On the north side of Macon, Georgia, along Zebulon Road just past the Wesleyan College area and a short drive from Mercer University, Northway Church gathers around a vision it calls For the Gospel, For the City. Twice on Sunday mornings the doors of the Worship Center open, and the rest of the week the campus keeps moving through children's classrooms, a student building, a college ministry called Proximity, a Monday night recovery program, and a coffee shop called Cathedral Coffee that sits just steps from the sanctuary.
Sunday Mornings at the Worship Center
Two identical Sunday services run at 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM in the Worship Center, and the 10:30 AM service is livestreamed for those who cannot be in the room. Members describe the gatherings as participatory corporate worship, with congregational singing and preaching from the Senior Pastor at the center. More than two hundred volunteers serve in preschool, kids, students, connect teams, worship, and media each week to make the morning run.
The Sunday schedule is built around the family. Preschool and Kids programming is in place during both services. Middle School Forum meets at 9:00 AM and High School Forum meets at 10:30 AM, so students have their own place during the hour their parents are in worship. A separate set of doors, halls, and small group rooms keep each generation moving on its own track, and a security team is in the halls during every service.
The Next Generation: Preschool, Kids, and Students
Children's ministry at Northway is organized under one umbrella that runs from the day a child is born through the senior year of high school, with the same Northway family that adults join on Sunday mornings.
Northway Preschool Ministry partners with parents for children from birth through 4K. Babies are cared for in the Northway Babies area; 2K through 4K rotate between a small group with Bible stories, crafts, and interactive activities, and a large group time built around singing, dancing, and a visual reinforcement of the lesson. The hope of the ministry is summed up in the phrase KNOW IT!: that preschoolers will leave knowing who God is, what Jesus has done for them, and that they are unique and dearly loved. Sunday mornings for preschoolers include a check-in system with matching parent and child security tags and allergy-aware, nut-free rooms; snacks served that day are posted outside each classroom door.
Northway Kids (5K through 5th grade) uses the phrase DISCOVER IT! to describe its goal that every child will discover that God does big things in their lives. A typical Sunday includes Kids Worship and Kids Small Groups. Children begin in their small group room, then move to large group worship, with 5K and 1st graders having a worship experience of their own in a space called The Cube. Children are returned to the same small group room for pickup. A VIP Ministry suite just off the Kids hall serves children with special needs of any kind, with trained volunteers, a small group lesson, a craft, worship music, and sensory or free play options; parents can fill out a VIP Ministry Information Form in advance so the team is ready.
Northway Students covers middle and high school and is led by the Student Pastor with a goal of helping students realize their identity in Christ and live in the freedom of knowing him. Middle Schoolers join the 9:00 AM service and meet for grade-and-gender small groups at 10:30 AM. High Schoolers attend either service with their families and serve in the church during the other hour, then gather for Home Team small groups on Sunday evenings. Wednesday nights run from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the Student Building: doors open at 6:30, Worship XP runs from 7:00 to 8:00, and an Afterparty with snacks, giveaways, and games closes the night. Parents receive weekly connection emails with the topic and discussion questions, optional text updates, and a quarterly parent meeting schedule. A list of recommended books for parents covers doctrine, family discipleship, technology, dating, and more.
College: Proximity and Home Teams
With Mercer University right next door and several other campuses within driving distance, Northway has built a substantial college ministry around a Friday night worship gathering called Proximity. Proximity meets on Friday evenings at 7:00 PM in the Worship Center and runs several times each semester, with free t-shirts, wings, worship, teaching, and community on the welcome night. The current schedule lists Proximity meetings on October 9, October 23, November 6, November 20, and December 4 in the fall semester, plus additional dates in the spring.
College students are also woven into the wider Northway family through Home Teams. College Home Teams meet in homes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights at 7 PM and are a place to grow in faith and deepen friendships. The college ministry has its own podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, a GroupMe group for quick communication, and a steady stream of one-off gatherings: Mercer Football lunches in the fall, a Welcome Home Proximity night, a New Student Lunch, Water Day, Missions Lunches, and a Fall Retreat at Camp Grace.
Disciples Who Make Disciples: Home Teams and Adult Life
The organizing value that runs through everything adults do at Northway is that discipleship means helping others follow Jesus. The Northway family describes itself through four cultural values:
- Gather - intentionally gathering as one, beginning with the Sunday morning worship service.
- Connect - living in authentic community beyond Sunday, especially through Home Teams.
- Invest - giving time, abilities, and money back to God and to one another.
- Invite - continually inviting others to love and trust Jesus, both through structured outreach and everyday relationships.
Home Teams are the small-group backbone of the church. Each team has 6 to 16 people who meet at a time and place they choose to study the Bible, pray, and build relationships. The three Home Team pillars are Discipleship, Care, and Mission. Teams form twice a year on a semester system: in August for the fall months and in January for winter and spring. A separate Women's Ministry runs alongside, and a recurring Women's Conference pulls women together around the metanarrative of the Bible with audio sessions and reading recommendations to keep the conversation going.
