Hello
We are excited that you are interested in our church. Here you will find some information on how we started and what we're all about.
Our Story
Our became burdened for the un-churched in Scott County. After reading an article from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board called Project 670 he discovered that Scott County has a population of 24,000 with roughly 13,000 of those being un-churched. You are classified as being un-churched if you haven’t been to church in one year’s time. This means that two thirds of our friends, relatives, neighbors and coworkers do not have a relationship with God. This greatly disturbed our Pastor.
Pastor PJ left the church he was pastoring to seek God wholeheartedly about this burden. He read a book titled “Prepare for Rain” by Michael Catt. Michael Catt is the pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church, which is the church that produced the movies “Facing the Giants”, “Fireproof” & “Courageous”. It was then that PJ knew the next step had to be prayer. PJ and his family organized prayer walks thru the 13 schools in Scott County and then thru the 18 churches of the Clinch Valley Baptist Association. Uplift Church is the product of 3 years of prayer throughout each community within our county. Our pastor learned the importance of prayer, fasting and seeking God.
On Sunday June 24th 2012 Pastor PJ gathered 5 families in his home and had a church service in which he shared the burden and vision that God had laid on his heart. He gave them homework for the month of July so they could seek God and see if this was something in which they were to participate. This small group assembled again on Aug 5th as a new work and started worshipping in PJ and Amanda’s home. There were five families (10 people) who were all in to the vision of reaching people for Christ thru a new work.
We met for worship in the basement of our Pastors home and afterwards would meet for about an hour to plan and organize the new church. It was during this time that the vision started becoming a reality. The name Uplift was born and the vision behind all we do. We’re a simple church with a simple mission… To Lead People To Love God & Love Others That’s what we’re about, and that’s what we are called to do.
Even though we were meeting in a basement the church grew. What started off with 5 families quickly went to 10. In January 2013 we had our first baptism in a trough in the basement of PJ and Amanda’s house. It was like a rocket blasted off and the church grew by leaps and bounds. Knowing the mission was to reach people far from God, on March 31, 2013 we met at Gate City High School for the first worship experience. We have since grown and currently meet at the former Colonial Downs building in Weber City, VA.