Wharton First Church of God is seeking to fill a need for a full time pastor. The deadline for application is January 15th, 2022. 

Please send resumes to: glcdirector@cggc.org or sfkear@att.net 

About Wharton

We here at Wharton are an outwardly focused group of Jesus followers who are committed to bringing the Gospel to our community in every way we can. We have focused our efforts on our local school system, and on raising up our young people. We are a people who value worship and prayer in our church. We are active and hardworking and are in search of a spiritual leader who will continue to help us press into our calling as a church to "be the light" to the Riverdale community. 

History
 
The Wharton 1st Church of God was built in 1911 and has a long history of discipleship, missions’ outreach, and support of the conference. We have had sixteen men called in to the ministry from our membership.
Our church draws people from not only Wharton, but several surrounding communities including Forest, Mt. Blanchard, Carey, Upper Sandusky, and as far as Findlay. Our average attendance is around 95. We are a multigenerational church with a congregation of all ages. We along with worship service have a Sunday School of all ages. During the week we have Wednesday adult prayer and Bible study, as well as children’s and youth ministries.

The church sanctuary was built in 1911 and the annex with class rooms was built in the early 1960s and finished in 1966. We purchased our parsonage in 2003 and then used the old parsonage for classes for whatever is needed, and most recently our new food bank ministry.

In 2019 we attempted to purchase the lot next to the Wharton Bank and surprisingly were given the property along with the bank building itself. We went to work building our new fellowship building, “The Dwelling Place” which has been a multifunctional addition. It has a large kitchen which we use to bless the community and rent the facility for special events also. The bank has also become very useful as pastor’s offices, church office, classes, youth activities in the upper room, storage and general use.


The Wharton community profile
The village of Wharton population is about 338, with a reported median family income of $53,000.00, per capita income of $25,000.00. The median home value is $85,000.00, with median rent values of $687.00. There are currently no stores in Wharton, but the US Postal Service maintains a facility there.

The local school system is the Riverdale School, with all grades and is 4 miles west of town, with new buildings built in 2005. Higher education includes 7 college and trade schools within a 40-mile radius, with The University of Findlay 17 miles away. People shop mostly in Findlay or Upper Sandusky, both are within a short drive. The village has a volunteer fire department and village council. The village added a sewage treatment plant a few years ago. The water supply is from individual wells or cistern holding tanks.
Surrounding community populations include Forest – 1431; Mt. Blanchard – 486; Carey – 3554; Upper Sandusky – 6440; and Findlay - 41,225.

Church Ministries
The church ministries include the before mentioned Worship, Sunday School, and prayer and Bible study. We have since in 2020, partly due to the pandemic, begun an online live worship ministry through Facebook. We at that time changed our music style more to the contemporary songs. We have however not changed the message, but have our roots grounded in the Holy Word of God. We have started several new ministries along with historic ministries such as Vacation Bible School, Camp Otyokwah, youth and children’s ministries. Our ministries have included food ministries of Taste of Grace meal for the community now once a quarter; potluck meals mostly once a month; funeral meals; meals for the sick and grieving, and our annual Community Thanksgiving meal for all. Other ministries include Beautifully Rooted women’s group, Men of Iron, an Easter egg hunt, quarterly bonfire fellowship events on our spare lot. A ministry that has become special to us is the Back to School Blitz which reaches many through giving school supplies and back packs; it also includes food and games of all sorts; free haircuts; bounce houses, rides, local sheriff and fire truck display, animal petting, donated prizes and fun for all. There are lots of opportunities for service and fellowship.

In conclusion our focus has been on reaching others for the glory of God!