Melfa church breaks ground with vision for huge growth

By Bill Sterling

Adopting the Field of Dreams  “If you build it, they will come” approach, a small church in Melfa with a membership of 30 has broken ground for a 9,750 square foot building that will seat 200 parishioners.

The His Way Fellowship Assembly of God church now meets each Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the bingo building on the old Melfa carnival grounds. “It has served our purpose very well, but we feel with a larger building more suitable for a church our congregation will grow,” said Pastor John Mazziott, the youth pastor for the past three years but recently elected the church’s lead pastor who will assume his duties in August. The groundbreaking for the new building was held in early June.

Mazziott, 25, will be taking over the helm from Rev. Richard Bradford, who founded the church 10 years ago and will remain as a mentor.

“Our church provides a loving, engaged community, dedicated to doing life together and seeing one another get closer to God,” said Pastor Mazziott, a graduate of Northpoint Bible College in Haverhhill, Mass., who is pursuing a masters degree in theology and pastoral ministry. “We preach the Bible and love one another. If we had a motto, it would be ‘Little drama, lots of love.’”

Raised in Bel Air, Md., Pastor Mazziott met his wife Amaris at a youth fellowship. They made a connection when they realized they would both be attending the same college. Amaris’ major at Northpoint Bible College was pastoral ministry, and she serves as the children’s minister and worship leader at His Way of Fellowship. They have a 3-year-old son, Joshua, and now make their home in Belle Haven.

Amaris said, “I’m passionate about showing kids that God is not some boring big man in the sky. But that He is living and active and that serving and worshipping Him can be fun, exciting, interesting and life-changing. For children’s worship, we let them dance and sing fun kids’ worship songs, and after we do fun sketches to walk them through bible stories and how they apply to us now.”

The church has adult and youth gatherings each Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The Assembly of God is the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination with over 67 million members. Pastor Mazziott says at its core of doctrines and fundamental truths it’s not that much different than Protestant denominations like Baptists and Methodists.

“We offer a new life and a freedom in knowing Christ and all God has in store for them. That belief fuels our church’s loving community; we love because He first loved us, and He has a heart for people, ” said Mazziott

Pastor Mazziott said the church is fortunate to be in a financial position to take on the building project, which will almost triple its seating capacity from the current 70 to about 200. “The Lord has called us to do this and draw people to our ministry.”