Meadow Creek Church sits on Bunker Lake Boulevard in Andover, a growing northern suburb in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, where it has been a fixture of local Christian life since August of 1969. The congregation describes itself as non-denominational, evangelical, and independent, and it exists, in its own words, to "treasure and proclaim God's infinite worth in gospel communities among all peoples of the earth through Jesus Christ." On Sunday mornings families gather for Sunday School at nine and a worship service at ten-fifteen, on Wednesday evenings the church meets again for prayer and teaching, and through the week small Gospel Community Groups meet in homes across the area for shared meals, sermon discussion, and prayer.
From Meadow Creek Baptist to Meadow Creek Church
The congregation was officially organized in August 1969 under the name Meadow Creek Baptist Church. Through the late 1980s the name changed, and the church has continued simply as Meadow Creek Church. Just as the city of Andover has grown and changed over the decades, so the body has grown and changed, but the conviction behind the church has not. The members still speak of wanting to "transform lives, transform our community and to transform our world," and they describe their purpose as equipping every generation to know and follow Christ, passing on the legacy of faith and the mantle of leadership to the next generation through ministries to children and students.
Across its history Meadow Creek has been marked by expository preaching through whole books of the Bible. Recent series include Acts, Galatians, Mark, 1 John, Ephesians, Nehemiah, Ezra, and a family ministry series on Titus, Deuteronomy, and Ephesians. The church has more than three decades of sermons archived on its Vimeo channel.
What We Believe
Meadow Creek's statement of faith sets out thirteen articles that begin with the Bible as the fully inspired, inerrant Word of God and end with the assurance that nothing can separate true believers from the love of God. The church confesses one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection. It affirms the historical Christian doctrines of Jesus Christ: virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, bodily resurrection, ascension, perpetual intercession, and personal visible return. It teaches that all people are sinners by nature and choice, and that those who repent and trust in Christ are regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
The statement treats the church as the living body of which Christ is the head, and the local church as a company of professing believers gathered for worship, work, and fellowship. Two ordinances are committed to the local church: baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, both to be observed until the return of Christ. The church holds to belief in the rapture of the saints, the resurrection of the body, the Judgment Seat of Christ for believers, the Great White Throne judgment for the unbelieving dead, and the eternal joy of the righteous together with the endless suffering of the wicked. Christian conduct is summed up as living for the glory of God, being a faithful steward of possessions, and growing into the full stature of maturity in Christ. The statement also affirms religious liberty and the historic Baptist principle of the separation of church and state.
Members observe the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, as a day of praise, worship, and stewardship, and believers are called to faithful assembling together on that day.
A Sunday in Andover
Sunday mornings begin at 9:00 a.m. with Sunday School and Core Classes on the school side of the building, known as the LCA. Children move through the Truth:78 curriculum, a vision-oriented ministry whose aim is that the next generations may know, honor, and treasure God, setting their hope in Christ alone. Youth in grades 10 through 12 join the adults to work through their current study in Romans. Featured adult Core Classes have included Romans: The Greatest Letter and a worldview class titled Building a Christian Worldview: Christ for All of Life. A nursery for infants through age three is provided in Kid's Creek.
The Sunday Worship Gathering begins at 10:15 a.m. in the Worship Center. The body gathers to speak, sing, listen, pray, preach, and fellowship together in the Word and in the Spirit. Activities to engage younger children are provided at The Hub during the service. Music is led by the church's music ministry, drawing on psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and aims to let the word of Christ dwell richly in the congregation.
The Midweek Fellowship gathers on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Worship Center and on the school side. Prayer, song, and time in the Word focus on the excellences of God's being, beholding the Triune God who was, is, and is to come. The gathering has included a youth track for grades 6 through 12 working through the Psalms, with singing and small-group application, and a Children's Choir program for grades K through 5.
Gospel Community Groups meet in homes on the first and third weeks of every month. Members share a meal and then encourage one another in the faith through discussion of the previous Sunday's sermon, fellowship, and prayer.
