Despite massive roadblocks and missteps early on their building path, Brad Wilkerson and the Rock Creek Church team are thriving in a brand-new church home.
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
In June 2007, Brad Wilkerson and his wife, Sarah, started a Bible study in their living room.
Little did they know it was the start of Rock Creek Church in Prosper, TX, which — today — welcomes nearly 3,500 in attendance and is on the brink of finishing a 42,000 square-foot building project in time for Christmas services.
Divine timing played a major role in the church’s trajectory. But so did hard-learned lessons, strong partnerships that helped Rock Creek overcome substantial obstacles, and most of all: enduring faith.
Back in the summer of 2007, Brad Wilkerson was the associate pastor at Midway Church, about 20 miles north of his home in Prosper, Texas. For several years, he and other church leaders had noticed explosive growth along the 380 Corridor, going south.
Though that area was primarily farmland at the time, they had a vision they believed in. Among their congregation — and the community-at-large — the team was seeing families move south for work and for a better range of entertainment options. Accordingly, new housing developments and master planned communities followed.
So, for solid reasons, Wilkerson and the leadership team decided to plant an autonomous, standalone church in this area, somewhere between Denton and McKinney. One of the first steps they took in this direction was partnering with an organization called Converge, which plants churches across the United States.
In the fall of 2007, Midway Church leaders began publicly discussing their plan. After some informational meetings, 24 adults (12 couples) and 10 kids started a Bible study in the Wilkersons’ living room. This Bible study would soon become what is now Rock Creek Church.
By 2014, Rock Creek was ready to build
At that time, the church had moved out of the Wilkersons’ home and was meeting in a middle school in nearby Denton, Texas. By divine appointment, Brad Wilkerson met the owners of 30 acres of property six miles to the east in the rapidly growing community of Prosper — an ideal location for a permanent church home.
“I always say we were at the right place at the right time,” he says. “The story of them and us is incredible, because they were longtime residents on that land.”
Indeed, the family raised 3 children on the property in a 7,000-square-foot home. All graduated high school from Prosper ISD when the now-380 Corridor was a two-lane road. The family were also longtime members of a church in Prosper, where significant life transformation had happened on their land.
“They didn’t want to sell their land to a developer; they wanted it to be used for ministry,” Wilkerson points out. “So, when I say ‘right place, right time,’ it’s because I think God ordained it years before we ever knew about it.”
In 2014, Wilkerson enlisted Billy and Tanner Goff — CEO and COO, respectively, of Richardson, Texas-based Goff Companies — to evaluate the land for building potential. He’d been referred to the two gentlemen by several peer pastors, as well as by Rock Creek’s capital campaign consultant.
“There were no utilities on the property. No city water, no city sewer,” Wilkerson explains. “The house that sits on the property was on an aerobic sewer system [a wastewater treatment system] and a well.”
As such, he wanted to get an idea of what utility costs might look like and, overall, how viable the acreage was for construction. The Goffs determined that four acres of the 30-acre tract lay in a floodplain, which left 26 buildable acres of usable land — more than enough for Rock Creek’s purposes.
With this intel in hand, the church confidently purchased the property.
Taking a DIY approach … at first
When it was time to build the 25,000-square-foot facility in 2017, Wilkerson and his team opted to disengage with Goff and instead take a more “DIY” (or rather, “BIY” — build-it-yourself) approach.
A member of the building team with a construction background was selected as project manager, and the church served as its own general contractor. The goal, ostensibly, was to save money: about $750,000, by the church’s estimate.
Long story short, that didn’t happen.
“It was a 25,000-square-foot building. It wasn’t anything, you know, huge,” Wilkerson explains. “But we were soon in over our heads, and there were many building issues along the way — some that we’re still dealing with today.”
With this approach, Wilkerson and his team also needed to contract an architect. The gentleman’s expertise was in designing commercial properties and shopping centers.
