Keystone Fellowship Montgomeryville

Keystone Fellowship’s history is not made up of buildings—it is made up of people. The vision of Keystone Fellowship has never been to build a massive church building and get people to come. Rather, it has been to build a community of believers that are dedicated to reorienting their lives around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is how we have been living out the Great Commission given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20…”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Keystone Fellowship developed a mission statement that is a reflection of this Great Commission: Keystone exists to connect with people, lead them into a real and meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ and equip them for life and service. This is what we are all about at Keystone Fellowship. What follows is a brief history of how we got where we are now.

2000-2001
Keystone Fellowship started its journey when in August of 2000, Pastor John Cope and his family left Lakeland, Florida to plant a new evangelistic Bible-teaching church in the greater Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania. In November of that year, Keystone held its first gathering in one of the new core group member’s living room. Pastor John stood behind a kitchen island and delivered a message entitled "Cut Down the Net". His wife Teresa led in worship, playing the keyboard in the breakfast nook. By Spring of 2001, the living room was getting crammed, and they moved their weekly gatherings to the Philadelphia Sports Club in Chalfont, PA. The core group had grown to 50 people.

2001-2002
In the months following the move to the sports club, it was decided that the time had come to have an official church launch. The first Sunday service for Keystone was planned for September 16, 2001 which turned out to be just a few days after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. As the country was reeling from the shock of 9/11, Keystone stepped onto the scene. 300 people came that first Sunday! In a little over a year, Keystone Fellowship had grown from a few people meeting in a living room to 300 people meeting weekly at the Philadelphia Sports Club.

2002-2006
As the months went by and more and more people were coming to Keystone and turning to Christ and being baptized, it became apparent that another move was needed. In April of 2002, Keystone held a groundbreaking ceremony for what is now the Montgomeryville Campus on Stump Road. After 2 years of construction, Keystone Fellowship opened the doors to their new facility. Once in the new building, the student, children, and community group ministries began exploding in growth. By the time Keystone Fellowship held its 5th anniversary in 2006, over 700 people were involved in the church. Miraculously, they also helped Pastor Eric Mason launch Epiphany Fellowship, a church planted in the Temple University area of Philadelphia.

2006-2012
Keystone Fellowship had been growing for a couple of reasons. One is the sovereignty of God and His passion and love for people. The second reason is that we have allowed God to build this church. By that we mean that we have not been focused on how big the church is or might become, but we have been focused on how big the people are. Keystone has always been passionate and involved in planting and assisting new churches. As more people continued to pour into the Montgomeryville services and community groups, it was apparent that it was time to start a second campus. Using the Great Commission as the guide and our Community Group approach as guideposts, it became clear that God was leading us to the area of Skippack. Pastor John met with a core group of leaders from Keystone that lived in that area and began discussing the potential for a multi-site campus. God quickly provided a space for the Skippack campus to meet at the 4-H Club. A launch team was created, and they began preparing to launch the new campus in October 2009. The Skippack Campus conducted its first core-group worship service on Sunday evening, October 25th, 2009. By April of 2010, Skippack had grown large enough to move to Sunday mornings and search for a full time campus pastor. Pastor Joe Snyder, originally from this area but living in Detroit, Michigan, accepted the position, and Skippack held its grand opening on October 3rd, 2010 with two morning services.

2012-2014
In May of 2012, Keystone hired Pastor Mark White as their next campus pastor. Pastor Mark moved to the greater Philadelphia region with his wife Jennifer and son Billy and began pastoring in our Fort Washington location. Prior to any Sunday service, our Fort Washington campus began praying and praying, asking God to open doors to our community. We began praying for God’s favor and guidance as preparations began. On February 15, 2014, Keystone Fort Washington began holding Saturday Night services for our core group which lasted until the end of September. After building a strong relationship with The Villa in Ambler, PA, our campus was able to begin meeting on Sunday mornings! Sunday, October 12, 2014 was our first ever Sunday morning service. 9 months later on July 26, 2015, Keystone FW packed up and headed over to the Hilton in Fort Washington. With many more families having joined our campus, an incredible amount of community groups having been launched, and God’s mighty hand working through it all, we began this new journey at the Hilton. Pastor Mark continually reminds Keystone that the Church is not a building, but a people who love God and love others. We have seen life-change like never before, people stepping out in baptism and service, and most importantly, we’ve seen God get all the glory through it all.

2014-Present
In the summer of 2014, through a series of divine appointments, Keystone connected with Matt & Michele Pilla who were holding bible studies in South Jersey. Realizing that God’s providence was involved and that we had the same core values, Keystone Fellowship launched a fourth campus in South Jersey in the fall of 2015! Matt Pilla is now the pastor of our South Jersey campus and we are so excited to see how God will use this campus to impact others!