Our connection to the community began in the mid-80s. My brother, Harold Morden, was the pastor at New Life Pentecostal Assembly in Belmont. When he began, there was a handful of women attending, and he needed to make a decision: buy the old Catholic school building and the land for a really good price, or close down the church.

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​His first thought was to close it down. But God put it on his heart to build the Pentecostal church in Belmont so they took a leap and committed to buying the property. As they took the step of faith, as He always does, God met them as things started to happen, and the church quickly began to grow.

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By mid-1999, Harold had moved on to other ministry posts. Gordon Symons came into the church several months later as the lead pastor following a few interim pastors, and he brought me on as the assistant pastor.  The church had been up to 60-70 people on Sunday, but had dropped off considerably during the interim between pastors. The church was once again down to a handful of members.

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Pastor Gordon was a good teacher, and I started a mid-week kids program where we began to see up to 40 kids out on a weekly basis. We saw good things happening in the kids’ program and adult bible study, and within a year, New Life returned to a weekly attendance of 80 people.

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​After being away from Belmont for many years since, God really started to put Belmont back on my heart, and it was becoming something I couldn’t shake. The church was still called New Life but soon became known as Village Church. I did a lot of work with the men’s ministry, and we were, again, seeing good things happen. In part due to the pandemic and in part due to other circumstances, Village Church closed and left a void in the town.

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But God had put Belmont on my heart and I still felt called to Belmont.

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I really feel like God wants to have a church in Belmont. There’s a lot of hurt people. There’s a lot of people that have never met or known a relationship with Jesus. He wants a lighthouse in Belmont. He wants you to come and learn to heal and to forgive.

There are a lot of people who have been hurt by the church in the past. A lot of people have gone through bad things and then felt like they don't fit in. 

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I've been through some stuff. I've been hurt by a church. I've been divorced and remarried. When I went through my divorce, I thought I was out of ministry. I ended up going bankrupt and losing my business, and I thought that was it.

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But you know restoration is the name of the church, and my story is that God not only restored me financially and ministry-wise, but he restored me in relationship with Him.

I thank God that he pursues us. You know, even when we give up, even when we think that's it, or we even get mad at God…if you're mad at God, let him know! He's a big God, and he can take it. I was divorced, bankrupt, lost my business, out of ministry, and I thought that was it for me. 

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But here I now, and God has restored me.

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And He can restore you, too.