History of Vitalize Church
In November 2011, Pastor Tony Gray after much prayer and seeking,
responded to a call from God to start a brand new church in the Smith Mountain
Lake area, something bold, something different, something life changing. In
January of 2012 Pastor Tony began meeting with others in the Smith Mountain Lake
area, who had a common desire to plant a church to reach the unchurched people
of our community. On Easter Sunday—April 8, 2012—Vitalize Church launched with 120 in attendance in our current storefront location in Westlake!
God has blessed Vitalize from the very first Sunday. We have seen over 40 people give their lives to Jesus Christ since we begun, have had many people growing into leaders, and have had one young man respond to the call to be a pastor. In August 2012, we had 10 people get baptized in the lake at the Smith Mountain Lake Community Park. We had an awesome opportunity to respond to the command of God in a very public place. We had one person stop and question one of us at to what was happening, and she said she had never in her life seen someone get baptized.
In November 2011, Pastor Tony Gray after much prayer and seeking,
responded to a call from God to start a brand new church in the Smith Mountain
Lake area, something bold, something different, something life changing. In
January of 2012 Pastor Tony began meeting with others in the Smith Mountain Lake
area, who had a common desire to plant a church to reach the unchurched people
of our community. On Easter Sunday—April 8, 2012—Vitalize Church launched with 120 in attendance in our current storefront location in Westlake!
God has blessed Vitalize from the very first Sunday. We have seen over 40 people give their lives to Jesus Christ since we begun, have had many people growing into leaders, and have had one young man respond to the call to be a pastor. In August 2012, we had 10 people get baptized in the lake at the Smith Mountain Lake Community Park. We had an awesome opportunity to respond to the command of God in a very public place. We had one person stop and question one of us at to what was happening, and she said she had never in her life seen someone get baptized.
Because the community park was not open for the season, we held our second
baptism in the church parking lot. We used a carnival style dunking tank,
and baptized 11 people on our One Year Anniversary. We celebrated
being "church done different" and more importantly the life change that Jesus
Christ had made in the lives of those who were choosing to follow His command to
be baptized. God is good!
We are also about responding to God in loving our community, and meeting their needs. We did a Free Car Wash just a few weeks into being a new church to connect with those in the community. In August, of 2012, we began a series called 'Christmas in August' where we focused on giving, and our people collected school supplies for students at one of our local elementary schools. We have done small missions projects to help families in our community with repairs to their homes and also helped a number of families who had other specific needs, including financial needs, food, etc. We sponsored a number of families during the Christmas season, and made sure some of the struggling families in our community could provide for the families during that time of the year. We have also taken on some local community projects, like helping in the local nursing home, and doing a project for Booker T. Washington National Monument, which is just down the road from us.
baptism in the church parking lot. We used a carnival style dunking tank,
and baptized 11 people on our One Year Anniversary. We celebrated
being "church done different" and more importantly the life change that Jesus
Christ had made in the lives of those who were choosing to follow His command to
be baptized. God is good!
We are also about responding to God in loving our community, and meeting their needs. We did a Free Car Wash just a few weeks into being a new church to connect with those in the community. In August, of 2012, we began a series called 'Christmas in August' where we focused on giving, and our people collected school supplies for students at one of our local elementary schools. We have done small missions projects to help families in our community with repairs to their homes and also helped a number of families who had other specific needs, including financial needs, food, etc. We sponsored a number of families during the Christmas season, and made sure some of the struggling families in our community could provide for the families during that time of the year. We have also taken on some local community projects, like helping in the local nursing home, and doing a project for Booker T. Washington National Monument, which is just down the road from us.
On the night before Easter 2013, we held a Community Sunset Service at Smith Mountain Lake Community Park. This was another great opportunity to connect with the community. There were over 200 people that attended that evening. We had face painting and games for the kids, our Worship Band did a concert, and then we had a unique Worship Experience as the sun began to set over the lake. We also did this event for Easter 2014 with even better results. We had close to 500 people and were at a new location, in front of Westlake Cinema. We have also enjoyed connecting with our community at events like, Bridgewater Fall Festival, SML Oktoberfest, SML Chili Cookoff, SML Wine Festival, and Pirate Days. We believe in meeting people where they are!
In early 2013, we also moved to a new location. The Westlake Cinema became our home, and we were there for almost 7 years before moving into our current facility. Having church in a movie theater had great benefits, but also great challenges. We had to set-up and tear-down all of our equipment every Sunday morning...stages, lights, sound system, welcome area, children rooms, etc. We grew close as a team during these times, but were often looking forward to what God had for our future.
In early 2013, we also moved to a new location. The Westlake Cinema became our home, and we were there for almost 7 years before moving into our current facility. Having church in a movie theater had great benefits, but also great challenges. We had to set-up and tear-down all of our equipment every Sunday morning...stages, lights, sound system, welcome area, children rooms, etc. We grew close as a team during these times, but were often looking forward to what God had for our future.
In November of 2019, we moved into our new church facility with great excitement. The new building would offer us ability to grow and give us a great place to do ministry with our children, something that was difficult in the theater. We also have a state of the art worship center now, that works great with our unique style of worship at our Worship Experiences. We are continuing to see God do great things at Vitalize Church, and God is bringing new people through the doors every Sunday morning. We just want to be about His business, and seeing people experience life in Christ. We look forward to whatever God wants to do through Vitalize and want to go wherever He wants to take us.
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