The church also publishes a long Staff Resource Recommendations page, a curated reading list grouped by topic (Apologetics, Bible Study, Discipleship, Marriage, Parenting, Theology, and more) and by medium (book, podcast, RightNow Media, YouVersion, sermons). Lead Pastor Kevin Mills and Discipleship and College Pastor Ryan Knapp have written several of the works on the list themselves, including How to Lead a Healthy Small Group, Not So Far, Far Away, The Day the Church Died, Why Toothpaste Matters, and a 4 Blocks Bible Interpretation Guide.
Celebrate Recovery on Monday Nights
On Monday nights at 7:00 PM, the Worship Center becomes home to Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered program for anyone struggling with hurts, hang-ups, and habits of any kind. CR offers a biblically balanced approach to sustainable recovery and healing, built around the eight principles drawn from the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.
The Monday night rhythm runs year-round: 7:00 PM worship, 8:15 PM small groups split by gender and covering different areas of recovery, and 8:45 PM refreshments at the Solid Rock Cafe. A separate CR Night of Worship is offered periodically as an open door for anyone who has never attended Celebrate Recovery before.
For the City: Local, National, and Global Missions
Northway's vision statement pairs the gospel with the city, and the missions ministry treats the city of Macon as the first mission field. The church has developed partnerships with ministries in and around the Macon area to give the congregation ways to serve locally. National mission teams are sent each year to Rabun Gap in north Georgia and to Baltimore, Maryland, especially in support of new church plants. Globally, Northway sends short-term teams - no special skills required, just a heart willing to serve - and past trips have gone to Haiti, Honduras, and Africa.
For interested volunteers, more than two hundred serve in the life of the church each Sunday. Background checks are required for anyone serving with minors, and Northway also reimburses child care for those stepping into service. A periodic Missions Lunch shares the year's plans and sign-ups.
Becoming a Member: Discover Northway
Membership at Northway is built on three expectations: a personal salvation experience through faith in Jesus Christ, baptism by immersion, and attendance at Discover Northway, an evening event where Lead Pastor Kevin Mills shares the church's vision, beliefs, and ministries over a meal (childcare is provided at no cost). Discover Northway takes place up to four times each year, and attendees can choose to sign the membership covenant at the end of the evening. There is no obligation to join simply by attending.
Cathedral Coffee and the Building
Sharing the Zebulon Road address with the church is Cathedral Coffee, a coffee shop that serves the church and the surrounding community. Cathedral Coffee is open Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Saturday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with its own phone line for orders. The shop is named after the worship space rather than a traditional cathedral - on any given Sunday morning you can grab a coffee on the way in and bring it back to the Worship Center.
On weekday mornings the same campus hosts Northway Weekday Preschool, a Christian preschool with classroom facilities and a playground, dedicated teachers, and a year-round calendar with health forms for new enrollees. Preschool classrooms use developmentally appropriate curriculum and seek to nurture children intellectually, spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally in a safe and loving environment.
What Northway Believes
Northway frames its doctrine with a Baptist-friendly version of the essentials: In essential beliefs, we have unity. In non-essentials, we have liberty. In all things, we show charity.
The confession of faith covers:
- The Scriptures - the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God, totally true and trustworthy, the treasure of divine instruction.
- God - one true and living God, infinite in holiness and all other perfections, existing eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Man - humanity is the special creation of God, made in His image as male and female, and fallen into sin.
- Salvation - salvation is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and is worked out in regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
- God's Promise of Grace - election is the gracious purpose of God, and all whom He accepts in Christ will persevere to the end.
- The Church - a New Testament church is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, observing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, with two scriptural offices of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon; the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
- The Family - marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman, a picture of Christ and His church, and children from the moment of conception are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.
On Staff in Macon
Kevin Mills has served as Lead Pastor since November 2007. A Macon native, he graduated from Mercer University and Beeson Divinity School, met his wife Katie while serving as a student pastor in Charlotte, and returned from a stint as a missionary with the International Mission Board in Rome, Italy to lead the church. They have four children.
The rest of the staff table covers every major ministry area:
- Stephen Howard, Executive Pastor
- Micah Moore, Director of Worship, leads the music ministry whose mission is to lead the church in musical worship with excellence for the glory of God and to make the gospel clear in every service
- Trey Fuller, Missions Pastor
- Ryan Knapp, Discipleship and College Pastor, oversees Home Teams
- Chris Wegmann, Student Pastor
- Kim Michael, Director of Preschool Ministries, and Sarah Holukoff, Director of Weekday Preschool
- Will Washburn, Children's Pastor
- Ford Van Meter, College Ministry Associate
- Sarah Knapp, Communications and Women's Ministries
- David Wall, Director of Media and Technology, oversees the livestream and podcast
- Lewis Vaughn, Facilities Director
- Jacob Faircloth, Cathedral Coffee Manager
Visiting Northway
The church offices are open Monday through Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, and a staff member is available to answer prayer requests by email. Sunday services are held in the Worship Center at 5915 Zebulon Road, Macon, Georgia 31210, with the 10:30 AM service livestreamed for those at home or traveling. Children can be registered in advance, and a Children's Pastor, Kids Ministry team, and VIP Ministry for children with special needs are ready on every Sunday morning the doors are open.