ministries, organizations, and people working together to see the Gospel heard, seen, and lived out.
It Started With a Mission
Kingdom Come was launched by The Chapel in 2006 as the primary way the church family joined God on His mission—what Kingdom Come describes as Missio Dei, or "the Mission of God."
The vision was—and remains—to see every man, woman, and child have repeated opportunities to hear, see, and respond to the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
From the beginning, Kingdom Come was designed around partnership: recognizing that God's Church is made up of many parts and that we are called to work together in pursuit of one mission.
Those partnerships have taken many forms—including financial support, equipment, training, volunteers, facilities, consulting, mentoring, and other forms of collaboration.
And they have taken place across different geographic contexts—from Western New York to communities throughout the United States and around the world.
"We all are one Church with one Mission."
THE KINGDOM COME JOURNEY
… AND THE STORY CONTINUES
Kingdom Come's history isn't finished.
The needs of our communities continue to change. New churches and organizations emerge. Existing partners discover new opportunities. And God continues to open doors for His people to participate in His mission.
Today, Kingdom Come continues to build relationships and engage opportunities to serve locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.
The forms of partnership may look different from one organization to another, but the purpose remains the same: to participate together in the mission of God.
As Kingdom Come looks toward the future, we remain committed to building relationships that help people discover where God is moving and find their place in His mission. Kingdom Come's history has always been shaped by people willing to participate.
There is a place for you in the story.
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2006–2007 | In the Beginning
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2006: Kingdom Come traces back to a question Dwight Smith, a missiologist, asked Jerry Gillis: "What does God want?" The answer became the mission: every man, woman and child having repeated opportunities to hear and see the gospel.
Fall 2006: Kingdom Come launched as a new initiative of The Chapel after a Kingdom Come message series in September and October.
Early 2007: The Chapel evaluated and prioritized its partnership opportunities, set up a partnership survey and matrix, and re-evaluated its entire roster of missions support.
April 8, 2007 (Easter Sunday): The Chapel at Elmwood, now Renovation Church, officially launched.
2007: The first annual Kingdom Come Weekend and the first partner booklet highlighted 31 partners. That booklet has since grown into On Mission magazine. -
2008–2009 | Building Partnerships
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March 3, 2008: Steamtown Church launched as a new church plant in Scranton, PA. It began as a youth ministry.
2008: The Chapel's first clean water well project in Sierra Leone came out of the Advent Conspiracy Christmas campaign. It led to further partnerships and the Sierra Leone Alliance the following year.
2008: Missio Church was planted in Syracuse, NY. It later partnered with Saturation Church Planting to help churches in Cuba, Ukraine, India, East Asia and Italy.
November 2008: Restoration Church gathered for the first time at The Park School in Amherst, NY.
2009: Hope Rising Together (Let Them LOL) began. Within six weeks it had raised enough to drill its first well in Sierra Leone, and it has since drilled 140.
2009: ABWE-GAP SE Asia produced The Ancient Path, a tract written to answer objections to the gospel in that region. It has been translated into seven Southeast Asian languages, with more than 650,000 copies printed and distributed.
August 30, 2009: NorthGate Christian Community launched with about 250 people at the AMC Theater in Amherst, NY. -
2010–2011 | Growing Locally & Globally
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January 2010: After the devastating earthquake near Port-au-Prince, a mutual friend connected Mission of Hope and The Chapel. Their shared vision of advancing God's Kingdom through the local church started a partnership in Haiti and later the Dominican Republic.
April 2010: The Chapel at Lockport launched as a video-venue campus at The Palace Theatre, making The Chapel one church in multiple locations.
2010: HBI Global Partners opened Children at Risk Drop-in Centers and child development centers in poor villages and slums in India.
November 2010: Church and organization leaders gathered to begin the Dominican Republic Alliance with SCORE International.
April 2011: Circle "C" Ranch passed leadership from its founder of 43 years to his son, Wayne.
2011: The Apex was built and opened for The Chapel's youth and the local community.
2011: The Rock Community Church in Garfield Heights, Ohio, began a summer kids' camp with free lunch and Bible teaching for K–5 children.
2011: Responders On A Mission International (ROAM) launched with an international focus, then grew to reach first responders in the U.S. -
2012–2013 | Expanding the Network
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2012: Christ Together began when churches representing 17 cities gathered to work on the re-evangelization of North America. It has since envisioned 111 cities.
2012: Renovation Church became a fully autonomous local church and a strategic partner of The Chapel.
December 2012: The first class of Renovation University (Reno U) graduated from the two-year program.
2012–2013: The Renovation Network and Christ Together merged under the Christ Together name. The Church of WNY gathered at the First Niagara Center for Good Friday Together!
About 2012: Every Child, a foster care and adoption ministry made up of churches across WNY, was established.
2013: Presidir.net partnered with KC in a return to Central America, where The Chapel had ministered twenty years earlier.
2013: Buffalo City Mission launched the DREAM Transitional Housing Program, a 16-step process toward self-sufficiency.
2013: The Chapel took its first mission trip to Titayen, Haiti, with Mission of Hope. It made two to three trips a year until COVID. -
2014–2015 | Responding Through Partnership
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2014: The Chapel formed an anchor partnership with Mission of Hope Haiti to serve the Bercy community.
2014: EduNations committed to building a school in Gbenikoro, Sierra Leone.
2014: The Isaiah 61 Project finished its first home rehabilitation project in Niagara Falls.
2014–2015: The Chapel at Cheektowaga launched at the Regal Cinemas in the Walden Galleria Mall. The Chapel at Lockport moved to its permanent home at 25 Walnut Street.
April 2015: Responders on a Mission (formerly Brothers Without Borders) sent a donated fire engine to a fire company in the Dominican Republic through the U.S. Air Force.
2015: Jericho Road Community Health Center opened a clinic in Kono District, Sierra Leone.
September 2015: Hope Rising Academy opened, serving 300 children through the "Let Them LOL" partnership.
2015: True Happiness Ministries (Pioneer Triad) reported a milestone in Central Asia.
2015–2016: Saving Grace Ministries partnered with the Buffalo Sabres Foundation and True Community Development Corporation on Patriot Heights, an affordable housing project for veterans and their families. -
2016–2017 | Serving in Crisis
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January 2016: Missio Church in Syracuse welcomed a pastor from Cuba to reach the city's highest-Latino neighborhood.
2016: Pastor Daryl Largis, whose impact still shapes Kingdom Come partnerships, went home to be with Jesus.
July 2015–June 2016: Good News Jail & Prison Ministry saw 142 inmates come to Christ at the Niagara County Jail in Lockport.
August 2–6, 2016: The Apex hosted the first Apex Sports Camp with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
2016: Saturation Church Planting launched a new church expression in Bangkok, Thailand, with a vision to reach all 109 sub-districts of Bangkok and the 76 provinces of Thailand, along with key cities across Asia by 2035.
About 1986 (SCP): The idea that became the Global Fellowship took shape on a journey from India to Japan with Dwight Smith and Bobby Gupta. They asked how the church can best complete the task Jesus gave it.
1996 (SCP): Saturation Church Planting began with a few leaders and three convictions: recovering biblical principles, committing to indigenous church leadership, and establishing a coaching approach.
2016–2017: Kingdom Come helped iHope Church replace its roof and make other repairs. iHope also reached unchurched families through its Easter Egg Hunt, Kids Carnival and Church in the Park.
2016–2017: Renewed Hope launched to care for wounded and fallen ministers.
2017: One Church received a Church Planting Initiative (CPI) grant to launch its Medina campus.
2017: 716 Ministries created Three Stories Coffee, a direct-trade, not-for-profit coffee company.
About 2017: The Chapel shared its Five-Year Vision with the congregation, built on three strategies: Expand, Partner and Release.
