A Church That Grew Out of Asking God
Plattsmouth Bible Church sits on 8th Avenue in the small Missouri River town of Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The building, formerly a grocery store, was purchased in the summer of 2024 and is still being renovated into a permanent home for a congregation that has met in living rooms, a community hall, and a restored nineteenth-century sanctuary over the past seven years. Through every change of address, the church has kept the same focus: Jesus Christ, His glory, and His Kingdom.
The story begins in 1996, when Mike and Connie Wolfe and a small group of believers started gathering for prayer because they wanted a Bible-preaching, relevant church in Plattsmouth. They prayed together for two years. In October of 1998 the first gathering was held, a 3:00 PM meeting called "church@three" in the old Plattsmouth Community Center. Six months later the young church family bought an abandoned church building at 1602 First Avenue and restored its basement. Over the following seven years the rest of that building was brought back, debt-free, and the church grew in size and depth. In 2007 Twin Rivers Fellowship, another Plattsmouth church plant, merged into Plattsmouth Bible Church and brought new people and insight to the ministry. Twenty years after that first prayer meeting, the church family had simply outgrown its space.
On August 15, 2024, PBC was able to purchase a new site at 2400 8th Avenue, a building most recently used as a grocery store, and the congregation is now renovating it together. The leadership describes this season in a single sentence: "Through that trust, we remain focused on Christ's desire for the church to be about restoring people's lives and not putting up walls."
Sundays at 10 AM: A Blend of Hymns and Modern Worship
Sunday gatherings at PBC begin at 10 AM and run about 75 minutes. The dress code is "come as you are." The worship is a blend of timeless hymns and modern worship music, and the teaching is normally verse by verse through Scripture, looking at historical background, audience, context, and application.
For families with kids, nursery care is available for children from infants through age two, and PBCKids, the children's church, is offered for children from age three through sixth grade. Parents can check children in on arrival or use the Church Center app to check in ahead of time.
Between the Sunday gatherings, members and visitors gather at 10:15 AM for coffee, snacks, and fellowship. The coffee comes exclusively from Normal Roasting Company in Burwell, Nebraska, and the team of volunteers who keep it brewing is called the PBC Brewers.
For those who cannot attend in person, the gathering is livestreamed online through the church's YouTube channel and Online Church at 10 AM Central on Sundays, and a sermon archive is available online.
PBC Kids and J-Walkers Youth
Children and teenagers have a clear place at Plattsmouth Bible Church.
PBCKids runs during the Sunday gathering for children ages three through sixth grade. The goal is straightforward: to help children learn more of the truth and commands of Jesus and to grow as fully devoted followers of Jesus. Vacation Bible School is a major part of the children's ministry every summer, with a themed program that proclaims the gospel to children ages five through twelve through games, crafts, and teaching. Jordon Watkins and Mike McKnelly direct VBS.
J-Walkers is the youth group, open to all students in sixth through twelfth grades, meeting on Sundays from 3:00 to 4:30 PM at the church building. The name says it well. The ministry exists to make disciples of young people who live for Jesus Christ, His glory, and His Kingdom, learning to love God with all their hearts and to draw more of their peers into God's family as they walk with Christ.
Throughout the year, J-Walkers attend Summer Camp at Maranatha Bible Camp in Maxwell, Nebraska, with separate weeks for middle school and high school students, and a Winter Retreat at Camp Rivercrest in Fremont, Nebraska, open to students in sixth through twelfth grades. Jordon Watkins leads the youth ministry and is supported by a volunteer team.
Men, Women, and the Week
Discipleship at PBC is built into the whole week, not just Sunday morning.
For women, the church offers several regular touchpoints. Women's Bible Study meets on Thursdays at both 9:30 AM and 7:00 PM at the church building. Ages & Stages is a gathering for women of all ages and stages of life that meets on the first Thursday of every month, with a different woman hosting in her home. Titus 2 Tuesdays, also called T3, gathers on the first Tuesday of each month at 9:30 AM for fellowship, Bible study, breaking bread, and loving one another, with childcare provided. Connie Wolfe, wife of Pastor Mike Wolfe, leads the women's ministry.
For men, PBC Men meets for breakfast and a time of encouragement and growth from the Word of God on Saturday mornings at 8:00 AM at the church building. There is also a Tuesday-night men's small group, and FORGED., a men's discipleship group for men and boys ages twelve and up that meets monthly at a host home and hears testimonies of how Christ has transformed lives.
On Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM, a team of intercessors gathers for the Evening of Prayer, praying specifically for Jesus Christ to be known, His glory to be seen and experienced, and His Kingdom to be built in the local area and around the world.
Discipleship in Small Groups
Small groups are where, in PBC's words, "discipleship happens best with a few people together." The groups are designed to help followers of Jesus live for Him, His glory, and His Kingdom, with opportunity for growth, accountability, and spurring one another on in a smaller setting than Sunday mornings.
Several small groups meet through the week. Greg & Evis Zamora lead a Monday evening group that studies different books of the Bible. The Tuesday-night PBC Men group gathers adult men for community and Scripture study. Ages & Stages, mentioned above, also functions as a small group. #fridgerights, also called the McKnelly / Perkins group, meets on Sunday afternoons and is known for its cinnamon rolls. The Balcony Crew, the church's newest and youngest small group, reviews the weekly further-study questions together and welcomes kids and singles. Haverim, a Saturday evening group, shares a meal together and digs into in-depth questions related to Sunday's message, rotating between homes. Stuck on Jesus meets on Sunday evenings at 6 PM at Keith and Linda Sarver's home for a book-based study. Treasure gathers on Sunday evenings over dessert to look at in-depth questions related to Sunday's message. Faithful Friday Fellowship shares life together on Friday evenings at Greg and Evis Zamora's home.
