LifeWay is part of a therapeutic community church that was established 30 years ago by Pastor David Kirschke.  David is a father of nine children and lives in Hungerford with his wife, Jennifer and his children.   At a young age, David, whose father was a minister, also felt the Lord calling him to the ministry.  His father, the late William E. Kirschke, who was as the leader of his denomination's Christian education program, was known as "Mr. Sunday School."  A protégé of Dr. John G Lake, William Kirschke ministered for nearly 50 years as a pastor, missionary-evangelist, and Sunday School expert before his death in 1981.

Following in the heritage of his father, David answered the call of the Lord and in 1974, and he began a Houston "Teen Challenge" program for drug-addicts and anyone with a life-controlling problem.  His heart was burdened for those who were destitute---who had no hope and no place to go.  He started by bringing in drug addicts and prostitutes off of the streets of Houston into his own home. The Lord blessed the program so greatly that it ran out of room in its Houston facilities. The rest is a miraculous story of God's provision and anointing on the ministry, as the Lord provided an abandoned high school, which would provide ample room where "whosever will" could come.

The students and dedicated staff moved into the facilities, and its vision of Psalm 68:6 ("God sets the lonely in families") grew into a ministry, which became the only such program in America taking in "whole families," unwed mothers, as well as single guys and girls into its residential, discipleship training center.  Its drug prevention program in the public schools is now the largest in Texas, using the performing arts to challenge over 3/4 million students each year through over 1,600 school presentations.

In the last 30 years, thousands of people have come and found hope at the StraightWay Training Center and LifeWay Church. And LifeWay Church continues to grow.  Christians in search of a "cause," some of which are retired, and who desire to be used in an ongoing way to reach this generation through an "Elijah" (discipleship) ministry (Luke 1:17) in a truly New Testament Therapeutic Community, have been relocating to Hungerford to be mobilized into this vital, ongoing ministry.

What started as a refuge for the hopeless has become a "city of refuge" and habitation for many, who are "blowing a trumpet in Zion" and reaching, calling, compelling those without Christ to come into "Father's House."