Located along New Cut Road in the southern stretch of Louisville, Kenwood Heights Christian Church has spent more than half a century building itself into a neighborhood congregation where the front doors stay open from Sunday morning through Wednesday night. Its motto sets the tone for everything that happens inside: Authentic Relationships, Healthy Families, Restored Neighborhoods. KHCC is a church that takes its South Louisville address seriously, pouring its energy into the people and places around the building at 5620 New Cut Road.
A Merger on the South Side
KHCC did not start from scratch in 1969. It was born when two earlier Louisville congregations, Flora Heights Christian Church and Kenwood Christian Church, came together for the first time on November 16, 1969. The merger produced a single body that took the name Kenwood Heights Christian Church and quickly outgrew its original home. A new auditorium was added in 1976, and in 1984 the church launched a weekday preschool that continues to this day.
By the mid-1990s the congregation was ready for a larger footprint. In 1997 the church purchased property on New Cut Road, and in October 2004 the first phase of a new building plan was completed. The congregation moved in, and the address 5620 New Cut Road became home. Kenwood Heights continues to reach out into its South Louisville community, spreading the word of God's love and seeking to grow His church.
Sunday Mornings: School, Worship, and the Treehouse
The weekly rhythm at KHCC begins at 9:15 AM with Sunday School for every age group, followed at 10:30 AM by the main worship service. Services feature a mix of contemporary worship songs and classic hymns given a modern twist, followed by biblical teaching from the lead minister. The whole feel of a Sunday morning is intentionally low pressure. Visitors may come a few minutes early to grab coffee or check in kids, and the dress code is whatever people already own. Jesus cares more about a person's heart than their appearance.
Children have a place of their own. Elementary-aged kids are invited into the Treehouse, a space designed to help them build their faith to look more like Jesus. Sunday School meets at 9:15 AM, and Treehouse worship continues during the 10:30 service. At the end of the first floor hall, the preschool and nursery wing is staffed during the worship hour so that the youngest children in the family can be cared for while parents are in the room. Programming is in place from birth through high school at the 10:30 hour.
For those who cannot be in the room, services are livestreamed on YouTube, and past services can be watched on demand.
Wednesday Nights and the Student Ministry
Midweek life at KHCC centers on a single gathering: Wednesday Small Groups at 6:00 PM. The Kenwood Student Ministry, which serves middle and high school students, uses this hour as a chance to hang out and learn how to practically live like Jesus. Students meet for Sunday School at 9:15 AM and join the larger worship gathering at 10:30 AM, then return on Wednesday evenings for community and conversation. The student ministry keeps an Instagram account at instagram.com/kenwoodstudents/ for updates, Spirit Week news, and weekend trip sign-ups.
The kids' ministry keeps its own calendar as well, with Vacation Bible School, summer camp, and family events filling the year alongside the regular Sunday rhythm.
What to Expect on a First Visit
KHCC has built a plan-your-visit process aimed at taking the awkwardness out of walking into a new church. A short online form connects visitors with a member of the leadership team before they arrive. On a Sunday morning, the main things to know are practical: services begin right on time at 10:30 AM, coffee is available, the dress code is casual, and children from birth through high school have a class or program ready for them. Office hours run Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 1 PM at (502) 366-3712, and a connection center is staffed before and after each service for questions.
Parking is available on site at 5620 New Cut Road.
Three Words That Shape the Church
The motto Authentic Relationships, Healthy Families, Restored Neighborhoods is more than a tagline. It describes the three relationships KHCC sees itself cultivating: with God and one another, within the household, and outward into the surrounding community. KHCC extends an invitation to be part of a story that is still being written, and the leadership team frames the congregation's work around that same outward focus.
KHCC teaches, in a series of questions and answers, that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God who died for sin and rose again, that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the final authority for faith and practice, and that every person is created in the image of God but has sinned and fallen short. Salvation comes through grace by faith in Christ, with repentance, confession, and baptism by immersion as the obedient response. The Church is the body of Christ on earth, empowered by the Holy Spirit and existing to make disciples. A formal statement of faith also affirms the historic Christian doctrines of the Trinity, the full humanity and divinity of Jesus, his bodily resurrection and ascension, and the future return of Christ to judge the living and the dead. Leadership of the local congregation is given to elders.
Beyond the Walls: GO Ministries and KCU
KHCC carries its mission statement past the New Cut Road property line through two named partners. The first is GO Ministries, a global missions organization that works alongside local leaders to make disciples, plant churches, and transform communities through medical care, sports outreach, and leadership development. The second is Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky, a Christ-centered institution where the church's own lead minister and worship and student minister were trained. KHCC is a tier-three annual Covenant Church Partner of KCU, a relationship that opens up scholarship opportunities for students from the congregation who pursue ministry training.
The church also gathers for an annual retreat at White Mills Christian Camp in White Mills, Kentucky, a family-friendly weekend of worship, devotionals, games, and shared meals that brings the whole congregation together outside its usual building.
The Ministry Staff
Three paid ministry leaders shepherd the congregation. Alex Idle has served as Lead Minister at KHCC since 2016. A 2012 graduate of Kentucky Christian University, he and his wife Lindsey have three children, Noah, Lela, and Sam. Chris Cunningham came on staff as Children's Minister in December 2019. He and his wife Jennifer, married since 1997, have five daughters, and he is a fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Kentucky Wildcats, and family game nights. Peyton Baskins, the Worship and Student Minister, joined the staff in 2022 but grew up in the church. A 2022 graduate of Kentucky Christian University, he married his wife Debby in September 2023.
Together they lead a congregation that has been meeting on New Cut Road since 2004 and gathering as one church since 1969, still working out what it means to live out three short words across a South Louisville neighborhood.