Ask Senior Pastor of Parkway Church, Mike Hurt to describe what authentic biblical community is for the Christ follower, and he won’t hesitate.

“Authentic biblical community is where we do life and who we do it with,” he says. “Every believer needs a group or a team that they are serving and growing with; a place where they can express their gifts and be encouraged to keep walking with Jesus.”

Since Pastor Mike joined the staff in 2008, he has been highly regarded as a leading thinker and trainer in small group ministry. Not only is he passionate about finding new ways to reach people who don’t know Christ, he is equally committed to helping them get connected into authentic biblical community.

With weekly attendance averaging 2,000 members, everything at Parkway is done with purpose in mind. Purpose Driven principles affect their formation and strategy, right down to their campus locations and building types. While all campuses share a common DNA, each facility has distinctive characteristics to reach the surrounding community.

Pastor Mike explains, “We will open more campuses as God opens doors for them to launch. Since most of the towns surrounding Victoria are less than 5,000 in population, we’ll scale expectations and ministries accordingly.”

Parkway has several teams that are intentionally organized to focus on each of the five purposes of the church, as well as on specific life-stages. Their ultimate goal is to see people build their lives to honor God. In an effort to facilitate this, Parkway creates experiences and opportunities for people to take their next steps to connect, grow, serve, go, and worship.

One of the core values of Parkway is family, which drives the way Pastor Mike leads at Parkway. He also teaches messages that are challenging, yet relatable, to be lived out during the week.

“We hope people walk away knowing that with Jesus, everything changes,” Pastor Mike says, “and that God can build or rebuild lives to honor him.”

Last year, Pastor Mike spearheaded the Jesus Project in his community. Over the course of one month, the goal was to make Jesus unavoidable in the crossroads area, by partnering with neighboring churches to preach the Gospel. As their first attempt to unify churches in the area, their efforts resulted in 20 local congregations committing to be part of the Jesus Project.

“God is stretching and growing us as a multi-site church,” he says. “It’s a great to be used by God.”

To learn more about becoming a Purpose Driven Church, visit pdchurch.flywheelstaging.com/start.