Church Spotlight: Gospel Community Church

Born from an unseemly first step, Gospel Community Church is well-known in the Lynchburg area for being a place of flourishing outreach.

Starting as a simple prison ministry, the church has grown into a nondenominational church with over a thousand attendees between its two locations at Rivermont and College Hill. Even from its humble beginnings, God has led the church to create fellowship in the community based on missions.

The church formed 17 years ago as a small ministry that worked to serve Lynchburg and its vulnerable individuals who were starting new lives outside of the prison system.

“The initial desire was to have a space that was welcoming and equipped to serve that population,” pastor Andrew Moroz, one of the founding pastors of Gospel Community, said.

However, their desires grew to reach not only one specific population of people, but anyone in the area who needed aid.

 

The biggest struggle in growing the church was the need for space. The church only had access to a small amount of money and a limited amount of building options, so the chances of finding a place to ground its mission seemed low. Despite these obstacles, God provided a connection with Rivermont Avenue Baptist Church that blossomed into something bigger.

Gospel Community and Rivermont Avenue Baptist merged congregations in 2017 to form one church that became Gospel Community Church on Rivermont Avenue. However, this wasn’t the only time this would happen.

“Two years later, God blessed us with another facility through a similar story where we built a relationship with a congregation that needed revitalization,” Moroz said. “Both of our facilities were mergers that the Lord gave to us through relationships. It’s amazing.”

This second facility became Gospel Community Church at College Hill.

Despite going through changes in location and congregation, Gospel Community’s mission has remained the same since the beginning: “to love God, grow in community and reach out to others with the love of Christ.” In keeping with this statement, the church offers many opportunities for the community to come and be loved.

“In the Rivermont area, we have a community center that … is a safe place for people to make friends and share a meal, receive resourcing and care. It’s a space of hospitality. We want our neighbors to become friends and family,” Moroz said.

At its College Hill location, the church primarily reaches out to the schools around them such as R.S. Payne Elementary, providing support for teachers and students whenever they may need it.

Gospel Community also facilitates a program called Village 434, which provides special resources to families that are engaged with the foster care system or in the process of adoption. Each family receives a “care team” that works with the family to give advice, provide meals or share any other sort of encouragement. The church also expanded the program to serve single mothers in the area in the same way.

With missions being an ever-expanding project, Gospel Community aims to continue widening its reach in the community this year by using old facilities in new ways. This includes transforming a space in the College Hill building into a space called “The Upper Room” to renew its music venue history and allow the community to engage with the arts. The purpose of this project is to not only improve the space, but also to bring renewal to the community.

Moroz describes Gospel Community Church as “a miracle,” especially through how it came about by merging congregations twice.

“It was pretty amazing that God said, ‘Well, now that you guys have gone through this experience, let me give you this other thing with a unique set of challenges.’ The Lord is faithful to both lead us to where he wanted us to go, but also to provide for us along the way,” Moroz said.

Even with challenging situations and relationships along the way, Moroz stated that through the power and grace of one savior, Gospel Community has come together to serve the Lord in the Lynchburg community for the long haul.

Gospel Community holds Sunday services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. at both of its locations in Rivermont and College Hill. To find more information, visit gospelcc.org.

Graeber is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion