The History of Charity Chapel
In 1974 and 1975 a small group of believers met together for prayer and fellowship. This group of believers came together because they had a common need and soon they realized as one of them said, "we were just hungry for God". It was this God instilled hunger that caused them, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, to form a new congregation in Pensacola, Florida.
Charity Chapel, the name they chose for this new congregation, met for the first Sunday service in the home of Glenn and Judy Sizemore. The first pastor of this new congregation was Jack Coppenger who went to be with the Lord in 1993. The property at 5820 Montgomery Avenue was purchased in 1975 and soon thereafter the first service at that location was held at night by the light of kerosene lanterns. The people who met that night were so happy to be able to worship God that they were not concerned by the problems of "no electricity".
Eddie Hinote became the second pastor of Charity Chapel where he served until 1979.
June 8, 1979 Michael and Pam came to Charity Chapel to serve as the Senior Pastor of this congregation. They have three sons – Jeff, Ben & Matt.
July 1982 Purchased land for $8,500 and spent $1,500 to clear land where the gold building was built. Charity Chapel had saved $10,000 to purchase additional property. The gold building cost nearly $75,000 at an interest rate of 17%. Approximately sixty people attended services in the new gold building.
Later, an addition of 25 feet was added on to the east end of the gold building, which included a baptismal pool.
The congregation eventually overflowed the building, so the offices were moved across the street to a rental house trailer at 5808B Dallas Avenue , which was owned by Mr. & Mrs. Mack Sapp. (This is part of the property that was purchased in May, 1995.)
After a 3-4 year search for more property, the decision was made to purchase the land that thirty trailer homes sat on (which connected with the original property), at a cost of $170,000. God spoke to Pastor Mike “you build it, you will pay for it, I build it, I will pay for it.” Ed and Ann Beck donated $60,000 of the property back to the church. The trailers were removed and the land was cleared. This site is where the present auditorium is located.
Sept. 15, 1986 Brenda Wolfe was employed as Church Secretary. Brenda remembers, "How rapidly the congregation grew and how the Lord, in His great wisdom, blessed Charity Chapel on 'Miracle Day'."
May 6, 1988 Charity Chapel "Miracle Day". A financial miracle of $715,805.10 was anonymously given to the church. Pastor Jerry drove into Pensacola that day from Texas seeking God's direction for his life and ministry. Pam “miraculously” directed him to their home at the same time Pastor Mike was receiving the financial miracle. This money enabled the building of our main auditorium and offices as well as bringing Jerry and Jan on staff.
April 1989 We "broke ground" for the present auditorium.
Aug. 15, 1988 Jerry and Jan Ireland became part of our church family. Jerry serves as Associate Pastor.
We transferred from the gold building into the new auditorium with an average attendance of 185 people.
Jan. 18, 1990 The present auditorium was completed and that night we had our first service with a concert by "Harvest". Jerry Ireland remembers, "We used every pew and chair that we had in the building to seat the crowd."
Feb. 25, 1990 Dedication Sunday for our auditorium and offices.
May 26, 1991 Homecoming Service with Ben Kinchlow our special speaker.
1990 The original white building was sold to another congregation.
Oct. 6, 1992 G.H. "Bill" Plant went "home to heaven" after serving the Lord all of his life. Bill had served the Lord faithfully for 17 years at Charity Chapel as an Elder, church treasurer and as the Administrative Pastor.
Nov. 15, 1992 Joe Nettleton began serving this congregation as an Associate Pastor. Joe, his wife, Donna and their daughters, Susan, Sheryl and Jennifer became part of this congregation in August, 1988.
Easter 1993 Completion of new wings. Northwest Florida Spanish Church began to meet on our campus. Two autonomous congregations sharing the facility.
June 1993 Dedication of educational wing in memory of Bill Plant for dedicated service, leadership and vision.
1994 FireHouse Neighborhood Ministries was started under the leadership of Tony Faircloth. This is an outreach to our neighborhood children.
May 31, 1995 Purchased the Sapp Property at 5806 & 5808 Dallas Avenue for $65,000. It includes 2 lots, a three bedroom/two bath brick home with a detached garage and two house trailers. The brick home is currently being used as a rental property.
May 1996 Purchased 2 house trailers on South West corner of property and remodeled them to be used as missionary guest housing.
Oct., 1997 We began Bellview Fall Family Festival (a neighborhood outreach fun day) which was an annual event for the next 8 years.
April 1, 1999 Joe Nettleton left our staff to be the Director of U.S. Ministries for Elim Fellowship based in New York . He is overseer of 900 credential holders.
April 13, 1999 Mary Wales came on staff. Mary serves as the Children's Ministries Co-ordinator.
Feb, 17, 2000 We closed on the purchase of property at 3100 Boulder Ave. (brick house) and 5815 Montgomery Ave. (double lot and double-wide mobile home) at a cost of $134,963 at 7% interest. These properties are presently being used as rental properties.
July 20, 2000 We closed on the purchase of property at 2400 Houston (house and trailer) and 5807 Montgomery Ave. (single trailer) at a cost of $45,000.
June 5, 2002 We purchased the property at 5810 Dallas Ave. for the cost of $25,000. The house was demolished.
Aug. 26, 2003 Brandon & Lori Harvey came on staff as our Youth Pastors.
Sept 15, 2004 Hurricane Ivan demolishes the west wing and nursery areas and the roof peeled off of the Sanctuary necessitating over $500,000 in repairs. We were blessed to have an insurance deductible of $500. BFC Builders was our contractor to get us back in our building. We met in the Gold Building (our old sanctuary/fellowship hall until we were able to go back to the main Sanctuary.
Feb 27, 2005 – Began double services in the Gold Building
July 24, 2005 First Service back in our restored Sanctuary. Lynn DeShazo and a special musical team were the first ministry as we began again. We were blessed with new pews, new carpet, new sound system and much needed renovation of the auditorium nursery and west wing.
October 30, 2005 30 th Anniversary – Theme “Great is Thy Faithfulness”
Tim & Reneé Tima-an put together a CD of people through the years at Charity. We had a fantastic BBQ dinner under the big tent in the front parking lot.
Charity Chapel Properties
