Two Campuses, One Love for Louisville
Northeast Christian Church sits at 9900 Brownsboro Road on the east side of Louisville, with a second campus a few miles south at 2561 Grinstead Drive. The congregation calls itself the Love the 'Ville Church, and the name captures both what the church is and what it tries to do. "Love the 'Ville isn't just a motto - it's a movement," the church explains. "We are a community on a mission to unleash Jesus' love every day, everybody, everywhere, by meeting needs in our community. It's our church's DNA."
The Brownsboro location, where most ministries are headquartered, holds two Sunday services and houses the church offices, NE Kids and youth spaces, the worship arts studios, and the student center. The Grinstead Campus, a smaller neighborhood location in the Clifton/Crescent Hill area, gathers once on Sunday morning. Both services, plus an online campus, are part of one church family under the leadership of Lead Pastor Tyler McKenzie and a Lead Executive Team.
Visitors stepping in for the first time are told to come as they are. Services are described as laid back, and shorts and flip-flops are welcome. A typical Sunday includes worship with music, communion, a weekly offering, and a message. A Welcome Center offers a gift for first-time guests, complimentary coffee, and a friendly face ready to answer questions. A parking team and dedicated visitor parking keep the arrival easy.
Services and a Rhythm for Every Week
At the Brownsboro Campus, services run at 9:00 am and 11:00 am on Sundays. The 11:00 am gathering is interpreted in American Sign Language for the Deaf community and in Spanish for Spanish-speaking guests. The Grinstead Campus meets at 11:00 am on Sundays. An online campus, Northeast.Live, streams both 9:00 and 11:00 services so people can worship from home, the hospital, or wherever they happen to be.
Sermons are grounded in Scripture and tend to run in series - book studies through Jonah, Hosea, Mark, Galatians, or topical series like Abide, Controversial Christianity, Finding Peace in an Anxious World, and The Next Ten. Lead Pastor Tyler McKenzie, Executive Pastor of Teaching and Formation Terrence Turman, and other teaching pastors rotate through the pulpit, with guest speakers from ministry partners like Mark Moore of Christ's Church of the Valley and Heather Gorman of Abilene Christian University filling in at points during the year. Past services are available on the church's podcast feed, YouTube, and Vimeo, organized by year and topic so listeners can work through a series at their own pace.
The church gathers during the week in smaller rhythms. Care Groups and small groups meet in homes, coffee shops, parks, and online, usually for 1.5 to 2 hours at a time and either weekly or every other week across Spring, Summer, and Fall terms. Northeast Women hosts women's Bible studies and groups throughout the year. The Men's Huddle meets monthly on campus. 1835 Young Adult is a weekly gathering for young adults. On Wednesday nights at 6:30, middle school and high school students fill the youth space for games, teaching, and small groups that run until 8:30. Prayer and Worship Services are held periodically throughout the year - on New Year's Day, during Advent and Lent, and around special Sundays.
NE Kids and the Next Generation
Children's ministry at Northeast is built around NE Kids, a team that walks with families from the nursery through fifth grade. On Sundays at both 9:00 and 11:00, three age groups meet in parallel: the Nursery for children six weeks to three years, Preschool for ages four and five, and Elementary split into K-2nd and 3rd-5th. Each classroom is led by background-checked volunteers and ministry staff who prepare weekly lessons, lead worship and games, and pray with kids by name. Check-in opens 15 minutes before each service and closes 15 minutes after it starts, and a special registration form makes the first visit easier for newcomers.
Beyond the nursery and preschool rooms, KidZone Ministry runs a Parents' Day Out program two days a week. On Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, September through May, the KidZone team cares for children ages six weeks through five years in a Christ-centered early childhood environment. Parents pack a peanut-free lunch; the program supplies the rest, including age-appropriate Bible lessons and structured play. The aim is simple: help little ones grow socially, emotionally, and spiritually while giving parents a regular break during the week.
For students preparing to be baptized, NE Kids offers a three-week family class called Beyond Belief. Parents and children work through the foundational truths of baptism together and take home tools for continuing the conversation at home. The elementary team also leads parents through resources that grow out of the church's Intentional Parenting series, including a Parent Audit tool.
Student Ministry on Sundays and Wednesdays
Middle school and high school students have their own space at Northeast. Youth 6/8 meets for Sunday School at both 9:00 and 11:00 am with games, Bible skills, and small group conversation. High schoolers gather at the 11:00 am service in the Student Section toward the front right of the main auditorium, where they lead worship alongside the Northeast Worship team. Wednesday nights bring both groups together from 6:30 to 8:30 for teaching, worship, and grade- and gender-specific small groups.
Student ministry leans into service as a spiritual discipline. The team regularly partners with the Outreach ministry on school and city projects, and student small groups engage in Love the 'Ville service initiatives each quarter. A youth Carpool team, Tech and Production crew, and Worship band give teenagers room to use their gifts while serving their peers. Parents who want to shape their teens' faith at home are pointed back to the church's Intentional Parenting preaching series and resources.
