The Coalition of the Willing: Why We Exist and Where We Are Going

For the past three years, something has been stirring in my heart.

It began as a burden. Then it became a conversation. Over time, it turned into prayer, relationships, and action. Today, it has become what we now call The Coalition of the Willing.

In 2019, Barna Research released data identifying the Quad Cities as the 15th most post-Christian region in the United States. That statistic was more than a ranking. It was a wake-up call. It revealed what many pastors and ministry leaders were already sensing: we are living and ministering in a deeply spiritual mission field where fewer and fewer people know Jesus, trust the Church, or understand the Gospel.

Rather than responding with fear, competition, or isolation, a group of churches and ministries began asking a different question:

What would it take to reach our cities together?

A Coalition, Not a Brand

The Coalition of the Willing is not a denomination, a network, or a platform. It is a growing partnership of churches and ministries across the Quad Cities who believe the local Church is strongest when it works together for the sake of the Gospel.

For more than a year, we have been assembling, praying, learning, and building trust. Long before we had a name or structure, we were cultivating a posture of unity. That posture remains at the heart of everything we do.

We believe the mission in front of us is bigger than any one church, personality, or strategy. It requires shared prayer, shared resources, shared celebration, and shared responsibility.

What We’ve Been Doing

Over the past year, God has already been at work through this growing coalition:

• A large regional prayer gathering, uniting churches across the cities

• Bi-monthly leadership gatherings for prayer, vision, and collaboration

• Creative Christmas, a collaborative outreach where more than 1,500 people gathered, heard the Gospel, discovered local churches, and witnessed what God is doing across our region

• A full year of shared metric tracking across Coalition partners, reporting:

  • 143 salvations

  • 64 baptisms

  • 109 people trained to share the Gospel

  • 120 people gathered for prayer

  • 24 prayer events across the cities

  • 5 collaborative outreach efforts

We have also begun celebrating one another’s wins. Churches are reposting baptism stories, sermon clips, outreach moments, and testimonies across social media—not to build platforms, but to rejoice together in what God is doing.

Last year, several Coalition churches participated together in an Eaglebrook training cohort, and this year we are excited to host the Global Leadership Summit at Bridge Cities Church as a satellite location, investing in leaders for the good of the Quad Cities.

Where We’re Going

As the Coalition continues to grow, we believe God is calling us into a deeper level of collaboration.

Our vision is to become a resource-sharing movement for the churches of the Quad Cities. That means:

• Sharing volunteers when a church’s vision is bigger than its current capacity

• Sharing space or equipment when a church needs room to serve or reach its community

• Sharing leaders or staff temporarily, as we’ve already done by providing interim worship leadership to a partner church

• Supporting struggling churches or new church plants with generosity rather than competition

• Continuing to gather for united prayer, worship, leadership development, and outreach

We want to celebrate victories together, grieve challenges together, and shoulder the mission together.

Why This Matters

Our cities matter to God.

Every day in the Quad Cities, people live and die without knowing the hope, forgiveness, and new life found in Jesus Christ. The Coalition of the Willing exists to respond to that reality with unity, humility, and faith.

We are committed to investing in the Quad Cities—not for recognition, but for transformation. Not to build a name, but to lift up the name of Jesus.

The work is far from finished. But we are encouraged by what God has already done—and deeply hopeful about what lies ahead.

If you are a pastor, ministry leader, or church who shares this heart for collaboration and Gospel impact, we would love to continue the conversation.

Because when the Church moves together, the light shines brighter.