Larry Wren Oral History

Abstract

Oral history interview with Larry Wren conducted by Emily Stratton in Wichita, Kansas, on June 16, 2013. Larry Wren is a long-time member and leader in Pathway Church, and now also serves as Pathway's Café Campus Pastor. Pathway Church is a well-established non-denominational church in Wichita, Kansas. Though originally planted in 1959 as Westlink Christian Church, the church underwent major changes in 2003, with the opening of its new campus (a ‘megachurch’ facility) and a change in its name to Pathway Church. Shortly following these changes and with increased growth in church attendance, Pathway began to try to focus less upon its megachurch, programmatic, or “shopping mall” aspects. Instead, church leadership sought to emphaize more home group activity and also change some of the “forms and functions” of running the church’s services. Though many changes are still in discussion, one change that came into fruition in 2012 was the development of what Pathway calls the “Café Campus.” Though the Café Campus takes place within the same building facility as Pathway’s “Westlink Campus” and shares the same children’s programs, the Café Campus has its own pastoral staff, its own tech team, its own worship band, and its own set of volunteers. There, it takes on a less traditional atmosphere than the Westlink Campus’s services and is also scaled down in size. The interview focuses upon the establishment and implementation of the Café Campus as a branch of Pathway, and some of the development strategies and challenges regarding shifting Pathway into a multi-site church. 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.