The Next Step: Northeast Basics, Groups, and Baptism
For newcomers, the on-ramp into the church is called Northeast Basics. It is a four-week course that answers the foundational questions: Who is Northeast? What do we do? How do we do it? How can I help? The course meets on campus in a relaxed setting, pairs newcomers with leaders, and helps them discover their best next step - whether that is a group, a serving team, or baptism.
Baptism is treated as a major milestone, not a checkbox. Adults who want to be baptized fill out a sign-up form, and a pastor calls to walk through the decision and prepare for the service. Children whose parents sense they are ready are pointed to Beyond Belief instead. After baptism, volunteers meet with the newly baptized for six weeks through the I Said Yes booklet, providing prayer, accountability, and a path into a group or serving environment.
Groups are the engine of ongoing discipleship. There are men's and women's groups, young adult gatherings, marriage groups, care groups for specific life seasons, and short-term studies through the church's three annual terms. Many groups provide childcare; others are designed for intergenerational conversation. Most groups are sized for 12 to 14 adults so that real community can take root. A few serving roles are built around groups as well: Care Group Leaders, Small Group Leaders, and Mentor Leaders who walk people through a nine-month Scripture memorization journey.
Worship Arts and Northeast Worship
The Worship Arts team at Northeast is led by Executive Pastor Corbin Marshall, with Worship Leader Benny Khan, a tech team, instrumentalists, vocalists, camera operators, and FOH audio engineers supporting the weekend services. The team also runs Northeast Worship, a creative collective of artists based in Louisville who write songs for the home church while also producing films, musicals, and other musical expressions meant to broaden what worship can look like. Northeast Worship's music is on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Vimeo, and the team has released an album.
Worship on a Sunday morning tends to be contemporary in style, led by a full band and vocalists. The church observes communion most weeks as part of the gathering. Special Prayer and Worship Services are scheduled throughout the year, sometimes with the choir joining the band. Behind the scenes, a Broadcast Producer and Worship Technologies Pastor keep the livestream running smoothly on northeast.live and on YouTube.
The Deaf Ministry and the ASL Interpreted Service
One distinctive ministry at Northeast is its work with the Deaf and hard of hearing community. The Deaf Ministry is led by Deaf Pastor Todd Stinson, who has been involved in Deaf ministry for more than 20 years and preaches in ASL. The 11:00 am Sunday service at the Brownsboro Campus is interpreted in ASL, and ASL-interpreted sermons are posted to YouTube so anyone can revisit them throughout the week.
The Deaf Ministry has its own Facebook group, Instagram account, and YouTube channel where members stay connected between Sundays. The church frames this work with a sobering statistic: the Deaf and hard of hearing community is among the most unreached people groups in the world, with only a small fraction identifying as followers of Jesus. Northeast considers access to the Gospel in ASL part of its calling to unleash love to everyone, everywhere.
Care, Marriage, and Walking Through Hard Seasons
The Care Ministry, led by Care Pastor Beka Palmer, is the church's pastoral care arm. The team offers Care Groups - small communities where people find emotional and spiritual support through specific life seasons - as well as workshops and classes. Anyone can submit a prayer request online or by phone, and a dedicated prayer team lifts those requests up throughout the week. A Benevolence fund helps with practical needs, and the team can officiate weddings and funerals at the church.
Marriage ministry runs alongside Care. Marriage Mentors walk with engaged and struggling couples using Northeast's established marriage-care curriculum. Couples preparing for a Northeast wedding begin with a mentor relationship before the ceremony. Grief support, divorce care, and other specific resources can be found through the Care team's list of Care Groups.
A "Call a Pastor" line and an online appointment booking form let members connect with a pastor one-on-one when something comes up that a group setting cannot hold. The Spiritual Formation team, led by Richard Mosqueda, complements Care by teaching members how to build a Rule of Life, including rhythms of prayer, Scripture, confession, gratitude, generosity, celebration, and rest.
Love the 'Ville: Outreach in Schools, the City, and the World
The Love the 'Ville movement is the outreach engine of the church, and it has been growing for more than a decade. It started in 2014 when 1,800 people from Northeast gathered one Sunday morning for the "Clifton Blitz" - painting homes and businesses, mowing lawns, cleaning up parks, and giving away free food and bicycles to children in the Clifton neighborhood. That single morning grew into a year-round movement that now serves thousands of people in partnership with dozens of nonprofits.
On the schools side, Northeast has 12 partner schools - Breckinridge Franklin Elementary, Chancey Elementary, LaGrange Elementary, Norton Commons Elementary, Oldham County Preschool, Portland Elementary, Semple Elementary, TAPP High School, Westport Early Childhood Center, Westport Middle School, and Zachary Taylor Elementary. Each partner school has a volunteer liaison who builds a relationship with school leadership, supports teachers and students, and helps families with practical needs. Once a year, the church's School Blitz mobilizes the congregation to serve 45 or more schools across the region in a single day.
