Easter is one of the most meaningful Sundays of the year—and it takes all of us to make it unforgettable. From welcoming guests and helping families find their seats to serving kids or working behind the scenes, every role creates space for someone to encounter hope. Be part of the story God is writing this Easter—sign up to serve and help make room for more.

Please make sure you confirm your serving request once you have signed up to serve.

Spring is almost here, and we’re celebrating in a big way! Mark your calendar for Saturday, March 28, from 2–4 PM and join us for the first-ever Woods Chapel Springtacular—a fun-filled afternoon designed for the entire family. To make all this fun possible, we need an awesome team of volunteers! Sign up to serve and help create a day full of smiles, laughter, and great memories.

Hosted each spring at Woods Chapel United Methodist Church in Lee's Summit, the Prom Boutique is a FREE event for Kansas City area students hoping to attend their prom but without the resources to do so. 

Click HERE to learn more and to stay up to date on the Prom Boutique.

An annual holiday opportunity to serve! Email Ann Williams to learn more.

This annual holiday event aims to fulfill the wish lists of residents at Lakewood Care Center. Residents fill out a tag with their wish list, then our congregation can pick them up and purchase the items for the resident.

Adopt a Street: (Partnership with the City of Lee’s Summit) – Bring your Life Group, Sunday School class, friends, and family, and help beautify the stretch of Bowlin Road between the overpass and Campground Road. Contact Ann Williams if you would like to sign your group up.

BackSnacks provides food each weekend during the school year to kids experiencing food-insecurity. We partner with three school districts to serve kids. You can serve by delivering BackSnacks to nearby schools, or by helping provide food with a donation.

Back to School Drive: This serving opportunity happens once a year at the end of the summer! In an effort to equip children with the tools needed for a successful school year, we collect backpacks and school supplies for children in our area!

Book in Hand provides books to children in schools and non-profits. 

This group is committed to helping our church become more responsible stewards of God's good gift of creation by lowering our carbon footprint and building a church culture that demonstrates its love for God in the careful and thoughtful ways we live out our mission. We do this by finding ways to decrease our energy use, eliminating waste, especially single-use plastics, supporting church-wide recycling and composting efforts, emphasizing the importance of creation stewardship in teaching and worship, and managing our grounds in nature-protecting ways. 

A group that aims to come alongside under-resourced communities, individuals, and families and offers a tangible expression of Christ's love by providing volunteers (skilled, semi, and non-skilled labor) to complete construction-related projects and home repairs. 

Be a Difference Maker in the life of a student at one of our partner schools by being a reading buddy or mentor!

Woods Chapel is excited to partner with Children’s HopeChest, an organization we’ve worked with before, now serving communities in five countries—including El Paraíso, Guatemala. Together, we’re building a long-term, relationship-based partnership focused on sustainable community development. 

At the heart of this partnership are Friendships—a monthly sponsorship that supports a child’s education, health, environment, and spiritual formation, while creating a meaningful, personal connection through letter writing. 

Friendship Sundays: 
On these Sundays, our congregation will have the opportunity to become a Friend to a child in El Paraíso. Sponsorships are $45/month, and children in the community will choose their HopeChest Friend—honoring dignity and deepening connection.  

Looking ahead, Woods Chapel will also: 

Participate in partner visits to Guatemala, focused on relationships and meeting your HopeChest Friend 

Support key community projects like clean water access, medical care, and improved facilities 

Celebrate a Match Party later this winter, when children choose their Friends 

Our first partner trip to Guatemala is planned for summer 2026. 

This is more than sponsorship—it’s friendship, partnership, and a shared journey of hope. 

Guatemala Partnership FAQ 

Grace Place is a program for members of the community experiencing financial hardship. It includes our Food Pantry, Clothing Closet, and Budget Counseling.

Hillcrest has been described as a “boot camp for the homeless", designed to educate and empower homeless families with the skills they need to reach self-sufficiency. Hillcrest operates 7 housing and service sites in 5 counties (21 buildings, 74 units) – they rely heavily on local churches for assistance and support.  

