The Helkers' Story: 40 Years in 4 Minutes
The BACK Story
Almost two and half decades ago Eddy & Carolyn Helker joined Bridgeway Church with an emphasis on discipling young men and women, focusing toward church planting among the nations. In 2015, the Helkers started Disipleability Ministries under the belief that the Great Commission and the book of Acts do not separate disciple-making from church planting or gospel-sharing among the nations.
Discipleability launched Anchor Ministry to help the most likely grouping of people (college and young adults) catch that vision. The Anchor staff of six has focused on making disciples on college campuses in the Edmond/Oklahoma City area for more than 10 years.
The hope and ambition of both Bridgeway Church and Discipleability Ministries has been to see a movement that discipled young men and women who would be disciple makers and who would engage in reproducing communities of believers. Some of that vision and original calling have come to fruition, but until now, the hope of seeing disciples plant churches has always been a little out of reach or outsourced to other ministries, agencies, or churches.
Liverpool Football Club, Anfield Stadium - "You'll Never Walk Alone!" - Not a bad moto for church planting
The CURRENT Story
At the end of 2025, Carolyn & Eddy Helker will begin transitioning from their role in Pastoral Care at Bridgeway Church to a multifaceted role based in the United Kingdom with SAIL Ministry. Eddy will serve as Executive Director of SAIL and Carolyn will become SAIL's first full-time Associate.
They are making a three-year commitment to a young church plant in Wirral, England, focusing on young adults and families. The church is a part of the Cornerstone Collective - a church planting network in the Liverpool area.
Their location in the U. K. will give the Helkers a base to train future church planters, while putting them in closer proximity to the numerous global workers they have been supporting over the last 25 years across Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The church plant in Wirral will allow them to help young disciple makers engage in seeing communities of Christ followers (church plants) from various parts of the world.
The Simons Family (Pastor at Cornerstone Wirral) with Carolyn
The FORWARD Story
Upon retiring from Bridgeway Church, the Helkers are joining a church planting ministry among the least reached. (Liverpool is a city of 1.5 million with only 5,000 believers.)
By winding down their duties at Bridgeway Church between late 2025 and mid-2026, the Helkers will be able to devote more time to this new ministry, connecting disciple makers to the global and communal calling of the Great Commission.
This will allow them to fulfill their calling of connecting disciple making, mission training, church planting, and care for global workers - a calling they committed to 24 years ago.
Asking YOU to be a PART of the Story
Anchor Ministry has been the discipleship arm, focused on college disciple-making for the last ten years. Using the same motif, the term SAIL emphasizes training, sending, and pastoral care components. We feel the Father has called us to Liverpool to give ourselves through the rest of this decade to seeing young Christ followers give themselves to making disciples and planting churches.
We are asking our friends and family to join through prayer and financial gifts. The gifts are tax deductible and can be given through the DONATE button.
Additional Details of Our Story
Carolyn & Eddy Helker have been married for 37 years and have three children (Hannah, Evan, and Jed) spread across the USA. They also have two grandchildren (Saylor and Crew) in the OKC metro.
Eddy began youth ministry (Nichols Hills Baptist Church, now Quail Springs Baptist Church) over forty-one years ago. After marriage and starting the Urban Tulsa YoungLife ministry, the Helkers moved back to Oklahoma City and Cherokee Hills Baptist Church.
Following pastorates in Brasilia, Brazil, and Colonial Presbyterian in Kansas City, Carolyn and Eddy came back to OKC. They began working with Bridgeway Church where they started Bridge to the Nations in 2002.
In those 23 years, they have discipled, sent, and cared for many people spread through the USA and across the world.
In 2012, they started Discpleabilty Ministries for the purpose of discipling, sending, planting, and caring for young men and women. For most of those years, Discipleability functioned through the college and young adult discipleship ministry of Anchor which has four full-time and two part-time workers with students in OKC, predominately on the UCO campus.
Their hope and prayer is to see more disciples be developed, trained, sent, and multiplying gospel communities around the world.