History of
Woodridge Community Church
Woodridge Community Church was founded by the Great Lakes Baptist General Conference in December of 1988 under the leadership of Dave and Brenda Mobley. The fellowship's first official meeting was on the back porch of a house in Germantown, with about 20 people in attendance. Shortly thereafter, they began meeting at Heritage Christian School, in the band room. As the fledgling group began to grow, they moved their services to the chapel at Heritage.
At the outset, it became clear that God's Spirit was blessing the ministry at Woodridge. Because the Elders had a desire and vision to see an authentic community of grace having a wider impact in the greater Milwaukee area, they began, in 1994, to search for a building from which to carry out the ministry.
Many options were investigated, but none were viable until February of 1998, when an 18.47 acre parcel of vacant farm land on the corner of Howard and Sunny-slope in New Berlin became available. An offer was made by the church and accepted by the owner. The land sale was ultimately closed in January 2000. Woodridge liquidated its Building Fund, and the land was purchased without debt.
No one could have anticipated the difficulties that would lie ahead. Innumerable issues arose with the land and building such as: flooding concerns, the Department of Natural Resources' declaration of wetlands on the property, the reporting of endangered snakes, many unfavorable responses from the local government and resistant neighbors. Even our attorney suggested the difficulties that lie ahead were possibly "insurmountable." It could not be easily dismissed that snakes seemed to be holding up the buildling plans. Skepticism and doubt were nearly unavoidable by many, but others tenaciously persevered.
God in His graciousness prevailed over what appeared to be the impossible. One by one the obstacles were removed, and in the Fall of 2005, the City of New Berlin granted a Conditional-Use Permit giving Woodridge until October 2006 to begin construction.