Gerry Stoltzfoos grew up in an Amish church. When he was about 17 years old he started to ask questions about salvation. He wondered why, if it was so important to receive salvation, no one ever did. Gerry wanted to be in a church that focused on saving people so he left the Amish church and joined a Pentecostal church. Gerry severed there for 12 years and was looking to start a church in Philadelphia.
One day he received a call from a group of pastors who wanted him to start a church in Gettysburg. At first he was reluctant to serve in Gettysburg but God gave his wife a vision of them living there. He accepted that that was where God wanted him to be. Gerry said that they had done every church-planting thing wrong but it still came together because it was what God wanted. They started with about 40 people and now they are up 1200 and have to send people out to start new churches because they don’t have enough room.
Gerry reported that there is no better way to reach the lost than with a church plant. Other methods come and go but church planting always works. We live in a time when 83% of the country is un-churched well just a few generations ago over half the country attended church regularly. We need to reach out to the lost and church planting is the best way to do it.
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