Rittman Community Freewill Baptist Church

In the year of 1958, a group of people were gathering and worshipping in a garage located on Home Street under the leadership of Pastor Tenney. He later turned the church over to Rev. Herman Meredith to pastor. The church began to grow and soon the congregation had grown to large for the building they were in.

At that time, the church was under the name of the "True Gospel Mission." The church held a meeting and decided to send out two men to spy out the land, upon which the church would later build on. Otto Perry and Stiltner Vipperman transacted the purchasing of two lots located on the corner of North Main Street and Beech Street. We came back to the church under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and made a statement to the church as in Nehemiah 2:18, "And they said let us rise up and build, so they strengthened their hands for this good work."

The church began, at once, to make ready for the foundation, and then the walls were started. This was a long and dreary task. When weather would permit, we worked through the winter months. We paid for all the material as we built. We did not have to get a loan until we had the building all under roof, then came the task of securing a loan for the plastering and electrical work, also for the hardwood flooring. The ladies aid purchased the pews and altar. So often, our men would come upon difficulties, yet they trusted God and as the apostle Paul would say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

In the fall of 1960, God saw fit for the church to occupy the new building. Oh, how happy it was for a church to see their prayers being answered and a dream come true.

We, the church, have seen some great warriors go on home with the Lord. We thank God for the great warriors we have known and for the Godly men and women whom we now have to work with.

During the process of the building, when the church went to secure a loan to finish the building, we had to change the name to the Rittman Community Church. We have since joined the Free Will Baptist denomination and our new name became the Rittman Community Free Will Baptist church.

John W. Castle became our pastor in 1994. We have seen a steady growth and have purchased all of the surrounding land available to build our new sanctuary on through his pastorship. Plans are currently being developed with an architect at this time for our new sanctuary. We are looking to build a 350 seat sanctuary in 2007. Our pastor is a great leader and guide. No preacher has a bigger heart than our pastor! We love him!