Church Under a Texas Bridge Bids Farewell to Founders After 30 Years of Ministry to the Homeless

The husband-and-wife founders of Church Under the Bridge — a congregation that has met beneath an interstate overpass in Waco, Texas, for more than three decades — have announced they are stepping down from the ministry they built from nothing. The church, which serves the homeless and marginalized, has become one of the most remarkable stories in American ministry — proof that the church of Jesus Christ does not require a building, a budget, or a prestigious zip code, only a willingness to show up where the need is greatest. The Dorrells' retirement marks the end of an era for a congregation that has fed, clothed, and loved thousands of Waco's most vulnerable residents, and raises the question every pioneering ministry eventually faces: can the vision survive the visionaries?