2017: After Hurricane Harvey, The Chapel responded with the Houston Church Planting Network and Eight Days of Hope. -
2018–2019 | Mobilizing Churches & Communities
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2018: Sheridan Parkside received a CPI grant.
August 2018: Patch Our Planet began a three-month U.S. tour and helped more than 100 churches develop orphan care strategies.
2018–2019: The Chapel at Cheektowaga held its first service in its newly renovated permanent building.
2018–2019: CompassCare Buffalo was founded to serve women facing crisis pregnancies.
2018–2019: The first Eight Days of Hope–Buffalo Project served hundreds of families in the University District through home repair. 2019: That first Eight Days of Hope–Buffalo outreach repaired homes for more than 350 families with about 1,500 volunteers. EDOH also launched its Safe House Construction Ministry to build and remodel housing for human trafficking survivors.
2019: Pastor Jerry Gillis invited Alex Belmar of Christ Together/Presidir to Spain. About 150 pastors from several denominations in Barcelona have since come together around gospel saturation.
September 2019: The Church Planting Initiative began its first nine-month church planting residency with five residents.
2019: Kingdom Come Sunday included a panel discussion on racial healing.
Christmas 2019: The Chapel at Lockport gave away 100 Christmas trees.
2019 (SCP): Saturation Church Planting entered its Global Fellowship stage, after years of taking root in dozens of churches in Ukraine, Cuba, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. Indigenous leaders began coaching their own nations and neighboring ones, and the focus moved from SCP-run training events to regional ownership. -
2020–Present | Responding Together
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2020
2020: COVID-19 created urgent needs across Western New York, and KC partners responded.
Jericho Road Community Health Center and Eight Days of Hope provided PPE and COVID tests in Buffalo.
Journey Church, Tabernacle of Praise, Prince of Peace, New Direction Christian Fellowship and Hearts for the Homeless distributed groceries.
CarePortal launched through EveryChild.
Covenant Church in Baldwinsville, NY, launched and partnered with Kingdom Come.
2020: Every ministry had to rethink its strategy during the pandemic, in the U.S., Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Jericho Road's goal was to "stay open, stay safe and stay solvent."
2020: The Armor Project, a WNY can drive by The Chapel and KC volunteers, collected tons of food to send to different ministries. It also helped Prince of Peace start its weekly Helping Hands food pantry.
2020: Eight Days of Hope handed out masks and hand sanitizer at a drive-thru at its Buffalo warehouse, then launched Feed Buffalo. Feed Buffalo delivered a week of groceries to 1,109 families in eight days, funded by $106,000 in gifts.
2020: Jericho Road ran a barrier-free community testing initiative, conducting 8,000 COVID tests over three months.
2020: Journey Church's Groceries to Seniors initiative distributed free groceries and hot meals to seniors. It later received a Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) Community Development Award.
2020: HBI Global Partners and True Happiness Ministries served migrants and street dwellers in India during lockdown.
2020 (SCP): SCP moved its training online, with 11–15 monthly Zoom events in about 20 nations.
May 2020: The Church Planting Initiative held an online graduation for its first residency class.
Summer 2020: New Story Church launched in Buffalo.
Winter 2020: Firehouse Church, a relaunch of Saving Grace Ministries' Grace Church, began streaming The Chapel's Sunday teaching and holding adult Sunday services.
2020: The Chapel at Lockport marked ten years as a campus. In August, volunteers began work days at the future Niagara Falls campus on 66th Street, joined by residents of Niagara Gospel Rescue Mission.
November 2020: ROAM raised $4,000 in six weeks to help Honduran firefighters rebuild after back-to-back hurricanes.
October 18, 2020: Kingdom Come Sunday.
October 2020: On Mission expanded into a print On Mission Review plus an online edition at thechapel.com/kingdomcome.2021
2021: The Chapel built a studio that Kingdom Come partners can use to share their stories and serve ministry partners in different capacities. Early users include Dan Trippie of Restoration Church, Eight Days of Hope, SCP, New Direction Christian Fellowship (one of the first) and Saving Grace Ministries.