Meanwhile, though the personal relationship with the project manager was great — again, he was not only a church member but also serving on the building committee — the 12-month project timeline lapsed into 18 months. Even at that point, the building was still a long way from being finished.
As a result, Rock Creek leaders began to pay interest on their construction loan, but without a finished building.
“Looking back on it, going in this direction was one of two worst leadership decisions I’ve ever made,” Wilkerson says. “Number one: churches shouldn’t be building buildings; we should be doing ministry. Number two: I didn’t save our church a dime. In fact, it actually cost us more than if we’d just engaged Goff in the first place.”
“When people ask me what has made the biggest difference, I say, ‘We just stayed faithful. We stayed.’ Galatians 6:9 says to not give up ‘for at the proper time we will reap a harvest.’ Now, that’s what we’re doing.”
Time to recalibrate
Rock Creek leaders severed the relationship with the project manager. He stayed with the church, but it was a tough conversation for everyone involved.
Again, Wilkerson reached out to the Goffs. He was surprised, he says, when they declined to charge a fee for their services; the church would simply cover the job superintendent’s payroll until the building was finished.
“After that, the agreement was, ‘don’t do this again when you build in the future,’” Wilkerson recalls. “They came in, shut the project down for 30 days, reassessed what needed to be fixed, and we moved forward.”
“So, the building almost killed me — and then 2020 happened”
At the end of 2019, Rock Creek was finally able to move into its first building. Just 12 weeks later, COVID struck.
“When I describe our journey, I say ‘portable for 12 years, permanent for 12 weeks,’” Wilkerson shares. “When the pandemic hit, we were dealing with the fallout of being over our time and over the budget on the building. Now we needed to shut down.”
The timing was terrible. Attendance was on a roll. In the three months in which Rock Creek occupied its new facility, the congregation grew from 500 in attendance to 1,200.
As the months passed, the church struggled but endured.
On May 3, 2020, Texas Governor Greg Abbott opened restaurants to 25% capacity. Cautiously, Rock Creek also reopened for in-person worship on May 24, 2020.
“We were the first church in Prosper to open up,” Wilkerson recalls. “We had no choice. We had to, or we could no longer survive.”
With other churches in the area not reopening for several more months, Rock Creek leaders knew it was a bold move. The decision carried with it significant anxiety.
“Nobody knew we existed — and when I say ‘nobody,’ I’m talking about the media,” Wilkerson explains. “If we had an outbreak of COVID, it could have been catastrophic for us.”
Fortunately, it never came to pass. Instead, Rock Creek welcomed a lot of new faces in those months.
“Many people were frustrated that their own churches weren’t reopening, and a lot of those were megachurches,” Wilkerson says. “They voiced that frustration to us, but I told them, ‘Just give your pastor some grace. He’s in different position than I’m in.’”
When all the churches opened up again, many of the newcomers went back to their own. Some, however, stayed with Rock Creek.
For this reason and more, Wilkerson says COVID was a make-it-or-break-it event. “As I look back, May 2020 was truly a catalytic moment in our journey,” he says.
The comeback begins
Over the next several years, Rock Creek enjoyed explosive growth. If you ask the members — new and old — what fueled it, they’ll cite two factors. First, the church has focused, from the beginning, on intentionality toward the next generation.
Worship services are modern, with lots of state-of-the-art technology in use and songs that are familiar from Christian radio.
Second, Rock Creek has retained its commitment to being culturally relevant but biblically pure.
“We’re very strong Bible preachers,” Wilkerson explains. “Altogether, we’ve created a uniqueness that resonates in Prosper, Celina and the surrounding areas.”
Back to the drawing board, literally
When Rock Creek re-enlisted Goff Companies in 2023 to begin architectural work to expand its facilities, attendance had skyrocketed to 3,500 per weekend across four services.
Meanwhile, the area around the church’s property was exploding.
When the church bought its 30 acres in 2014, it was essentially farmland. Today, there’s a new middle school to the west and a brand-new high school to the southwest. Across the street is a massive housing development where the average home price is nearly $1 million. And, what began as Fish Trap Road is now the four-lane West First Street.
