Advent Houston's story is short in its existence but long in preparation and prayer. God has been at work in Houston and in the Texas Medical Center/Rice University area long before we ever got here.

Advent Houston first became involved in this community through a sense of call and conviction from our planting pastor, Taylor Leachman, who grew up in the Houston medical community around physicians--his grandfather was and his father and cousin are cardiologists at St. Luke's.

Long interested in the historic connections between the church and healthcare, Taylor and others began to recognize that in recent decades, the church has all but severed those historic ties, leaving the medical community to itself. As healthcare has become increasingly specialized, the church has narrowed its involvement almost exclusively to visiting the sick and dying.

But what if the church re-engaged the vision of the New Heavens and the New Earth as it relates to the healing work of hospitals and those who work in them? What if Christians, reinvigorated by the resurrection hope of Jesus, longed to see healthcare as a Christian calling?  
 

Faithful engagement with the Texas Medical Center in Houston necessarily must consider the influence of Rice University. As Christians have begun to disengage from healthcare, so also Christians have disengaged from the thought world of academia. The planting team of Advent Houston longs to engage both of these significant Houston institutions with the hope of the gospel.
 

With this conviction our preparation and prayer have turned into a public community of worship--into a church. God is at work, gathering a group of people who seek to embrace, embody, and extend the grace of Jesus to the Texas Medical Center, Rice University, and greater West University neighborhoods. We long to see what God does next.