Several years ago God gave Matt and Monica Hawkins a vision to come and start a new kind of church in the Moores Mill area of Auburn to meet the needs of a rapidly growing community. The vision was to start a church that would reach people who were uncomfortable ‘doing’ church the way it had always been done- a church where people unfamiliar with Jesus would feel comfortable to come and explore the claims of Christ- a church where people would consistently learn practical and relevant biblical principles for everyday living. After almost two years of praying, that vision became a passion. The vision and passion were confirmed when others expressed a similar passion and shared the vision to ‘do’ church differently in Auburn. So, after more prayer and the commitment of 15 adults, Matt and Monica moved back to Auburn to begin the planning process for Moores Mill Community Church.

The first few months served as a time of prayer and planning as a leadership team was developed and more adults committed to helping get the church started. We began with Launch Team meetings for all involved with the church as we geared up for our first official Sunday worship service. Launch Team meetings were followed by the creation of our first small groups, called LifeGroups, which are still the focus of NRCC.  Just two months later we kicked off our first worship service. God revealed His hand of blessing on us from the very beginning from bringing more people into the church, to providing a place to meet, to providing the financial means to secure office space and an administrative assistant to handle the behind the scenes work that goes into every service.

As God would have it, residential growth and land availability moved to the north side of Auburn, where we were able to purchase almost nineteen acres of land. Considering our location would one day be on the opposite side of town from the Moores Mill area, we decided to change the name of the church to North Ridge Community Church.  We have changed meeting locations two times in our history, but now look forward to the day when we will have a permanent home at the intersection of Auburn Lakes Road and County Road 91, just off Farmville Road (County Road 72). We will be just over a mile off of North College Street between Farmville Baptist Church and North Donahue Road. In eight to ten years our location will be within five minutes of over two thousand homes, which represents families we will be able to serve and build relationships with for many years to come. God continues to bless us in new and exciting ways, and we look forward to how He will continue to use us to encourage His people to pursue intimacy with God, community with believers, and influence with others.