It Started With A Prayer And A Burden

In 2023, Greg and Christie Salazar felt burdened to pray, “Lord, what would you have the Salazar family give our lives to?” In answer to that prayer God rekindled a long-held desire and sense of call, that began in 2011 to plant a church. Specifically, they felt called to plant a church near the urban core of a metropolitan city and near a university campus. Studies were revealing that those spaces increasingly had a higher percentage of folks who were without a church home and church planting had been shown to be the most effective way of engaging them.

They were assessed and recommended to church plant by denomination’s church planting agency. This group also put them in touch with those in Charlotte who oversaw and had identified strategic locations to plant new churches. After several months of prayer, discernment, many meetings, and multiple visits, in May 2024, our regional group of churches (the Central Carolina Presbytery) called us to plant in Myers Park.

Moving to Charlotte, Gathering, and Launch

Greg, Christie, and their five children moved to Charlotte in November 2024 and hosted the first launch team gathering on February 6, 2025 in their living room. There four other families gathered to pray, share their testimonies, study God’s word, and dream about planting a church together. By the summer this group had tripled, they had outgrown their living room, and settled on a church name.

In the fall 2025, the Christ Our King launch team began meeting at the Charlotte Junior League to prayerfully study and discuss the new church’s mission, vision, values, approach, and philosophy of ministry and worship.

By the end of November, Christ Our King began worshipping as a launch team, hired their first part-time staff member, and began making plans for a public worship service launch in early 2026. And on April 5, 2026 Christ Our King held its first public worship service at the Charlotte Junior League.

Why Charlotte and Myers Park specifically?

Charlotte—once called the city of Churches—is no longer the Bible belt. Indeed, over the last 25 years, over half million people have stopped going to church in Charlotte. And the need is only rising as Charlotte is one of the fastest growing cities in America and the number one moving destination for U-Haul. The population of Charlotte is expected to grow by 65%  in the next 30 years (swelling from 2.8M to 4.6M people in 2055) as businesses and developments are coming to Charlotte.

The PCA presbytery in Charlotte has wanted to plant a church in Myers Park for two decades. Myers Park a highly educated community that is close to the urban core of Charlotte, home to Queens University, and a major center for cultural influence not only in Charlotte, but in North Carolina and the Southeastern US. Myers Park and its adjacent neighborhoods have one of highest concentrations of folks who either do not have a church home or do not hear the gospel on a regular basis. Members of the presbytery and our close friend and mentors believed there were natural points of connection with our backgrounds and experience and this plant opportunity.