The Creek Church is a non-denominational Christian church on Indianapolis's south side, with campuses on Franklin Road and Shelby Street. It is known for an approach built around one stated aim: connect people to Jesus. Biblical preaching, full-band worship, family programming, discipleship through life groups, practical care, and service in Indianapolis and abroad shape that approach.
Two Campuses on Indianapolis's South Side
The Franklin Road campus is at 6430 S Franklin Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46259, east of I-65 and just off Southport Road. The Shelby Street campus is at 8435 Shelby St, Indianapolis, IN 46227. The shared church phone number is 317-862-6430.
Indian Creek Christian Church, Inc. is the legal name behind The Creek Church. Its long-term relationships include Gary and Leah Johnson, who began attending in December 1989. Their sons were married and later ordained into ministry there, and four of their six grandchildren have been baptized there. Other ministry leaders also trace long family histories to The Creek through Vacation Bible School, children's ministry, worship, and life groups.
What a Franklin Road Sunday Sounds Like
At Franklin Road, Sunday worship is held at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m., and both services are available in person and online. A full band leads the music, a sermon is preached directly from the Bible, and each gathering includes a time to respond to the message. Communion is available at stations around the room. The Connecting Place provides a place for prayer, a conversation about faith, or information about becoming more connected to the church. Sunday visitor information identifies three entrances for the Franklin Road campus.
- The South Entrance is the closest entrance to the Worship Center.
- The East Entrance leads to the Chapel and Cafe.
- The North Entrance serves families taking children to Creek Kids.
New Here areas near the entrances offer a place to ask questions and receive a gift on a first visit. The Shelby Street campus holds its own Sunday service at 10:00 a.m.
Thursday worship at 6:30 p.m. at Franklin Road is presented as the first worship service of the weekend, with another gathering option for people whose schedules make weekends difficult. It includes intentional, energetic worship and the same Biblically based message offered on Sundays. People can respond through communion, the offering, or connection with the Prayer Team. Creek Kids provides age-appropriate programming from birth through third grade.
Creek Kids, Students, and the Family Weekend
At the 9:00 and 11:00 Franklin Road services, NextGen programming includes nursery, preschool, elementary, middle school, and special needs ministries. ASL interpretation is provided at the 11:00 service. The North Entrance gives families taking children to Creek Kids a direct route into the building.
The Special Needs Ministry uses access ministers to support families affected by special needs. Its teaching emphasis is directed toward both children and adults, with the aim of creating an environment where everyone is accepted and loved. Special needs teaching is included alongside the regular family programming rather than treated as a separate audience.
High School Life Groups meet at 6:00 p.m. in leaders' homes. Students are organized with peers of the same grade and gender, giving high schoolers regular opportunities to build friendships and talk about faith away from the larger worship gathering. Adult formation is organized through young adults, men's and women's ministries, marriage and parenting, and the wider life-group system.
From Welcome Lunch to Covenant Community
The Welcome to The Creek Lunch is a concise introduction to church life lasting a little over an hour. Guests learn who The Creek is, meet staff and leaders, ask questions, and receive an overview of the church's ministry areas. It functions as an accessible first step for people who want to understand the church before choosing a longer path.
Rooted is a 10-week discipleship experience intended to launch participants into a Life Group. Each cohort includes 12 to 16 people and combines conversations with interactive experiences. The goals are to help participants connect with God, understand the church, identify their purpose, and form the relationships needed for sustained Christian community.
Life Groups are communities of disciples focused on loving God, loving others, and making disciples. Groups typically meet weekly in the evenings, although the day, time, and location are set by each group. Most meet in a member's home. Their shared rhythm includes eating together, praying, telling stories, sharing life, maintaining accountability, and pursuing growth in the way and likeness of Jesus.
The formation process gives Scripture a central place. Life Group material can include the sermon, discussion guides, and daily devotional content so that what is heard during worship can move more deeply into conversation and practice. Groups may also use outside books or studies when the material supports sound doctrine and the formation of their members. Covenant commitments give shape to the group's mutual responsibility to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.
Life Group leaders are encouraged to make arrangements for childcare and to preserve regular adults-only time for deeper conversation. Some groups include children in selected activities, while adults-only periods help reduce distraction and create room for honest community. Supper Clubs offer another route into friendship through casual, one-time gatherings centered on a shared meal and conversation.
