Our Story
Word Tabernacle Church began in 2005 with 14 constituting members who met in a classroom in our 1st church building at 820 Nashville Road.
Today, located in a renovated, 125,000 square foot former Home Depot building the church consistently serves its members and its community holistically through our mission of “people empowering people and communities in all areas of life to the Glory of God.”
The Beginning
Senior Pastor, James Gailliard arrived in Rocky Mount, NC from Philadelphia on a cold December night in 2004. With his belongings in trash bags, he spent his first night in Rocky Mount in the church parsonage with no heat, in a sleeping bag on the floor. His determination to start this church was unwavering even after rolling over and breaking his glasses during the night and having a can of paint burst all over him. He pushed forward and began holding preview services and 3 months later Word Tabernacle was constituted with 14 members on March 12, 2005.
By the following year, the church had grown so significantly that we had to add a second service because the 450 person sanctuary was filled to capacity. In 2008 we added a third service, and by 2010 our church had 4 Sunday services and every one of them was full.
Along with the growth of the church, Word Tabernacle has averaged 150 baptisms a year since the church was started and over half of our membership received Christ and began their walk here at WTC.
The Growth
But growth brought its own set of challenges. As the church’s membership continued to grow, we began looking for a new property to to serve our 2000+ member population. In 2011 we purchased a 66 acre property envisioning a new church building, but God had other plans.
In 2013, a study was released naming Word Tabernacle Church, one of the 100 fastest growing churches in America. When Pastor Gailliard first came to Rocky Mount to start WTC, Forbes magazine had just listed Rocky Mount as one of the ten most impoverished communities in America. So we know God was moving in order for a church in one of the most impoverished communities in America, eight years later to become one of the fastest growing churches in the entire country.
The Transition
Due to our rapid growth, Word Tabernacle transitioned from a community church to a regional church. Members were attending from 10 NC counties and driving up to 60 miles for Sunday services. Since we were now a regional church, God was pushing us to have a regional location.
In 2014, we purchased a 125,000 square foot former Home Depot building to be our future location and Pastor Gailliard named it the Impact Center.
We sold our former building to Greater Joy Church, another local church in Rocky Mount, and they needed to occupy the building before the former home depot was ready for us. During this transitional time, we held Sunday services in the Rocky Mount High School gym for 9 weeks. Despite the temporary inconvenience of setting up and breaking down chairs, screens, audio equipment and even a nursery every weekend, the congregation remained steadfast, embracing the transition as a testament to their faith and resilience.
Once the first phase of our sanctuary in the former home depot was complete, we moved in and the church continued to grow at an astounding pace. We rapidly had to increase to 3 Sunday services.
The Building
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck, but we remained steadfast in our mission. God instructed us to forge ahead with the building construction. We were obedient and faithful and in Dec 2021 God blessed us to be able to complete the 2000 seat Center for Performing Arts and Worship (CPAW).
In addition to the CPAW, the final construction also included The Center for Media and Broadcast, a banquet facility, a grand lobby with a baptism pool and fountain, a bookstore, welcome center and many more usable spaces for the church and community.
The Future
What was intended to be a small community church has become a congregation of well over 3,000 members spanning 19 years within a city of 60,000 people. It was the beginning of a journey of heartaches, celebrations, setbacks, and advancements, all evolving into an institution impacting the local church, the region, the state, and the country with gospel-dependent holistic human development.
Active members help manage over 80 ministries focused on spiritual and human development. Word Tabernacle Church now has active membership in over 12 NorthCarolina counties, more than six Virginia counties, and several states. We also have a growing global viewership and membership due to our online campus, E-City, which was created in response to the 2020 Global Pandemic.
The church has a mantra that everyone in the community doesn’t belong to the church, but the church belongs to everyone in the community. This means both the church building and the people who make up the Church are to be active in and a service to the community.
Word Tabernacle Church is more than a building consisting of four walls. It is a spiritual vehicle for socio-economic, system-level change committed to the Vision of “Everyone Thriving” through its Mission of “people empowering people and communities in all areas of life to the Glory of God.”
