David Frech Oral History

Abstract

Oral history interview with David Frech conducted by Emily Stratton in Olathe, Kansas, on July 10, 2013. David Frech is the senior pastor at the Church of the Harvest in Olathe, Kansas. Church of the Harvest started up in Olathe in 1998 through a handful of people gathering for Bible studies and a purchase—in faith—of a church building on the market. Led by David Frech, enough funding was gathered and the church began to grow in Olathe. Over the past decade, however, the church has gone through continual processes of change, continually re-vamping service and program formats to better fit the changing times and technologies. Currently, the church is undergoing construction with an expansion that nearly doubles its square footage. A recent change that is already well in place, however, was launched in 2010 and has been dubbed “church: interactive.” As the name suggests, the format is geared toward making church services a more interactive space and more engaging time for attendees. This interview features David Frech and provides a brief overview of the history of Church of the Harvest’s early days and its transition into “church: interactive,” including a description of “church: interactive” and its main structural components. Later in the interview, a few tentative ideas for the upcoming “church: interactive 2.0” are also discussed. This interview was conducted for the Religion in Kansas Project as part of a summer fieldwork internship funded by the Friends of the Department of Religious Studies.