2021: On Mission added a podcast series, including an episode on church planting in WNY.
June 2021: Sheridan Parkside Life Center opened its doors, after three years of work with the town and contractors. Its community church, which holds a Sunday service and community dinner, held a kick-off BBQ on June 20 and its first worship service on June 27. The grand opening was on October 10, 2021.
July 2021: Eight Days of Hope Buffalo returned to the Masten District with 1,190 volunteers, completing over $1 million of work for 202 families.
2021: Jericho Road opened a clinic in Komao, Sierra Leone, and Hope Rising completed five clean water wells for the village. The Chapel funded the well at the clinic through the Sierra Leone Alliance.
2021: Restoration Church launched an internship and residency program, in partnership with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
2021: Hearts for the Homeless dedicated the Hearts Harvest Food Pantry in Buffalo's Riverside neighborhood, welcoming neighbors to its own campus with client-choice distribution.
2021: The Chapel now owns its Lockport, Cheektowaga and Niagara Falls campus properties debt-free. God provided over $5 million for partnership efforts across the Five-Year Vision.
September 12, 2021: New Story Church celebrated its first anniversary.
October 24, 2021: Kingdom Come Sunday. That same month, each campus took on a Serve Day project. CrossPoint volunteers revitalized a courtyard at Windermere Elementary School, and CrossPoint launched a Donation Hub. The Cheektowaga campus served at Buffalo Science Charter School and has since adopted it as a place of ongoing service.
Christmas 2021: The Lockport campus gave away 75 Christmas trees at Light Up Lockport, with other churches and local law enforcement helping.
Post-COVID: After the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, The Chapel shifted its mission trips to the Dominican Republic with Mission of Hope. There have been more than 35 trips to Hispaniola, and the next is to the Jarabacoa campus.2022
February 2022: Christ Central Buffalo celebrated its fifth anniversary. Its pastor, Chris Jhu, joined the CPI Residency that year.
Early 2022: The Garden Church in Buffalo launched a Celebrate Recovery meeting. It also installed a community garden with 20 raised beds, and in two weeks produced over 400 pounds of surplus produce for neighbors.
March 7, 2022: 716 Ministries opened Three Stories Coffee and Café at 1021 Broadway in Buffalo's Broadway-Fillmore district. The café hires people through 716's workforce development programs, and from October it became a hands-on training site for the customer service program.
April 30, 2022: The Potter's Hands held Donation Day with more than 50 volunteers and 33 donation pickups. The ministry had helped 134 families in 2021.
Easter 2022: One Church launched a campus in North Tonawanda. The Chapel's Lockport campus delivered 265 care packages to four local elder care facilities.
May 14, 2022: After the mass shooting at the Tops Market on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, New Story Church collected 53 bags of groceries for Operation Hope. Journey Church's Groceries to Seniors ministry, which has raised over $100,000 since the pandemic began, supported seniors near the store until it reopened.
June 8, 2022: Six church planters graduated from the second CPI Residency class, four residents and two auditors. The ceremony was at Three Stories Coffee.
August 2022: The CrossPoint campus partnered with the Sweet Home School District on a Pop-Up Clothing Pantry at the new Amherst Community Center.
September 2022: CrossPoint's second Serve Day helped launch that Community Center, assisted local seniors, cleaned up the courtyard at Heim Middle School, and ended with a neighborhood cookout. That same month, One Church's Medina campus, which began with a 2017 CPI grant, moved into a building it purchased in the center of town, and One Church now meets in three locations.
2022: New Story Church, two years after its launch, reported more than 30 people coming to Christ, 90 people on its serve team and more than 100 in Story Groups.
2022: Sheridan Parkside Life Center's first full year included free laundry, a clothing pantry, a healthy cooking kitchen, a Sunday service with a community dinner, and its first outreach to the Collins Correctional Facility.