More than 20 years ago, Wilkerson and his team were able to buy the land for about 25% of its current value. Before they did, they ordered demographic studies. All of them were encouraged by the projections they received and, thus, the site’s potential for growth.
This fruit came to bear in July 2024, when construction began on a new, 42,000-square-foot building. When finished later this month, per Goff’s master plan, it will include more seating capacity, more parking, and more kids’ spaces.
In the new building, the worship space will grow from 600 seats to 1,100. With additional chairs on the back wall, this capacity extends to 1,200.
Vastly expanded kids’ spaces are also part of the plan — an especially welcome development for parents. Although the previous building had a children’s wing for newborns through 5th graders, it became so crowded that elementary-aged kids were moved to three modular classrooms in the parking lot.
“The rule of thumb in ministry is that you can’t have kids in a separate building because moms don’t feel comfortable with that,” Wilkerson explains. Enter: a new two-story elementary wing.
In the parking lot, the modular classroom buildings are being removed and twice as much parking is being added, going from 275 spaces to 600.
An eye toward the future, even now
Although Rock Creek Church is moving into its new building in a few weeks — just in time for Christmas services — the official grand opening will take place in late January 2026.
The excitement is palpable. Still, Wilkerson and his team aren’t resting on their laurels. Even as they finish one major project, they’re already thinking ahead to the next one.
That’s because Rock Creek will probably need to expand again sooner versus later — this time, to 1,600 seats. According to Wilkerson, one of the telltale signs will be when attendance grows to 5,500, necessitating five services per weekend.
“Even with a teaching team, that’s grueling,” he says.
To accommodate a worship center so large, another 220 parking spaces will need to be added to the backside of the new building. “With a 1,600-seat auditorium, it’ll require 800 spaces,” Wilkerson explains. “That’s because, in Texas, I can have one family that drives three different cars to church. Maybe Mom is on the worship team and needs to show up early, and Dad’s coming in his vehicle, and their two teenagers are driving their own car.”
A new elementary space will likely be in order, too, as will adult education classrooms and office suite. Right now, the staff works out of the large (but aging) seven-bedroom family home that came with the property.
“We’re using every square foot for offices for a staff of 40 people,” Wilkerson says. “It saves us money because we haven’t built even one square foot of office space in any of our facilities.
“The house is old and has its issues, but it’s just part of the sacrifice,” he adds. “Right now, our priority has to be more seating and kids’ spaces.”
If it all sounds like a lot of work, it is. But Wilkerson says he expects all these elements — in other words, completion of the master plan — to be in place by 2030.
“I don’t see it taking longer than five years because within 15 months of opening this new building, I’ll probably be standing on the stage saying, ‘We’ve got to expand,’” he explains. “And the drawings, the master plan, are all done; I think we could move pretty fast. Then, that’s all we can build on the land as far as church facilities go.”
Moving forward with faith
For Wilkerson, it has been a long and challenging — but fulfilling — road to where Rock Creek stands today. Looking back, he credits much of the second building project’s success to all the stress and anguish he didn’t take upon himself this time around.
“When I compare the two experiences, my sanity, my heart, my life, my mind — I’m in a totally different place,” he says. “We’ve let [Goff] build the building, and I’ve continued to do ministry and pastor the church. It has been so much better.”
Remaining resolute was also essential in seeing the church through tumultuous times and, ultimately, to tremendous growth — sometimes in the form of simply not quitting along the way.
“When people ask me what has made the biggest difference, I say, ‘We just stayed faithful. We stayed,’” Wilkerson explains. “Galatians 6:9 says to not give up ‘for at the proper time we will reap a harvest.’ Now, that’s what we’re doing.”
QUICK FACTS ABOUT ROCK CREEK CHURCH
Year established: 2008
Number of staff: 40
Combined weekly attendance: 3,350
2025 budget: $5.2 million
