It all started when…
Beginning in 1998, a handful of believers started praying for a move of God to come to the rural part of the greater Peoria region. With its hub being located in West Jersey of Stark County, the vision of The Gathering church is to reach the residents located in the rural and surrounding regions with the love of Jesus. By 2012, a group of about 20 people were joined together in sharing this vision and have been praying and waiting for the right timing for God to reveal his perfect plan.
In March 2017, heaven gained an angel and Toulon suffered a great loss when one of Stark County’s youth, Bradon Ely, went to be with Jesus. Bradon dearly loved Jesus and had a burden for his generation to come to know Jesus. He was always a driving force for his family to keep pressing forward for a new, life giving, spirit filled relevant church where his friends and others could go. He was passionate about seeing people having a place to meet where they would grow to learn and understand how much Jesus loves them. Even from his youth, Bradon was practicing his preaching as he pretended he was like Pastor John King giving the salvation message to anyone who would lend an ear to him. As he grew into his junior high and senior high years, he became even more devoted to faithful prayer for his classmates, and even to this day, testimonies have been shared of how Bradon’s prayers are being answered. One of Bradon’s prayers was for Pastor John King of Riverside Church to speak to his classmates at the Stark County High School. Pastor John delivered a powerful salvation message at the funeral service which was held at Stark County High School, where over 400 people attended, with several of his classmates in attendance. Since his passing, several classmates and friends are being drawn to the Lord. We believe our prayers are eternal and continue on throughout time even after we have passed.
During the time of grieving leading up to the burial services, it was put on Jarod Ely’s heart to host a church service on Sunday, the day after the funeral. With minimal time to work out the logistics of hosting a church service, God brought it all together. That Sunday, over 70 people attended. The presence of God was very real that day as the Lord was comforting the broken hearted. What was not known at the time, was that God was using this tragic event to launch a movement of people hungry for the presence of God. Since then, what has now come to be called “The Gathering”, has been meeting about once to twice monthly since April 2018. As the events have been unfolding, Jarod recalled how in 2012, the Lord spoke to him that he was to be the leader of the Church.
We believe that God is stirring in the hearts of people in the Stark County region and are being drawn to the purity, authenticity, and raw presence of God. It is the desire of the Leadership Team to lead people into a true encounter with the living God so that they can be transformed, body, soul, and spirit through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. God is gathering his people and our hearts are to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit as God moves in only a way he can move. Our hope is that heaven will invade earth and that The Gathering Church will have a multi-generational impact by representing the Kingdom of Heaven to the world around us.