Formation for Adults, Couples, and Worship
Adult formation includes Deepen Cohorts for people who serve regularly. These groups of five or six meet monthly with a coach to listen to one another, recognize ways God has been at work, and encourage dependence on him. The church also offers baptism as a public expression of faith and provides separate formation pathways for men, women, young adults, couples, and parents.
Marriage and Parenting ministry seeks to strengthen relationships through intentional conversation, training, reflection, and shared practice. The Preserves Marriage Ministry welcomes married couples from The Creek and beyond. The church's worship team includes dedicated directors and ministers for NextGen worship, overall worship, music, and technical arts, supporting a full-band format with space for prayer and contemporary worship music.
Care That Goes Beyond the Weekend
Care appointments, hospital visits, shut-in visits, and phone calls are part of the church's care ministry. Hospital and shut-in requests may include communion, and The Connecting Place during worship offers another route to prayer or a faith conversation. The church also describes financial guidance, help with addiction, a listening ear, and encouraging support as needs that can be addressed through the community.
GriefShare is a 13-week recovery group for people processing the death of a loved one, meeting Monday evenings at 6:30 p.m. in South Room 3 at Franklin Road. Grief Support for Kids serves grieving children from kindergarten through age 13, with childcare vouchers available for younger children. Survivors of Suicide meets every second Thursday, and additional seminars address the loss of a child, the loss of a spouse, and grief during the holiday season.
The Generous Ministry provides a relationship-based process for people experiencing financial need. Its approach combines financial help with emotional and spiritual support, community connection, classes, mentoring, and careful discernment of needs. Participation begins by connecting with community opportunities so the team can understand the situation and determine the most appropriate form of assistance. Eligibility is limited to church members or residents within a defined ZIP-code area that includes 46203 outside Center Township, 46227, 46237, 46239, and 46259.
The Generous Ministry does not provide emergency hotels or gift cards. Separate monthly budgeting workshops use the MoneyWise approach to help households create and maintain a budget, while the church's Resource Center gathers assistance and support materials.
East Side and Neighborhood Service
Service occupies a central place in The Creek's life. The church gives two reasons for serving: God loves every person and seeks to redeem those separated from him, and God uses his people in acts of humility, compassion, and justice. Rather than treating mission as an optional part of church life, The Creek organizes service around local relationships and long-term partnership.
- Children, youth, and schools: Bethany Christian Services provides sponsorship, foster care, family support, and adoption support. LifeBridge Community offers after-school mentoring, recreation, and Bible-based lessons for Beech Grove students. Thomas Gregg Neighborhood School is supported through mentoring, a food ministry, and events, while Elevate builds long-term relationships with urban youth.
- Young adults and families: Outreach, Inc. equips homeless teens and young adults for stability and life transformation. Chosen Ministries supports single parents through mentoring, childcare, hospitality, and practical solutions designed for long-term flourishing.
- Basic needs: Horizon House serves people experiencing homelessness near the east side through meals, office support, computer access, and group projects. Midwest Food Bank gathers, sorts, and distributes food for nonprofit and disaster-response efforts. Shepherd Community Center works through a food pantry, clinics, mentoring, and other programs aimed at helping families break the cycle of poverty.
- Marginalized communities: Unconditional loves and equips women in the sex industry. Beacon of Hope Crisis Center provides crisis intervention, safety, support, and education for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The Center for Global Impact supports people at risk of trafficking through initiatives designed to help them become self-supporting.
- Incarcerated people and refugees: Extended Hand Prison Ministries builds relationships with incarcerated people in six institutions. Exodus Refugee Ministry helps refugees secure necessities, establish friendships, receive practical support, and feel welcome in Indianapolis.
- Mission support: Christian Missionary Fellowship provides administrative and practical support for missionaries and organizations around the world. FAME Medical Missionaries distributes medicines and supplies for doctors, nurses, and missionaries working in the field.
The VOMO serving app brings together service projects inside the church and throughout the surrounding community. Families and Life Groups can use these projects as practical ways to serve together.
The Fall Family Block Party adds a neighborhood dimension to that service. Its activities are designed for different ages and abilities and include bounce houses, petting zoos, fishing, rock climbing, a live band, and a sensory room for families with special needs. The event also gathers laundry items for the church's food donation ministry, local food pantries, and partner organizations.
Life Groups can pursue service projects with financial coaching through Generous matching grants. These grants help groups purchase supplies for a local organization or family in need while preserving a relational approach to ministry. Another group project assembles move-in kits with basic clothing and household items for people leaving a shelter or moving out of homelessness. Life Groups purchase and deliver the kits as a concrete expression of care.