2022: Hearts for the Homeless announced Hearts Food Pantry Express, a bus that takes its client-choice food pantry to two communities outside Buffalo each week.
2022: Every Child expanded its work in Chautauqua County and began working alongside the Niagara County Department of Social Services.
2022: HBI's Drop In Center in West Bengal, which serves children in a red-light area, reported 250 children attending, with over 70% now enrolled in school. Malini Asirvatham was named Executive Vice President of HBI.
2022: The Chapel Cheektowaga resumed sending teams to Mission of Hope in Santiago, Dominican Republic, while waiting to resume Haiti trips.
2022: The Chapel concluded a five-year focus on its vision to expand, partner and release. It is one church in four locations (Getzville, Lockport, Cheektowaga and Niagara Falls), and it is close to retiring its remaining debt.
2022: The issue described KC's partners through four roles: Community Engager, Seed Planter, Disciple Maker and Gospel Proclaimer.
October 23, 2022: Kingdom Come Sunday.2023-2024
2023 (SCP): SCP launched a podcast that has grown to 60 episodes.
KC Community Development (KCCD) was newly established as a nonprofit focused on community development.
KCCD identified four primary areas of focus: housing, education, healthcare, and workforce development.
KCCD established a vision centered on rebuilding and restoring communities through collaboration among churches, businesses, nonprofits, and government.
Lock City Center launched in Lockport.
The team worked throughout the year to renovate the former community landmark.
Multiple community meetings were held to identify needs and potential uses for the space.
Phase 1, including the front half of the building, was completed and ready for use.
The Niagara Falls Campus experienced significant growth, creating additional opportunities for community connection and partnership.
Organizations and community partners were using space at the Niagara Falls Campus to serve people in the surrounding community.2025
KCCD moved forward significantly in 2025, developing a number of strong collaborative relationships.
KCCD developed a strategy for a community wellness hub, bringing together:
Housing
Healthcare
Education
Healthy food access
Fitness
KCCD coordinated community listening tours in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, engaging community leaders and gathering their input to help guide future work.
KCCD received support from The Chapel, private foundations, and government grants, allowing the organization to continue developing its community-development initiatives.
KCCD developed new communication tools, including a website and brochure, to better explain its mission and the work it was pursuing.
The 2025 magazine reflects a shift toward more intentional community development and collaboration, with KCCD working to build relationships and develop strategies based on direct community input.2026
2026: Kingdom Come marked 20 years. The anniversary issue, published October 2026, reports $25 million in gifts invested, 80+ countries reached and 104 ministries partnered with.
2026: The Chapel raised over $40,000 to support three church plants in Australia. They are Society Church in Melbourne (Josh and Tayla Bull), a plant in Perth (Zac and Clare Gageler) and one in Sydney (Adrian and Jess Tam).
2026: KC renewed its connection with Orchard Group, which helped plant Village Church in Buffalo and Renaissance Church in Harlem, to support church planters in influential cities worldwide.
2026: Kingdom Come launched KingdomComeWNY.com, with stories, a full partner directory and ways to give, serve and pray.
2026: Campus updates:
Lockport: Chapel Students tripled in size, new men's and women's grow groups began, and the Lock City Center opened its doors to community partners.
Niagara Falls: The campus is preparing to open its new Worship Center this year.
Cheektowaga: The campus is hosting community collaboratives, including after-school programs and a workforce development consortium.
2026 (SCP): Through the SCP partnership, region leaders have been identified in North America, Central/South America, Africa, Eurasia, South Asia and South East Asia. KC is praying for leaders in Europe, the Middle East and Oceania.
Today (SCP): Churches in more than 80 nations take part in SCP's Global Fellowship. SCP is working to establish leadership teams in all 10 global regions, equip indigenous leaders to coach and multiply "Antioch" churches, expand translation of its resources, and reach under-evangelized areas.