Our History
In September of 1997, a small group of people gathered at Woodlands Camp and Conference Center to discuss the formation of a new church plant in White County. They had their first service on the first Sunday of October, got in contact with Randy and Melody Hester on the following Thursday and asked them if they would consider meeting with them about the Lord's direction in formally establishing a church. Randy had just finished his work in graduate school at Bob Jones University and was in an internship program at North Hills Community Church in Greenville, South Carolina. He and Melody had sensed God's guidance in planting a church and had been praying about the next step the Lord had for them. The following Sunday, Randy and Melody met with the group, Randy preached and there was a general agreement that the Lord was calling for a church to be started. Within two months, Randy and Melody had moved into the community and the seed of Cleveland Community Church was planted in White County.
Some very serious questions had to be asked in those early days. Questions like: "Why should we start a new church in a community that already has a bunch of established churches?" That is a very fair question and it required a thoughtful and solid answer. The answer that became apparent was that God had a unique design and purpose for Cleveland Community Church in our community. C3 wasn't started because there was no voice for the Lord in White County. We are genuinely thankful that there are many God-honoring, Christ-following, Gospel-exalting churches in White County. We see that the Lord has purposefully crafted Cleveland Community Church to stand along side those churches, each contributing to the Lord's call that He has made to all Chirstians in our community to reach the Northeast Georgia Mountains with the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to our various abilities, personalities and designs. God didn't call us to start "just another church" but to establish a specific ministry according to His plans for His specific purposes.
The next important question we had to ask was: "What should this church look like?" Many of us in the early days had our own ideas about the answer to that question. But as we asked the Lord to fulfill His promise that He would build His church (Matthew 16:18), we found that His ideas have been beyond our thoughts and, as always, are so much better and more rich than our ways. We have found, that for us, the process of starting a church has been so exciting. We have asked the Lord to keep us from a horizontal eye that is filled with what others are doing in relation to the builiding of our church and instead to give us a verticle eye, an eye that focuses on God and His design for us. We are aware and informed of what other churches are doing and what "works" in other contexts, but we have continually come back to the founding formational question: "For us, Lord, for us, what do You want for us?" That question has actually become the answer to our initial question of "What should this church look like?"
Over the years, God has built us in ways we would not have imagined. He has worked on time schedules we would not have always chosen. He has used us in ways we never would have thought. He has brought challenges we didn't see coming. He has given us compassion and motivation for ministry we could not realize of ourselves. He has built strength and courage in us in areas we had never considered. And in all, He has blessed us beyond our expectations.
Our history is in the hand of God and our prayer is, and must always be, that our future will be because of His hand.
Solo Deo Gloria!