Local outreach runs through partnerships with organizations across the city. Northeast volunteers with Delta502, a Portland-based mentorship program for at-risk young athletes; Refuge for Women, which fights human trafficking; Prodigal Ministries and The Prisoner's Hope, which serve people impacted by incarceration; BsideU for Life, which supports women through crisis pregnancies; Sparc Hope, which helps single parents pursue education; Highpoint, which meets food and clothing needs in Oldham County; Lifeline, which packs meal kits for communities around the world; Re:Center, which runs day and overnight shelters; Eastern Area Community Ministries, which provides emergency food and financial services; and Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Refuge International, which serve refugees and immigrants. PB&J, a ministry born at Northeast, makes dozens of sandwiches and food bags every weekend and delivers them to people on the streets through St. John Center. The Construction Team of more than 60 volunteers builds wheelchair ramps, handrails, fences, and other home repairs to keep vulnerable homeowners safely in their homes. Heart Hats makes hats for cancer patients; Trikes for Tikes collects and repairs bikes for those in need. ESL classes, taught by Northeast volunteers, serve internationals in the city through Refuge International's ESL Network.
Global outreach extends the same heartbeat across borders. Northeast partners with AMG International in Greece, Earth Mission among the Karen people on the Thai-Myanmar border, GO Ministries in the Dominican Republic, Lifeline in multiple countries, and Neverthirst, which brings clean water to unreached communities in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Chad, Uganda, South Sudan, and Myanmar. The church also supports a roster of missionaries, including Faith Curry with Ignite the Ville at UofL, Olivia Ferriell with YWAM in the Netherlands, the Gracesqui family in the Dominican Republic, the Klass family in Chile, and others serving in Spain, Florida, and beyond. Short-term mission trips give church members a chance to see the work in person.
Spiritual Formation and the Made for This Values
Everything at Northeast is supposed to flow from a short list of core values. The Made for This series spells them out: Intimacy with God, Love for Neighbor, Faithfulness to Truth, Public Witness, and Missional Intentionality. The church's mission statement gathers them into a single sentence: to unleash the love of Jesus every day, to everybody, everywhere in the home, workplace, city, and church.
Spiritual Formation is the team that helps people put those values into practice. Through Care Groups, classes, retreats, sermon series, and resources like the Unhurried Rhythms series, members learn how to build a Rule of Life - a set of daily and weekly practices that open space to hear from God. The team also walks newcomers through Northeast Basics and connects them with groups, mentors, and serving opportunities.
Getting Involved: Serve, Give, and Go
Serve teams cover almost every corner of church life. First Impressions teams - parking, coffee, welcome center hosts, ushers, and medical responders - shape the Sunday morning experience. NE Kids recruits classroom leaders, stage hosts, tech volunteers, social media storytellers, and inclusion ministry volunteers who provide one-on-one support for children with additional needs. Youth ministry recruits small group leaders, carpool crews, and tech and worship teams. Outreach recruits ESL volunteers, school liaisons, nonprofit liaisons, and global missionary liaisons. Worship Arts recruits instrumentalists, vocalists, camera operators, and audio engineers. Communications recruits photographers, social media content creators, and graphic designers. Operations recruits receptionists and a Wednesday-morning SWAT team (Servants With A Tool) that handles practical projects around the campus.
Generosity is treated as a spiritual practice. Giving is available online, through the Church Center mobile app, and in offering boxes on Sundays. The church is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, and an annual report shares how giving has been used. The Next Ten campaign invited the congregation to look forward together, casting a vision that includes planting new churches, expanding outreach, and building a multipurpose outreach center and playground on the Brownsboro Campus.
What to Expect on a First Visit
For someone considering Northeast for the first time, the basics are simple. Plan to arrive a few minutes early; the parking team will help find a spot. Wear whatever is comfortable - the dress is casual. Coffee is free at the Welcome Center, and there is a small gift for first-time guests. Each service runs about an hour and includes music, communion, an offering, and a sermon. Children from nursery through fifth grade can be checked into NE Kids at either the 9:00 or 11:00 service. Middle and high schoolers have their own Sunday School at 9:00 and a Student Section at 11:00. After the service, stop by the Welcome Center to ask questions, or sign up for Northeast Basics to take the next step into the life of the church.
Members and regular attenders who want to keep learning can subscribe to the weekly newsletter, listen to sermons on the church's podcast feed, follow Northeast on social media, or download the Church Center app to register for events, sign up for groups, give, submit a prayer request, or message the staff. The Northeast.Live online campus keeps the weekend services available all week long for those who cannot be on campus.
Northeast Christian Church is, at its heart, a Louisville church. Whether the work is teaching kids in a partner elementary, pouring coffee on Sunday morning, packing meals with Lifeline, preaching through the Gospel of Mark, or simply welcoming a guest with a warm smile, the goal is the same. The church exists to unleash the love of Jesus - every day, to everybody, everywhere - and to invite anyone who is interested to come along for the ride.