our History

For several years the people of CrossWay Community Church in Bristol, WI had been praying and waiting for God to move in the hearts of people within CrossWay to be sent out and plant a church 8 miles east in downtown Kenosha.  Christ The King Church is the result of those patient and faith-filled prayers!

CrossWay Community Church was planted in 1999 by The Village Church of Gurnee.  Mike Bullmore, who was a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School at the time, was called by God to lead the work as CrossWay’s senior pastor.  Over the years, God has steadily grown CrossWay in size, depth and influence.   In 2008, CrossWay sent out twelve families as its first church plant to the south side of Milwaukee.  That church, Crossway Milwaukee, has been growing steadily since its inception.  

In January of 2013, CrossWay announced that one of its initiatives for the year was to plant a church in the downtown area of Kenosha.  As part of the announcement to plant Christ The King Church, Mike Salvati was named as the lead pastor.  Mike, his wife Jenny, and their four children had been members of CrossWay since 1999.  After graduating from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2003, Mike was brought on to CrossWay’s pastoral team.  He was ordained as an elder in 2005. Up until the end of June 2013, Mike had served as CrossWay’s Pastor of Youth Ministries.

In January 2013, Mike started to gather a core group to be a part of Christ The King Church.  They began meeting monthly at Reuther Auditorium in downtown Kenosha to unite around a common mission, vision, and core values.  The mission of Christ The King Church is to make known the life-transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people. Starting in July 2013, the core group of Christ The King started to meet weekly on Wednesday nights in the Fellowship Hall of First Congregational Church.

In February 2013, Mike Salvati was contacted by the leadership team of First Congregational Church in downtown Kenosha to see if Christ The King had any interest in acquiring First Congregational’s building on historic Library Square.  After much prayer, information gathering, and many conversations with CrossWay’s elders, it was decided that Christ The King Church should move forward in acquiring First Congregational’s building.  It was concluded that the building was God’s gracious provision for Christ The King to accomplish our gospel mission in the city of Kenosha.

On Sunday, August 25th, 2013, CrossWay Community Church officially sent out 41 families from CrossWay to plant Christ The King Church in downtown Kenosha.  The next week, CTKC officially acquired First Congregational’s building at 5934 8th Ave.  On Sunday, September 8th, Christ The King Church had our first Sunday morning service in our newly-acquired building.