Church Alive Ministries began on the first Sunday in October 1995 in the home of Ms. Jean Barnette in the Pikeville, North Carolina community with 13 worshippers.  Those who originally started Church Alive were hungry to escape a religious structure that was more exclusive than it was inclusive.  We envisioned a ministry that would have a place for everyone and where no one was lessened or demeaned because of economics, race or history.  We provide an atmosphere of love and acceptance that excludes no one.  Jean equipped her living room with chairs and warmly welcomed everyone who came to that first Sunday morning service.  She even prepared lunch for everyone for the first several Sundays.  Charles Gentry, current pastor, was invited to pastor the newly formed church and preached in that opening service.  Of those present, each committed to at least one year of faithfulness to the work and agreed to support it by attendance, prayer, tithe and offering.  By December 1995 the group had moved to a rented facility on US Highway 70 West (W. Grantham Street) across from the Little River Shopping Center.  In this facility we were able to accommodate a children’s church and later began a Hispanic ministry that met on Saturday nights.  After the flood resulting from Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the church rented its current facilities at 471 Buck Swamp Road, Goldsboro, North Carolina.  These facilities were actually smaller but much nicer.  We continued with our children’s church ministry but the Hispanic Ministry had relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina some months earlier.

We discovered early in our efforts to build a church that our purpose was to become a welcoming haven of love for those who had found church life difficult and uncomfortable in more traditional, denominational settings.  Our church quickly identified itself as an independent work reaching out to the disenfranchised of the Christian community and warmly and lovingly re-introducing them to a relationship with Christ rather than trying to force them into a pre-packaged religious experience.  People from all walks of life, cultures and races have found Church Alive to be a refreshing place to re-establish that relationship apart from a strict and forbidding religious environment.  We focus on being a “hospital for sinners” rather than a “museum for saints” mentality.   (Please see our mission and vision statements in this same tab).

In 2008 we purchased three acres of land on Hinnant Road, once again in the Pikeville community, with a vision to one day build a church plant to accommodate our goals of reaching the disenfranchised with love and acceptance.  As we continue to meet in our rented facilities on Buck Swamp Road here in Goldsboro, we have challenged ourselves to “go the extra mile” and make everyone who comes feel “at home” at Church Alive.  We are proud of a very exciting children’s church (Kid’z Church) in which we evangelize and love the children to whom we minister.  Our history is still being written, so you are invited to come and help us to write the future God has planned for us here at Church Alive!  We will help you fulfill your place in the Kingdom of God as we help you to discover, develop and deploy your God-given giftings.  Our worship style is somewhat contemporary and you will be comfortable in casual attire.

We are now in the process of accumulating the funds necessary to build a permanent facility of our own where we can further expand our ministry opportunities.  As stated above, our Kid’z Church is a key element in attracting and ministering to area families.  We actively support missions and delight ourselves in the goal of becoming a world-wide ministry helping people of all cultures and walks of life to escape the bondages of religion and to enjoy the freedom of a real relationship with Jesus Christ!  Our primary focus continues to be to reach those who have been alienated by the structured church and grant them a place of freedom, acceptance, love and opportunity to serve Christ apart from the political and religious entrapments that have served to alienate them from Christ’s body in the first place.