Eastwind Community Church

In the Spring of 1994, a nervous church-planter met with a group of 10 people at a picnic shelter in Barber Park to talk about the possibility of forming a new church in an under-served corner of Southeast Boise. Over the course of the last 18 years, God has done amazing things at Eastwind Community Church.

At Eastwind, God has built a culture of community that is accepting and non-judgmental. A culture where small groups live their lives together, where democrats and republicans are great friends, where people pick each other up emotionally, financially and spiritually.

God has used this church to reach hundreds of “hard to reach” people… people who have had a bad experience with church in the past, or have been put off by their perception of Christians. People who were skeptics of Christianity, or who thought that they were beyond hope. These are people who follow Jesus today because of the ministry of this church. We have also been successful at reaching out to some cranky, crusty, cantankerous Christians… Christians who (just possibly) may have been a little rigid, dogmatic, judgmental or legalistic. We have helped them to look less like Pharisees, and more like Jesus.

We have poured ourselves into ministry for children and youth. We have inspired them to make courageous choices, to be people of compassion, and to live their lives in service to Christ. The foundations that have been laid here will continue to make a difference 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years from now.

We have made a difference in our community and in our world by investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in clean water projects for Kenya and Mexico, in academic sponsorships for over 200 impoverished Kenyan children, and in construction of classrooms and computer centers for the children who live where we have worked. Over 250 of our members have traveled to Kenya or Mexico through the years, and their perspectives, and lives, have been transformed.

Locally we have been deeply involved at our most under-resourced schools, our nearby migrant worker camps, and with the many refugees that have come to our city in recent years. Boise’s well-known “Create Common Good” program was born in this congregation, and has become an international model for community gardening, refugee placement and local compassion.
God has been good to us. I hope you’ll join us in His work here, and in the community of friendship that is Eastwind Community Church.