Pastors and Deacons
Meadow Creek is led by a team of five pastors who together form the elder body. Gil McConnell, Joshua Chambers, and Mike Hutton serve as vocational elders; Scott Colestock and Paul Sawatsky serve as non-vocational elders. Gil McConnell came to Meadow Creek in 2019 from fourteen years of children's and family discipleship ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mounds View, with earlier studies at Bethlehem College and Seminary and Southern Seminary. Joshua Chambers joined the staff as a vocational elder in 2022 after years with a missions organization in the Minneapolis area and studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mike Hutton and his family came to Meadow Creek in 2020; he serves by day as an Instructional Designer at U.S. Bank and brings training from Moody and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Scott Colestock and his wife Tracy have been attending since 2020; he runs a software services company. Paul Sawatsky, the child of church-planting missionaries to Brazil, and his wife Sylvia have attended since 2018 and run a family travel agency that helps missionaries and church workers traveling overseas.
A team of deacons and deaconesses serves the church in practical ways. Jim Hanson serves as Deacon of Ordinances and Set Up, Eric Ness as Deacon of Finance, Jody Cullen as Deacon of Safety, Mike Johnson and Rich Price as Deacons of Building and Grounds, with Jim Kauffmann rounding out the deacons and Jolene Aho, Deb Brueske, Pam Mulvihill, and Julie Ness serving on the Deaconess Team. Cody Johnson serves as Ministry Assistant and Office Administrator, keeping the office running from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Children's Ministry
The children's ministry describes itself as discipleship-focused, with the goal of instilling a love and passion for God and his teaching as children see the example of adults around them. Because parents and guardians have the heaviest daily influence, the ministry seeks to come alongside them with a genuine, biblical framework that continues throughout the week in the home. Sunday School classes use the Truth:78 curriculum, which aims to train and instruct the mind, engage the heart, and influence the will through proclaiming the whole counsel of God. Children's Choir for grades K through 5 exists to help children set a course of lifelong treasuring and proclaiming of God's worth through song, partnering with parents to disciple children in worship and music and developing their singing voices for use in corporate worship.
A summer Sunday school combines all ages in the Lower Gym at 9:00 a.m., and in recent summers the curriculum has worked through the parables of Jesus. Children's ministry resumes its full fall program each September.
Students
The student ministry serves youth in grades 6 through 12. Sunday School classes meet during the school year and use the same Truth:78 curriculum as the children's classes, with the same goal of vision-oriented discipleship. During the Midweek Gatherings on second and fourth Wednesdays, students work through the book of Psalms, a theologically rich book that covers every situation and every emotion. The studies aim to help them know more of God, learn ways of relating to him, and see how each Psalm points forward to Christ, alongside shared singing and small-group application.
A Youth Retreat to Woodlake Camp in Wisconsin is a regular rhythm for the student body, and the ministry also connects with the broader body through Gospel Community Groups and special services such as the Good Friday narrative service and the annual Sanctity of Life Sunday.
Adults and Women's Discipleship
Adult Core Classes run in the fall, winter, and spring, with summer classes consolidated into a combined Sunday school in the Lower Gym. Recent adult offerings have included a study of Romans and a worldview class titled Building a Christian Worldview: Christ for All of Life. A Vision for Family Ministry, a series that moved through Titus, Deuteronomy, and Ephesians, has shaped recent preaching and teaching.
The Women's T2D ministry, named after the Titus 2 discipleship pattern of older women training younger women, provides mentoring groups that meet to grow in truth by sharing life together. These groups pursue intergenerational Christian community within the body, with older mentors paired with younger women, living out the gospel while discipling one another to do the same.
Men's ministry gathers around a monthly Men's Breakfast at Creekside Cafe, with food, fellowship, time in the Word, and a shared desire to be a band of brothers who spur one another on by God's grace.
Music Ministry
The music ministry shapes what the body sings on Sunday mornings. The team's stated aim is to glorify God and edify the body through music that is tasteful, true, and tested, helping the word of Christ dwell richly in the hearts of those gathered. The songs are chosen to be meaningful, memorable, and to have an approachable melody for everyone in the body. The core of musical worship at Meadow Creek is not to make much of the musicians, but to make much of the Lord and Savior.
