# Southland Christian Church (Lexington, Kentucky)

Southland Christian Church is an evangelical Christian church based in Kentucky, US.

## Overview

The church is located in an unincorporated area of Jessamine County, Kentucky, just outside Lexington. The main campus is at Nicholasville. The church has four additional campuses.
The church is associated with the Christian churches and churches of Christ. Its current Senior Pastor, Jon Weece, came to the church as a teaching pastor in 2000, and became Lead Follower in 2003.

## Size and facility

Southland Christian Church is considered a megachurch. It is one of Kentucky's largest churches, averaging over 12,000 in attendance per weekend in 10 services - two in Nicholasville, two in Lexington, two at Danville, two at Georgetown and two at Richmond.
The church has several ministries, including Helping Through Him (an on-site warehouse at the Nicholasville campus), care, outreach and creative arts.
An online church is available.

## History

The church started in 1956 as a mission of Broadway Christian Church in Lexington. The founding pastor, Wayne Smith, came from Unity Christian Church (near Cynthiana, Kentucky), and held the first service with 172 people in attendance. The church was originally located on Hill 'N Dale Drive (near Southland Drive) in Lexington. In 1981, the church had grown substantially and relocated to a 20-acre (81,000 m$^2$) site in neighboring Jessamine County. It has since expanded its property to 115 acres (0.47 km$^2$).
Senior Pastor Wayne Smith announced his retirement in 1995. By this time, average church attendance was in the thousands.
Mike Breaux, pastor of Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, was invited to preach as a guest. After this, he was hired as Senior Pastor. During his tenure the church grew to an attendance of more than 7,000 persons a week. Jon Weece joined Southland as a teaching pastor in 2000, sharing in the responsibilities of a church with six weekend services. After a building program that reduced the weekend services from six to five, Breaux moved to Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, in 2003.
Weece, a former missionary to Haiti, became the third senior pastor on September 1, 2003. Still in his twenties at the time, he was one of the youngest megachurch senior pastors in the United States.
In 2009, Southland opened its first satellite campus in Danville, KY.
In 2010, Southland purchased the former Lexington Mall and a campus opened there in January 2013.
In 2015, Southland began holding services in Georgetown, KY at Lemons Mill Elementary.
In 2018, Southland announced a launch of a new campus in Richmond, KY in 2020.

## Locations

Adopting a "single church in multiple locations" strategy, sermons are preached at the Nicholasville Campus and streamed to the remaining 4 satellite campuses:
* Danville Campus - 1001 Ben Ali Dr. #2, Danville, KY 40422
* Georgetown Campus - 134 Amerson Way, Georgetown, KY 40324
* Lexington Campus - 2349 Richmond Rd, Lexington, KY 40502
* Richmond Campus - 1432 Fairlane Dr, Richmond, KY 40475 (Services held at Madison Central High School - 705 N 2nd St. Richmond, KY 40475)

## Beliefs

As a Restoration Movement church, Southland's beliefs are similar to other churches' in the movement, although local congregations are independent and may vary slightly from each other. Southland members include a large number of people with roots in denominations outside the Restoration Movement, including a significant number from Baptist and Wesleyan/Methodist traditions among others. As such, the church also has strong influences from, and often identifies itself with, Protestantism.
Southland's mission statement is that they are courageous followers of Jesus who love God and love people in their communities, in their city, and in the world. Southland is a church of people who believe the best way to live life is with Jesus, in community, and on mission.
The church believes that marriage is a "a life-long relationship between a man and a woman."