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- Paul Horst (standing), shown with Darlene Fike (left), Brad Bondari and Stephen Hendricks, leads All Welcome Lutheran Worship in Tifton, Ga., with his wife, Vickie. While looking for a permanent home, the congregation is worshiping in a member’s pizza shop. Members often refer to it lovingly as “Pizza Church.”
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- As the congregation ponders its future, members of Pizza Church continue to meet every week, singing songs of praise—led by Todrick Webb—in the surprisingly beautiful acoustics of the little shop.
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- In the center of the room, a wooden cross, candles and a quilt made by Vickie Horst form a makeshift altar on a long table.
It’s Sunday at 9 a.m., and a small but diverse group assembles behind the bright bay windows of Pizza Quick, a counter-service pizza shop on the eastern edge of Tifton, Ga. As each person arrives, Paul Horst smiles and hands them a program and an Evangelical Lutheran Worship book from a large box in a booth next to the beverage cooler. As organist Todrick Webb sets up his portable piano stand and keyboard in front of the cash register, parishioners help themselves to coffee and pastries from a large corner table. All eventually find their way to their preferred booths so the service can start.
In the center of the room, a wooden cross, two candles and a rainbow quilt made by Paul’s wife, Vickie, form a makeshift altar on a long table. Kevin Strickland, bishop of the Southeastern Synod, recently appointed the Horsts to be synod-authorized ministers (SAMs), lay leaders authorized to preach and give communion to a specific small congregation known as a synod-authorized worshiping community. The Horsts now serve All Welcome Lutheran Worship, but parishioners often refer to it lovingly as “Pizza Church.”
The Horsts didn’t always worship in front of a pizza counter. Lifelong Lutherans, Paul and Vickie had moved to Tifton a decade ago when she became head librarian at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Having met at university in Ontario, Canada, they had dedicated time and service over the years to both the ELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and had even worked for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. But there was no ELCA church within a 40-mile radius of Tifton. So the Horsts attended services at an Episcopal and a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod congregation, but neither was an exact fit. Finally, when the Lutheran pastor retired, they decided to strike out on their own.
In 2015, Paul, Vickie and a handful of others established All Welcome. Their first mission was finding a place to worship. “We made an agreement with First Presbyterian [Church in Tifton] that All Welcome would meet there,” Vickie explained. “Our offerings would go to First Presbyterian, and at first, we started with supply pastors. Then First Presbyterian would pay them out of our offerings. We got Todrick to play organ right away. It was great.”
This symbiotic arrangement with the Presbyterians, whose own congregation was not particularly large, lasted for nearly nine years, with the two groups sharing a pastor most of the time. When First ended the relationship in 2024 over perceived differences in mission and vision, Paul and Vickie looked for other congregations that might be amenable to a similar arrangement. In the meantime, another longtime congregant, Paul Hill (known as “Pizza Paul” to distinguish him from Paul Horst), offered the group his pizza shop while they located another worship facility.
“We celebrate all of our members and attendees, and this is a place where you don’t have to wonder if you’ll be loved or not. You will be.”
That was nearly a year ago. No viable alternatives have materialized, but that doesn’t seem to bother the congregants of Pizza Church. If anything, their reach has expanded and their no-frills, no-strings-attached celebration of God’s love has flourished. Pizza Quick is located on U.S. Highway 82, within walking distance of both a truck stop and a Greyhound bus depot, so travelers sometimes stop in for pizza on a Sunday morning and end up staying for church and even coffee. “People are looking for community,” Vickie said. “They’re looking for people like us, who are not judgmental, who give you a cup of coffee and a cookie and say, ‘Come on, sit down.’”
Parishioner Darlene Fike, who began attending All Welcome in the early days after COVID, also speaks highly of their unusual worship space: “I find it encouraging that we’re able to meet in a business space like Pizza Quick because that means our contributions toward helping others are more effective, because we don’t have to pay for a building that is used just a few times a week.”
Fike, a trans woman who has been shunned by many churches over the years, appreciates All Welcome’s open and affirming stance in both doctrine and practice. “We celebrate all of our members and attendees, and this is a place where you don’t have to wonder if you’ll be loved or not,” she said. “You will be.”
Founding member Eileen Hill, Pizza Paul’s wife, echoes Fike. “In the beginning, I felt we should immediately find a church home,” she said. “But as time went by and people who may not have gone to a traditional church have found us, I began to think this is what God wants us to do.”
As the congregation ponders its future, members of Pizza Church continue to meet every week, singing songs of praise in the surprisingly beautiful acoustics of the little shop. Their number may be small, but in this compact, simple environment, they’re free of the pressures that stress larger congregations. With only eight booths available, there’s no room for cliques or cold shoulders. As Christ said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20).
At the end of each service, Pizza Paul fires up the oven and the fellowship continues with coffee, conversation and a lot of delicious pizza.