Each Friday the music ministry updates a Spotify playlist for the following Sunday. The playlist is meant to equip the head, heart, and mouth of the body in advance of the gathering, and anyone is welcome to follow it and save it for the week ahead. A separate archived Spotify playlist exists for broader listening.
Missions
Meadow Creek supports a small network of missionaries and ministries, gathered under the conviction that the local church has been given the primary task of presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. Camp Lebanon, a nearby retreat center, is dedicated to providing a "meeting place with God" through fun, loving relationships, beauty, and the truth declared and illustrated for guests of all ages.
Dan and Jane Howe serve with Cru Inner City nationally. Dan serves as National Director of Operations, and Jane directs Youth Development, training and equipping local urban churches to run their own SAY Yes! Centers for Youth Development, after-school tutoring and mentoring centers for inner-city kids that are Christ-centered and based in local urban churches.
Dieudonné and Dominique Tamfu serve in Cameroon. Dieudonné is Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology and Coordinator of the Cameroon site of Bethlehem Seminary and is also a pastor of a church he planted in Yaoundé. He holds degrees from the Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary, Bethel Seminary, Bethlehem College and Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
David and Tanya Westrum serve with Interlink Ministries in Russia as a prayer mobilizer and hospice volunteer. Phil and Ellen Nichols serve with Cru and The Jesus Film, connecting with South Asian church-planting agencies to provide new Jesus Film languages, tablets loaded with films and follow-up materials, and training in their use, while Ellen serves the Jesus Film staff through Human Resources.
Meadow Creek sets aside a Missions Emphasis Week each year for focused prayer, a movie night, and a special Sunday sermon on Bible translation and missions.
Giving, Prayer, and Resources
The church teaches that every offering of time, talents, and treasures given to the Lord from a generous and cheerful heart is an act of worship that expresses love for Jesus Christ and enables the church to accomplish the mission to which Christ has sent it. Giving is available in person during a worship service using an offering envelope, by mail to the church office, by texting the word GIVE to 763-363-3313, or through an online giving form. Annual contribution statements are provided for tax purposes, and only the Assistant Financial Secretary has access to individual giving records. Pastors and deacons do not receive reports of individual giving, in keeping with the church's conviction that giving is a personal response to God's blessing.
A prayer request form on the church's prayer page allows anyone to share a request or praise, which is then passed along to the community for prayer.
The Resources ministry provides several tools for personal and family Bible engagement. Fighter Verses Set 1 is the church's Scripture memory tool, with a bookmark that prompts daily meditation on God's Word. Three Bible reading plans are offered: the Navigators' daily plan that alternates Old and New Testament readings, the Navigators' Book-at-a-Time plan for those who want longer readings in each book, and the ESV Chronological Plan that attempts to keep historical events in order. Each plan is available as a PDF.
A Spotify account provides the church's weekly playlist and additional content for those who want to prepare their hearts, heads, and voices for Sunday gatherings.
What a First-Time Visitor Can Expect
Visitors coming on a Sunday morning will find the church at 3061 Bunker Lake Boulevard NW in Andover, just north of the Twin Cities. Sunday School begins at 9:00 a.m., with the Worship Gathering following at 10:15 a.m. Children can be checked into nursery care for infants through age three at Kid's Creek, while older children attend their grade-level Sunday School classes. Younger children are also welcome at The Hub during the worship service, where activities are provided to engage them while parents worship. The church body is intergenerational, and dress ranges from casual to business casual. The music blends hymns and contemporary songs, with a Spotify playlist posted each Friday to help the congregation prepare.
Those interested in going deeper can join a Gospel Community Group that meets in homes on the first and third weeks of each month, attend Midweek Fellowship on the second and fourth Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., or sign up for a men's breakfast at Creekside Cafe. Office hours run from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and the church can be reached at (763) 427-4543 or info@meadowcreekchurch.org.