Missionary Care and Global Partnership
The Creek's global mission is described in words and works. Its partnerships support disciple-making, strengthen church plants, develop indigenous leaders, and pursue holistic development in marginalized nations. Global engagement can take the form of sending someone on a trip, donating to an organization, or traveling personally. Short-term and immersive mission trips allow participants to learn from local leaders and experience ministry in another cultural setting.
Missionary Care Teams provide more specialized support to partners in Mexico, Cambodia, India, Ethiopia, Japan, and Boston. Teams learn about missionaries and their families, pray for specific partners, build relationships through video calls, send gifts for meaningful occasions, and assist with logistics, housing, and transportation when a partner visits the area. Care teams also receive training when it is offered.
Child sponsorship provides direct support for children in Kenya and Zambia through partnerships focused on education, Christian community, health care, and meals. The church encourages sponsors to remain connected beyond a financial contribution, including participation in trips and an ongoing relationship with the sponsored child.
A Faith Centered on Jesus and the Church's Mission
The Creek affirms one true God, the Creator of all things, who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It holds that the Holy Scriptures are inspired by God, wholly true and trustworthy, and the supreme authority for belief and conduct.
Jesus Christ is affirmed as fully and eternally God and, through the incarnation, fully human. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for sin, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now serves as high priest and mediator between God and humanity. Salvation from sin is accomplished solely through Jesus's perfect obedience, substitutionary death, resurrection, and exaltation as Lord.
People are justified and reconciled with God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The church teaches that there is salvation through no other person, creed, process, or power. Baptism by immersion in water is the church's affirmed expression of faith in and participation with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit convicts people, draws them to faith in Jesus, applies Christ's saving work, indwells believers, and leads and empowers them for godly living and service. All people are created in God's likeness and possess inherent value and equality before God. Sin brings guilt, alienation from God, and hostility toward his will, while God's desire is for people to repent and be reconciled rather than condemned.
The church is understood as one holy, universal, and apostolic body made up of all true believers. Its mission is to make Christ known, proclaim God's truth and grace, form disciples among all nations, care for people in need, pursue justice and peace, and demonstrate the reality of God's kingdom. The church also affirms that Jesus will return personally, visibly, and in glory, bringing resurrection, judgment, the final establishment of God's kingdom, and the completion of a new heaven and new earth.
The Pastoral Team and Ministry Directors
Dan Hamel serves as lead pastor and elder. Mark White is operations pastor, Chad Monahan is story and NextGen pastor, Laura Dingman is formation and outreach minister, and Shan Caldwell is staff care and leader development pastor. Together their roles cover preaching, operations, next-generation ministry, formation, outreach, staff care, and leader development.
The elder team includes David Boyer, Mike Killebrew, Rick May, Mike Ludwig, Gary Johnson, Bill Warren, Chuck Moeller, and Kent Pettet, along with Dan Hamel.
Ministry leadership includes Abby Derico as NextGen Worship Director, Kennedy Jefferies as Children's Director, Lauren Rees as Special Needs Director, Liz McAllister as Elementary Director, Luke Green as Lead Student Pastor, Stella Pickett as Early Childhood Director, and Will Wright as Preteen Minister. Andrew Derico leads worship and technical arts as associate director. Brock Pickett serves in group formation and prayer, Clare Rice in engagement, Emerson Kennedy in teaching, Eric Denney in marriage and parenting, and Jeff Reichanadter in formation and leadership development. Lise Caldwell directs women's formation and curriculum, Lori Carter directs community outreach, Parker Radecki serves in worship, Rachel Warren directs Life Groups, Scott Heller leads global outreach, and Kelsey Valier directs connections and guest services.
Resources, Giving, and Weddings
Generosity is one of The Creek's priorities. Online giving supports both local work in the 317 area and ministry around the world. Donors can make a one-time contribution or establish a recurring gift. Cash and checks can be placed in offering boxes around the Worship Center, and donations can also be mailed to the Franklin Road address. Online giving is the church's electronic giving option.
The Creek also provides wedding services. Its guidelines call for one man and one woman, require both people to be baptized, and require at least one of them to be an active church member. The East Entrance at Franklin Road leads to the church's Cafe, while the Franklin Road and Shelby Street campuses serve as distinct worship locations for the same church.
At its center, The Creek remains a church built around biblical worship, discipleship in community, practical care, generous service, and its stated mission of connecting people to Jesus.