Our Story

Origins : Heartland k.10

Long before Heartland k-10 Lawrence was a church, a group of KU students formed a ministry they called 'College Community' that met weekly on campus. Over time, this small band of students developed a heart that broke with a passion to reach their friends who were spiritually disconnected, and over a two-year span, College Community slowly but surely began to grow.

In the Spring of 2003 a new church was planted by a team of folks led by Kevin Cloud and Tim Suttle called Heatland.k10 Church focused on the Olathe, DeSoto, and Lawrence communities off of k10 highway. The College Community group, excited to have a nearby church home, jumped on board with this new church plant, as did a handful of couples and families from the Lawrence community.

As time went on, Kevin, the College Community students, and the families k10 highway was too far to drive for church for from Lawrence began to realize there was a problem: a 20-minute drive down KU students and people from the Lawrence community, and it was especially too far for those who were spiritually disconnected. So they began to meet weekly to plan, dream, pray, and to ask a very exciting and dangerous question: "If our friends, who we so desperately want to be a part of a church like ours, won't come to Heartland.k10, what if we took Heartland.k10 to them... in Lawrence?"

And ultimately, that's just what we did. After 6 months of planning and prayer, they launched Heartland.k10 Lawrence in August of 2004, meeting in Smith Hall on the KU campus. Everyone was surprised by the immediate success as they saw a large crowd of folks gather who seemed to sincerely enjoy the worship, thought-provoking messages, creative and artistic media elements, and the friendly and relaxed atmosphere where they could 'just be themselves.' It seemed that God was up to something big, that they were truly meeting a unique niche in the spiritual community in Lawrence, and then, out of the blue, something extremely troubling happened.

With lots of momentum and excitement, and at a time when they'd just conquered the first big hill and established their church, their leader resigned. So, Kevin and the leadership team were left stranded, confused as to why God had just gotten this thing off the ground, only to leave it now hanging in the balance.

What no one knew, however, was that God was orchestrating something so amazing and beautiful, that no one could have predicted it. Less than 30 days prior to the k10 Lawrence launch, a young pastor named Seth Davidson stepped down from the church he had been serving at for the past five years in Liberty, Missouri. He didn't know where God was leading him, he just knew that God was telling him it was "time to go," and so he left his church, his job, and his home seeking God's next steps for his life.

Try to imagine his surprise when, less than a month later, he got a call from his friend Kevin Cloud asking to meet for lunch. "How about tomorrow?" Kevin asked. Seth agreed, and from that conversation on, it was obvious to Kevin and to k10 Lawrence, that we had found just the right person to lead the new church community.

Seth began on January 1st, 2005, and the 9 college students on the Leadership Team quickly became a group of 20-23 Core individuals composed of both college students and young married couples. Although there was a large crowd gathering each Sunday night, a tight-knit community had yet to form, and this Core group became the solid foundation for our church. The Spring of 2005 was an exciting time as the Core Team continued to form, house groups began, the connect ministries got off the ground, and then, to cap off the whole year, we had a Baptism service at Potter's Lake where 4 members of the community made public expressions of their faith.

Over the next year some very exciting milestones where reached. At the end of a successful Fall of ministry, Heartland k.10-Lawrence changed locations from the Kansas Union to the Lawrence Arts Center in an attempt to better achieve our mission by reaching a broader slice of the Lawrence Community. During the following Winter and Spring the numbers grew and many more families and post-college folks were added to our Core Team. After months of deliberate thought and prayer, we decided that God was calling us to do something new: He was calling us to be sent out on our own as an autonomous Church plant targeting the Lawrence Community. Seth, Kevin, and the leadership team worked together to come up with a 3-year, 3-phase plan to launch our Church.

Vintage Church

Since this time other exciting things have happened. 7 more students were Baptized in April of 2006, more Core members were added making a total of 50 folks, and we changed the name of our church to "Vintage Church" because it better speaks of who we are and who God is calling us to be as a Church Community. We had our first ever Christmas Eve service with a full crowd live at Liberty Hall, and we officially launched out from Heartland.k10 on Easter Sunday, April 8th, 2007. Shortly thereafter we baptized 8 people at our 3rd Baptism service, and since then it has been obvious that God is well on His way to establishing our new Church. The rest is a history that we are writing each and every day as Christ works in and through us to build and expand His Kingdom in Lawrence.