Two topical studies round out the discipleship menu. The Truth Project is a thirteen-week DVD-based home study that looks at life from a biblical worldview. Financial Peace University is a nine-lesson Dave Ramsey course on budgeting, debt, planning, and giving, using biblical principles.
Reaching Out in Plattsmouth
The church's heart for its town shows up in several practical ways.
Each month on the third Friday, PBC hosts the Community Food Pantry, a food giveaway for neighbors in the area. Volunteers from the church family serve, meet, and pray with those who come, asking God to open doors for the gospel.
Twice a year, in March and August, the church hosts a Community Clothing Giveaway with free clothing available to anyone in the community. Serving and sharing with neighbors in tangible ways, the church says, allows open doors for the gospel.
The Jail Ministry sends Sunday-afternoon worship services for men and women, separately, to the Cass County Jail at 1:45 PM, along with a Wednesday Women's Bible Study at 1:30 PM for female inmates, focused on an in-depth study of issues of life directly concerning their circumstances.
Narrow Gate Recovery is a Christ-centered group that meets on Monday nights at 7:00 PM in the PBC basement, open to anyone struggling with hurt, pain, or addiction of any kind.
Bee Blessed gathers once per month for people who love to craft. The group is currently making handmade quilts for newborns in the PBC family, as well as for law enforcement and first responders to give to those in need from a fire or catastrophic incident.
Going to the World
The World Mission Team helps the congregation live for Jesus Christ, His glory, and His Kingdom, and educates and engages PBC in local and global missions. The church partners with several ministries and organizations.
Each Christmas season, PBC partners with Samaritan's Purse and Operation Christmas Child to fill shoe boxes with toys and gifts for children in need around the world. Members can fill a box, donate for shipping, or give to Samaritan's Purse to bless a child in need.
PBC also partners with Restore Ministries International to help support churches devastated by natural disasters around the world, and has a close relationship with RMI missionary Greg Rife.
Nationally, PBC supports church plants through the Berean Fellowship of Churches. Other ministry partners include Maranatha Camp & Retreat Center, where the church attends summer camps and Berean events; Calibrate Ministries, with speaker Brady Cone visiting PBC to share on issues of sexual brokenness; Greatest Life Ministries, founded by Graham Stamford, a frequent guest speaker at PBC's Bible conferences; Okoboji Bible Conference, a family Bible conference the church points members toward; and Normal Roasting Company, the Burwell, Nebraska roaster whose coffee is served between gatherings.
Each year PBC has hosted a Bible conference, including the 2024 Bible Conference on the State of the Church with Stamford, and earlier Greatest Life conferences in 2019 and 2023.
A Fellowship Called Berean
Plattsmouth Bible Church is part of the Berean Fellowship of Churches, a network of more than sixty churches across the United States that has been planting and strengthening churches since 1935 for the purpose of making disciples to reach the world for Jesus Christ. PBC has been an active member of the BFC since its own beginning in 1996. Each Berean church is autonomous and loosely connected with the others in the fellowship, sharing the same devotion to God's Word, God's plans, and God's people.
What the Church Believes
PBC holds to a doctrinal statement that begins with the Bible: "The Bible, consisting of both Old and New Testaments in their entirety, is the only divinely inspired, inerrant, truthful and authoritative written Word of God, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice," to be read literally, grammatically, contextually, and historically.
The church teaches that there is one infinite, personal God, the Creator, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, fully God and fully man, who lived a sinless life, was crucified and died to pay for the sin of all mankind, was buried, and rose bodily from the dead on the third day. He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father as the only Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate.
The Holy Spirit is God, a person, not a force, whose ministries include convicting all people of sin, calling, regenerating, indwelling, and baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. The Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to each believer according to His will, and PBC does not seek after particular gifts nor prohibit them, trusting God's freedom to use any gift according to His desire.
The church teaches that mankind was created in the image of God to enjoy a personal relationship of love with Him and to bear His image in the world, but the first man sinned and broke that relationship, and all of Adam's offspring are sinners, spiritually dead in their sin and separated from God. The judgment for sin is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire.
Salvation, PBC teaches, is by trusting in Jesus Christ alone. The substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross is the satisfactory payment for mankind's sinfulness, and His resurrection provides for the restoration of the relationship. Once a person has trusted in Christ alone for salvation, that person cannot remove himself or be removed from that relationship for all of eternity.
The church teaches a future bodily return of Christ, a literal time of great tribulation, the rapture of the Church, a Millennial Kingdom, final judgment, the eternal punishment of the wicked, and the creation of a new heaven and new earth as the eternal home of all who have trusted Christ alone for salvation.
Joining the PBC Family
The Connection Center is the place to find a next step at PBC. Newcomers can pick up a visitor info card or talk with Greg Zamora, the associate pastor of connection, about the next Connections Workshop, an eight-week class that walks people through connecting with the Lord Jesus, with His people, and with ministry opportunities.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with pastoral staff available by appointment. The phone number is (402) 296-5393, and the email address for general inquiries is pbcadmin@plattsmouth.church. The Church Center app, available on desktop and mobile, is used to register for events, check children in, and keep up with the church calendar. Online giving is available through Tithe.ly, and a PBC merch store is operated through GC Designs.
On months with five Sundays, the PBC family gathers in the evening for EXALT!, an extended time of worship with special music, vocal and instrumental solos, dance, testimonies, and other gifts, all for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Plattsmouth Bible Church exists to love, serve, and follow Jesus, and to help people become fully devoted to Jesus Christ and His mission. The church's motto and heartbeat is also its simplest statement: Jesus Christ, His glory, His Kingdom.