When Reverend Rob Williams moved to Charles City, Iowa, nine years ago to become the senior pastor of a church restart (now called The Bridge Church), he knew God was going to call them to church plant in Mason City, Iowa, a larger nearby town.
“I immediately said that God is going to lead us to Mason City. That was on day one,” said Rev. Williams. “We’ve always wanted to be a multiplying church, so we started putting money away for church planting before we knew where or when.” Even though he began eyeing a campus in another town, the Holy Spirit kept leading Rev. Williams back to Mason City.
After that seed was planted, generous donors watered it by giving toward a church plant before they even knew the exact details. God brought it to life by an unlikely source — a church with a dwindling congregation from the Disciples of Christ denomination. First Christian Church, Mason City, which was down to about 25 attendees, learned The Bridge Church was thinking about planting in Mason City. After meeting the planters and hearing of their efforts, they voted to dissolve, hand the keys over to The Bridge and gift them with a $200,000 bank account.
That’s how One Church sprang to life on January 5, 2025, with 190 attending on launch Sunday.
A story of redemption
As improbable as all that was, the evolution of Eric and Tressa Voss as church planters is even more amazing. The couple struggled with alcohol and drug dependence for years in a way that tore apart their family and marriage.
Eric battled drug and alcohol addiction. His wife, Tressa, battled some of the same demons and they divorced in 2016. But in the fall of 2017, something changed when they decided to rekindle their romance. They got clean and sober, moved to Charles City with their children for a fresh start as a family and decided to repair their relationship with God. They got plugged into The Bridge. After recommitting their lives and relationships to God, the two remarried in 2018.
During the next year, Eric began working with people struggling with addictions and helped launch a Celebrate Recovery Group at The Bridge. Rev. Williams hired Eric as an intern and Eric enrolled in classes at Indiana Wesleyan University. He was then appointed as The Bridge’s recovery pastor. “We believe that God wants to use our mess as a message of hope and inspiration for his glory,” said Eric.
In November 2021, Eric found himself at the altar at an Exponential conference accepting the call to become a church planter. Northwest Assistant District Superintendent (DS) Tim Purcell, who was at the time DS of the former Iowa-Minnesota District, remembers that day. “Eric responded to a call to plant at that conference. I was there and I remember being thrilled to watch him be prayed over.”
A story of rebirth
That’s how a new thing was able to spring up in Mason City. Once Pastor Eric began organizing and investing in the community, pieces kept falling into place, including baptizing 17 people months before the church opened!
Around this time, First Christian Church members realized their church was on the decline and ill-equipped to reach a new generation. They willingly gave their building and $200,000 to start One Church. Assistant DS Purcell said, “Honestly, without those funds we probably wouldn’t have accepted the building because a lot of that money went toward renovations.”
The Sunday the congregation voted to shutter its doors and give it all to The Wesleyan Church, Assistant DS Purcell said First Christian’s pastor preached about running a relay race. “He said, ‘It doesn’t matter how fast you run your leg if you don’t pass the baton. We’ve run our leg, and it’s time now to pass the baton.’”
According to Northwest District Superintendent Wesley Smith, “The story of rebirth is just through the whole thing! You’ve got the rebirth of their journey with God — Eric and his wife Tressa — and the rebirth of their marriage, then you have a rebirth from within The Bridge Church, which started a Celebrate Recovery ministry that gave them a new-found sense of compassion for the people they brought in. Finally, you have a dying church in Mason City that handed over its building, which itself was sort of reborn with a remodel.
No one is more astounded at how this came together more than Pastor Eric. “The church [universal] takes a lot of heat over division on everything from essential doctrine to carpet color. But, to see this group of 20 or so congregants selflessly hand over everything to someone they barely knew was beautiful.” Pastor Eric said, “Their kingdom focus still blows me away.”
The support from Rev. Williams and The Bridge Church cannot be overstated. “Many times, church planters can feel like they’re on a bit of an island,” said Pastor Eric. The Bridge Church sent a team to help build One Church. “A sending church is invaluable to a planter,” Pastor Eric said. We call our people to give of themselves, it’s time our churches followed suit.”
Other churches gave as well. Trinity Bible Church, a Wesleyan congregation in Cedar Falls, Iowa, gave The Bridge Church $25,000 toward the plant and sent a team to help on launch Sunday. “It’s a testimony of when you pay attention, listen to the Spirit and are obedient, everything’s going to fall into place,” Rev. Williams said.
While it might appear that planting One Church was easy, Pastor Eric wants churches considering planting to know that it’s never easy, but it’s worth it and beautiful when God’s new thing springs to life. “It’s just hard! And this is coming from a guy who had a lot of things basically handed to him.” What it requires, he says, is a total trust in God. “We had a few really hard weeks. It was in this process that God began teaching us what real dependence on him looks like. I’m amazed at what God does when his servants just say yes!”