Revival Sparks in Tampa Bay as Spirit-Filled Church Advances Through Adversity by A. B. PETRUCCI for Charisma News
The rise of Countryside Christian Church, Clearwater, Florida, as a Spirit-led base for healing, wholeness and resources to the local community provides a blueprint for how the Holy Spirit moves and hope for the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.
Just when the situation looks impossible, hopeless or ambiguous, the Lord advances the church through the adversity, which is actually opportunity in disguise. Opposition hits before every major move of God, and then the supernatural happens naturally. This was the pattern that turned a home church plant with seven people in a living room in 1981 into a family-friendly megachurch in 2021 on the edge of a spiritual revival breaking loose in the Tampa Bay area.
“God’s hand has been on Countryside since the beginning, and the success that has happened was in spite of me. God’s will was going to be done, no matter what,” says Glenn Davis, lead pastor of Countryside Christian Church, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.
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“There has always been a special call on Countryside Christian Church to reach people, reach the lost, to be a fountainhead church that does a lot of healing and touches the community, such as through our Helping Hands ministry, which feeds 350 to 400 families every week. We’re a New Testament church doing the work of the gospel, not just preaching the gospel. Given everything that has happened, I have had to depend completely on God,” he adds.
Opposition emerged at every major turning point in the church’s history across four decades. It is miraculous that Countryside even exists—with its 2,500-seat sanctuary, full-time school, multiple thriving ministries, expansion into South Tampa and plans to be a satellite campus of Southeastern University.
