Our Pastor and some church history
First let me tell you about His children whom he is pleased with: Eric the oldest is pastor in Greentown Indiana and also the Indiana District Secretary. Bill is our youth leader, one of our drummers and presbyter of the South East section of Ohio. Karen is an altar worker and works outside the church to support her son. Grace works many hours a week on visitation follow-up, soul winning and prepares music for our Praise and Worship Leader and is one of our keyboardists. All of our Children love God and the Grandchildren wish they could be in church every day.
Pastor Hall and Pat had a deep burden for New Philadelphia area in 1979; they tried to start a church at that time and in two years got up to 28 people and in one month four families moved out of state. The remaining congregation became very discouraged and soon the church closed in 1981. The pastor took his family to Massillon to New Life Tabernacle to just sit and recuperate from the financial, mental and spiritual hardship. The burden never left Pastor Hall for New Philadelphia, it was like a fire set in his bones, and he could wait no longer so he asked Pastor Harold Blaylock for permission to return to New Philadelphia to try again. Pastor Blaylock gave him his blessing. He returned to New Philadelphia in 1984 with just their four children. The first eight years was very tough with an average congregation of near seventeen. Then He heard the testimony of a pastor who had endured for longer. Once he heard that and found faith when God healed a broken foot in three days he started a leadership training program to prepare for the growth coming. Three people show up to pray with him and encouraged him to develop the leadership program: Tony his co-worker in business; Eric and Bill his sons. The church has grown slowly and consistently near 15% yearly.
In 2005 we outgrew our church on Union Avenue and In 2006 we purchased 7 Acres of land on the 250 By-pass, we paid the land off to see if we could handle the mortgage and started our building program in 2007, everything went perfect except we lost 20 in attendance because we didn’t build fast enough. On Good Friday 2008 we moved into our new tabernacle which seats 450 comfortably. In 2011 we baptized 62 people and grew by 54. Because of the rate of growth we are having, we have asked our contractor to design a tabernacle to seat 900 so we will be able to move in the year 2015. Pastor Kermit Hall has been licensed with the Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ since 1979. He has been in management for more than 40 years; where ever he worked, he brought prosperity to the company. It seems everything he touches God blesses. He is a strong advocate of prayer, fasting and reading the word feeling it is essential to knowing and following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He feels no one should step into the pulpit without excellent preparation and that a sermon should last only 30 minutes unless the Spirit leads otherwise. {Our church services usually last an hour and our altar calls may last longer as the Spirit touches the congregation.} His preaching/teaching is informative, inspiring and life changing and never boring. He loves to read and has read the bible through many times and many other books written by great men of success. Other Pastors have called him a “master communicator” because of his simplicity and method of relating to people’s needs. He teaches leadership training at the church every Sunday at nine in the morning except holidays (all is welcome to attend.) We all know the greatest leader living is Jesus Christ, the son of God, God in the flesh, our greatest example and without question Christ’s leadership training was vital to the apostles accomplishments.
The pastor and wife loves the outdoors, They fish in the bush country of Canada, ride 4 wheelers, travels to the west to ride modified jeeps in the canyons and loves sight-seeing, love the oceans and walks on the beach with family. Their dream is to see the beauty of ever state west of the Mississippi and so far only North Dakota, Washington and Oregon are left. The Pastors Wife, Pat is the women’s pastor: The pastor feels women need women counselors because who can understand women better than a woman. She has counseled women for over 30 years. And is trusted and loved greatly by the ladies in the church. Those that know her in the district has a tremendous love and respect for her and voted her in as vice president of the Ohio Ladies Espirit, however she resigned after two years to spend more time with our new mothers in the church and help the pastor in being the Assistant Superintendent of the ALJC Ohio district. She is involved in teaching six Home Bible Studies a week to our new disciples.
