Our story

In 1998 Pastor Mike Greider, who had been a pastor in Huntington for nine years previously, had very little contact with other pastors. God radically invaded his life, and spoke to him about gathering pastors together. The Holy Spirit impressed upon his heart if he would gather the pastors, God would unite them. Pastor Greider began to gather pastors to begin praying for their community. Soon there were two pastors groups in Huntington, one in South Point, Ohio, and one in Ashland, Kentucky. As the pastors continued to pray for their community, God knitted their hearts together and began to inspire them about how God desire to bless and transform the entire community. They were encouraged by the transformation videos produced by the Sentinel Group. These videos told of communities around the world that were completely transformed by the power and presence of God.

As these pastors continued to pray, God began to give them His love for their community. After a few years God impressed upon them that they were to focus their prayers on His uniting the Body of Christ. Then they became convicted about doing a retreat where they would have an opportunity to seek God’s strategy for their community. At one of the early retreats, the Holy Spirit impressed upon them that there were 12 corporate sins that needed to be repented of before God could move mightily through the Body of Christ in their community. Over the next two years Mission Tri-State hosted four major repentant events where these 12 issues were repented of. Each event was a powerful and moving encounter with God. There were two events in Huntington, one in South Point, Ohio, and one in Ashland, Kentucky. Shortly after the last repentance event, God began to release them to pray more intently for their community.

Soon after this in May of 2005 there was a tragic murder of four teenagers on prom night. This stirred such a crisis in the community that the pastors gathered at a community event. Community leaders asked for their help. This opened the door with prayer for community leaders. As pastors began to pray with their Chief of Police, then the Mayor then the Superintendent, etc., they began to see God move powerfully answering their prayers. In time praying with the community leaders expanded to most of the community leaders on a monthly basis. Prayers continued to be answered with supernatural results.

Through these answered prayers the faith of the community leaders continued to grow. This enabled God to move in even greater ways. Every six months these pastors would gather in a retreat setting to continue to seek God’s strategy for the next stage of transforming revival. These retreats resulted in several divinely inspired events.

There were several prayer marches, a time of marking the borders of their community committing it to the Kingdom of God.

In 2008 the pastors were convicted to have “The Invitation”. This event is where community leaders and pastors invited God’s presence to their city and surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. With this event pastors began to notice God move in even greater ways.

In 2012 Mayor Kim Wolfe hosted another re-dedication at City Hall recommitting the city to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Superintendent Bill Smith invited the Holy Spirit into the Cabell County School System.

In 2014 Mission Tri-State launched the Encourage Huntington campaign. The campaign was focused on encouraging people to “share their testimonies and believe again.”