Linworth's Story

... is more than an improbable beginning. It was an impossible beginning. It all started with fifteen men and women barely out of their teens with a simple vision to recapture New Testament Christianity. They were shaped by the idealism of the late 60's but recognized the ultimate revolution was one of love initiated by the ultimate revolutionary, Jesus. These young heroes and heroines portrayed Tozer's famous definition of a Christian: holy rebels set loose in the world.

What were they up against? A massive state university unfriendly to evangelical Christianity; cultural upheavals sending shock waves throughout the country; a nation tearing off the veneer of Christian morality; a local Christian community that did not understand them; and finally, their own weaknesses and inexperience.

Somehow they survived, though actually how they survived is not a mystery. They persevered through God's call and the unfolding guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the 80's credibility was built with the campus, relationships were built with other Christians, and insights from older Christians brought wisdom and balance to youthful zeal.

With a strong base of college students and leaders remaining at Ohio State, in the mid 80's a collection of families and single adults initiated a community ministry in Worthington. The college ministry remains today and is called Mosaic. The community ministry eventually became a separate church and built on Linworth Road in 1988..

What God has done is truly remarkable through that tiny seed planted at Ohio State University in 1973. Our mission today is still the same: to help people without God to become fully alive, fully mature, and fully on-mission. We aim to help men and women fulfill their redemptive potential in the context of authentic friendships. We aim to help marriages and parents grasp the power of God in creating relationships that break the cycle of family dysfunction.

The result of this individual and family ministry will be healthy, relational and on-mission churches aspiring to imitate the ideal of New Testament Christianity. A part of that pursuit includes dispensing our people and resources to spiritually and physically depleted parts of our city and world. Jesus initiated the Great Commission at the end of his ministry --- his words still reverberate in our ears today. It is our passion to continue in the great historical advance of the church around the world as it honors the words and work of Jesus.

This burning fire has borne fruit in churches planted in Columbus including New Song in Reynoldsburg; Heritage in Westerville, Darby Creek in Hilliard, and Grace Pointe in Delaware County. Churches planted in Ohio include Summit Community in Akron and New Life at Bowling Green State University. Across the country teams left Linworth to begin churches in such diverse places such as Columbia, Maryland, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In more recent years, we see God continuing to call us to let go of people and resources to dispense God's kingdom around the world. This has included sending career missionaries to and adopting mission projects in some of the world's neediest places.

Jesus said that with God all things are possible. Our story is not so much about the heroics of individuals, but the grace of an amazing God. To Him be the glory!