Woods Chapel has been actively involved with Hillcrest for the past 16 years. We sponsor three of the apartments, which means we keep them furnished, cleaned, and stocked with basic necessities for each incoming family; we also provide three-yearly sponsorship stipends. We are the "contact church” for weekly urgent needs. We conduct periodic drives to restock the Hillcrest pantries. Many of our members have donated furniture, household items, and even vehicles!

We also volunteer at the Hillcrest Thrift Store, as well as direct donations to the Hillcrest Thrift Store. Money raised from the thrift store benefits Hillcrest Transitional Housing. 

Our Cancer Center Partnership coordinates, provides, and supports activities directly with the KU Cancer Center.  

The Woods Chapel Church Cancer Center Partnership coordinates, provides, and supports activities directly with the KU Cancer Center located near the church. Projects include:  

—Providing seasonal pins, baseball caps, turbans, hats, and scarves (made by WCC members) for patients 

—Providing books and magazines 

—Providing homemade lap quilts for patients made by the WCC Quilting for Charity Group 

—Maintaining birdhouses outside the infusion room  

Volunteers work with patient care areas at the KU Cancer Center, including making patients feel welcome, helping patients fill out paperwork, making coffee, and more. Training is required. 

Join us for events like our Blessing of the Pets and Pet Memorial Service, serve at vaccine clinics and fundraisers, walk dogs for those recovering from illness, or offer support during difficult vet visits. You can help assemble welcome or pet loss bags, participate in Wayside Waifs’ Strut with Your Mutt 5K, support foster and shelter education, make toys and prepare pet food for pantry guests, plan events like Tails on the Trail, and gather monthly to dream up new ideas together.

Quilt while enjoying snacks and conversation with friends. This group meets on the second Wednesday of the month. This group creates quilts for WCC Mission Partners & Programs, as well as provides quilts for cancer patients. They bring color, joy, and comfort to folks when they need it most.

A way to be involved with our local schools! This group aims to provide staff appreciation and address/meet the needs schools may have, such as reading buddies, materials, etc. This group also works with the schools and their organizations to host food pantries or toy drives. 

Help feed kids in our community who may not have access to healthy food during the summer months (June-August) by preparing and delivering lunches daily. Email Ann Williams if you have any questions.

In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, the Tackle Hunger Drive begins at Woods Chapel. Join us for a chance to count and stock the food pantry with a team of people for three weeks. The Tackle Hunger Drive is a nationwide event to help tackle hunger. Come be a part of the team at Woods Chapel. 

The Table is our weekly community meal located at our Raytown location, which is free and open to anyone in the community! There are several opportunities to make these meals spectacular: Table hosts, food preppers, cooks, and set-up/clean-up crew for a 5:30 meal.

Visit the Woods Chapel Raytown page HERE.

Annual drive for people to fill sacks with food to equip families with supplies needed to cook a Thanksgiving meal. 

If you’re interested in helping with the ongoing effort to let our neighboring frontline workers know how much we appreciate them, please contact Missy Linder. 

The Uplift KC Meal Team will prep one meal per month for Uplift KC.  We will meet in the kitchen off of the Fellowship Hall at 6:00 PM on the 3rd Monday of every month. 

There will also be opportunities to sign up to go out on the Uplift vans to deliver food and clothing. 

We welcome everyone with a heart for the homeless and who knows how to chop an onion! 

The Uplift Organization is a mobile street outreach for the homeless of Kansas City. Three nights a week, they take four sprinter vans loaded with food, clothing, and other essential supplies out to the homeless. 

They meet them at parks, under bridges, at their camps, or wherever they are. They typically serve 250-400 people each night and never miss a night! 

Uplift was founded in 1990. They are 100% donation-based and run completely by volunteers. 

Uplift believes in the power of unconditional love and kindness. They welcome all people of goodwill to join them in this work! 

Have any questions? Contact Ann Williams.