A former hippie, Robby Pitt was so inspired by God after reading a counterculture oral history, “Going Up the Country: When the Hippies, Dreamers, Freaks, and Radicals Moved to Vermont” (2018), that he moved last summer to the Green Mountain State — for a second time to be a church-planting pastor.
After four decades of ministry including stints with Baptists in Colorado and Southern California, Pitt is steadily but surely planting a church in the northern farming community of Waterville (population 704 in 2018), in Vermont’s Lamoille County, some two hundred miles from Boston and twenty-six miles due north of the famed Trapp Family Lodge.
With a passion for teaching and for mentoring pastors, he is also directing the Baptist Churches of New England’s Pastoral Leadership Development endeavors and teaching three classes a week at Trinity Baptist School in Williston.
Hit the ground running
Pitt is now planting the Waterville Country Church, located on Route 109. The building was the Waterville Church of the Nazarene, which commenced worship in 1910, closed their doors fifteen years ago, and moved to Johnson, Vermont
After just four months in Waterville, the Pitts have hit the ground running.
They have already held an end-of-summer cookout, two concerts featuring gifted local musicians, a Christmas market, monthly reading-hour gatherings for children, a pair of church potluck dinners, and eight Sunday worship gatherings. And they held two events that are sure to be annual highlights: The Great Pumpkin Carving and the Gingerbread House Christmas Party. An average of 40 neighbors have been attending worship and at least twice that number have been turning out for the community events.
“We are getting settled and becoming a part of the fabric of our community. We’ve been building a core group, developing friendships and meeting lots of people. We are discovering multiple ways to be part of and to be a blessing to our community. God has been giving us favor and we have received a warm welcome,” Pitt commented.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Dan Nicholas and originally published by Baptist Churches of New England.
