We praise God for a handful of families who had the burden to start the original Keystone Bible Church in a living room on October 18, 1977.
The 30 years that followed contained seasons of church health as well as seasons of poor gospel testimony. This resulted in a great deal of rise and fall to the number of people in the church family and by 2006 the congregation had dwindled down to twelve remaining attenders and no pastoral leadership.
It was in this context that God directed a church planter from Michigan to revitalize Keystone Bible Church, beginning on August 4, 2006.
We praise God for directing Andrew Haney, along with a group of people, to come alongside the struggling church and restart it with a fresh vision and God-centered philosophy.
The original group had a passionate desire to see God establish a healthy church in the Odessa community, and acted in faith to re-plant Keystone Bible Church.
On January 21, 2007 the newly formed Keystone Bible Church officially had its grand opening.
Over the next few years, God was kind to provide many people and resources from within Keystone and from without to meet the needs of the new church plant. It was exciting to see unbelievers place their faith in Christ alone, and to see God work in the hearts of believers to better understand and live out the gospel.
The Lord brought more and more people in those early years who understood and embraced the ministry philosophy of Keystone. It was an amazing time to see God provide and bless for His glory.
In 2012, the church had experienced enough growth that it could no longer fit inside of the original building on Tarpon Springs Road. After much prayer Keystone took a step of faith to move Sunday services to a gymnasium facility on Gunn Highway. A couple years later the original building was sold and all activities of the church were held at the gymnasium facility. We believe that finding a facility large enough to keep the church together for worship has been a key part of our health as a unified body of believers.
In total, Keystone rented the gymnasium and conducted many services and events at that facility for five years from 2012-2017. A highlight of these years took place on July 10, 2016 when we celebrated ten years of healthy church ministry at Keystone for God’s glory! It was a wonderful occasion of recounting the goodness of God.
During the season of time at the gymnasium God continued to bring more people into the Keystone family and He also raised up additional pastoral leadership to partner with Andrew Haney in leading the church including: Rich Penix, John Tracy, Todd Barton, and Anthony DeRosse.
God has allowed us to not only proclaim the gospel locally in Odessa and Tampa Bay, but also to partner in gospel ministry around the world in countries such as: Cameroon, England, Honduras, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, and Southeast Asia.
In 2013 God allowed us to engage with a struggling church in Holiday, Florida for our first church plant/church revitalization project. In a very similar fashion to how He worked at Keystone back in 2006, He was pleased to provide growth for the church plant initiative through a new healthy church vision and commitment to a God-centered ministry philosophy. Bo Bowman was called from within the membership of Keystone to be the first Lead pastor of Holiday Bible Church and in December of 2015 the church officially voted to become an autonomous local church.
Another important aspect of what makes Keystone healthy is our commitment to verse-by-verse expositional study of the Bible. It has been a joy to see God change us year by year through the preaching of His Word. By His grace He has allowed us to study the following portions of Scripture: James, 1 Peter, Job, Philemon, 1 John, Judges, Lamentations, Sermon on the Mount, Messianic Psalms, Some of the Proverbs, Philippians, Ecclesiastes, 1 Timothy, Luke.
In 2017, God led Andrew Haney to pastor another church in South Carolina. This proved to be a tremendous test for Keystone of our commitment to God and the gospel. We are thankful that He was faithful during that season of major transition to give leadership, unity, and giftedness to His Church while we waited on Him to provide a new Lead Pastor.
On December 17, 2017, after a twenty-one week search the church voted to call John Tracy to the role of Lead Pastor of Teaching and Vision. He was commissioned for the task not longer afterward on February 4, 2018.
In the early part of 2018 God made it possible for Keystone to purchase and move into a beautiful new facility located at 10925 Tarpon Spring Road, Odessa.
We do not define ourselves by our building, as we believe that a church consists of the people of God called out from the world unto Himself. However, owning a building again has been a wonderful blessing for us to use as a tool for God’s purposes. It serves as our Ministry Center where we gather to corporately worship and grow in the gospel and then deploy for gospel living. Our first service at the new facility took place on March 4, 2018. To God be the glory! Great things He has done!
We believe that our future is as bright and hope-filled as the promises of God! He has been faithful to write our story for His glory and our good and His gospel has proven to be powerful to save souls and change lives. We would love for you to be written into our future by coming to experience a God-centered, healthy community of faith.
In 2019 God directed us to join with Grace Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel for a second church plant/church revitalization project. He provided great unity between both congregations and on March 10, 2019, a vote was taken to rename the church Keystone Bible Church of Wesley Chapel and to enter into a multi-congregational relationship functioning as one church that gathers in two locations.
