The desire to plant a church in Salem had been a dream for about six years. After a visit to New England, Phil and Bev Wyman began to develop an interest in Salem.

Phil began to pray about the desire to plant a church here. In March 1993, this was confirmed prophetically. Phil had been praying each morning, "Lord bless us, grow the church, and move us to Salem." These exact words were repeated in prayer every day, for a period of about 2 months. Following this prayer, Phil would usually say, "Lord, of course, I only want this to happen, if it is Your will." No one was told about this prayer, including Bev, who was not yet sure that this dream was in God's will.

After two months of praying in this manner, a speaker visiting the church Phil and Bev pastored, spoke to them after the service and said, "God is going to bless you, grow your church, and move you." Those exact words of Phil's prayer became a confirmation, which set in motion the plans to move to Salem.

Our team moved to Salem during the summer of 1999 and began this startup church from scratch. We did not take over another church. We do not have a church building, and we did not have friends and family in the Salem area, except those whom we developed over the last 5 years of planning for this day. We began meeting as a group of five in July 1999. As you can see, this church is in its beginning stages. So, at this point, The Gathering at Salem consists of a group of about 30-35 people who gather for home groups on Tuesday, and meet at the The Vault on Sundays at 10am and 6pm.

Well, I suppose there are hundred's of people who are a part of this group. They are the friends who have been praying for us as we prepared for this church to begin, and then there's the people at Church on the Coast in Carlsbad, CA, who sent us along on this journey. They are a part of our family too.