“On April 10, 1984, I said a prayer as a six-year-old child asking Jesus to save me. I grew up in a Christian family and attended a baptist church in my area. This church had a Christian school, which I attended from kindergarten through twelfth grade and graduated in 1996. I served in my church in many capacities while growing up like visiting people with my grandfather and running the sound system. I attended a Christian college for two years until I transferred to Youngstown State. For four years after graduating from high school, God convicted me of my self-centered, worldly lifestyle. I was living two lives, one that went to church every service and another life during the rest of the week. While at a camp serving as a counselor for my church’s youth group, I repented of my sin and turned to Christ as my personal Savior on July 10, 2000. I do not believe that I was saved before this and consider this as the day of my salvation. Soon after my conversion, I surrendered to do whatever the Lord would have me to do, and He directed me to start training for the ministry.”
Pastor Rich Peffer started a Bible study in the summer of 2006, after being burdened for his home area. After fifteen months of leading the Bible study, it began as Harvest Bible Church in September of 2007. Pastor Rich, besides having a heart for people and their relationship with the Lord, has received two masters degrees: one concentrating in pastoral preaching and another in biblical studies.
The reason he is burdened to plant an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing church in this area is that there are none that he knows about. The majority of churches are either heretical that deny the inerrancy, infallibility, and inspiration of Scripture or those that have compromised in some important area. Some churches are compromising by bringing ungodly music into their worship and/or are preaching seeker-sensitive messages filled with man’s philosophies. Some of these churches he would agree with in doctrine, but not in practice. Our pastor believes, out of obedience to God and His Word, that separation from the world, apostasy, and disobedient brethren is absolutely necessary to keep both the gospel and the body of Christ pure.
Pastor Rich and his wife, Holly, live in the Girard area. They were married in the summer of 2007. Holly graduated with a degree in elementary education from Bob Jones University. She has taught fourth grade for the last five years at a Christian school in northeast Ohio. Both pastor and Holly enjoy serving the Lord together.
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