HPC Through the Years
1992
Healing Place Church was founded in 1992 when Rev. Keith Gunter invites Dino and DeLynn Rizzo to become pastors of a relaunch of Highland Park Church of God on Highland Road just north of the current property. Under the name Trinity Christian Center, the first service has 12 people in attendance on a Wednesday night. The story begins...
1993
With a new record attendance at 72, Healing Place Church has its first Easter play. The play starred the Rentz family and Pastor Dino himself with live animals, including one lamb on loan from LSU, as their costars.
1994
On a lot of faith and trust in God to provide, Trinity Christian Center buys 19202 Highland Road. By giving free rat bait to anyone who needed it, the church began to build a reputation for helping the community any way possible. Our outreaches started with rat bait and grew to bananas, breakfast cereal, bottled water, hygiene products, and free garage sales.
1995
Trinity Christian Center begins expanding its scope of ministry to the entire capital region including Ascension Parish and other nearby communities to help the poor and hurting. An outgrowth of this expanded scope was the birth of The Church United for Community Development.
1996
Over 500 attend performances of the Christmas cantata, "Light of the World."
1997
Believing that servanthood for Christ is the heart of the Gospel to reach people, our church becomes known for "Coke Giveaways". Church representatives stood on street corners throughout the city blessing drivers with free cokes.
1998
1998 was a busy year. Healing Hearts opened its doors to unwed mothers in the Baton Rouge community. In addition, Ascension House, a ministry to men, opened its doors in Gonzales. The story of the church's heart for Africa begins. As a result, Trinity Christian Center fills a 40' ocean container with gifts for 2,000 AIDS orphans in southern Africa. Also, singles,"single agains" and a blended families ministry is born out of a heart to reach people where they are.
1999
Due to exponential growth, the sanctuary was expanded to hold 1,200 people, and the children's ministry and nurseries were upgraded and enlarged. As a way to reach more teenagers, Crosswalk Student Ministry begins meeting offsite. Our first offsite youth location was in a tent known as "the barn." Eventually, Crosswalk began meeting at Local 102 where it emerged as an outreach to some of the most valuable people in our community - the teens.
2000
Following God's leading, Trinity Christian Center changes its name to Healing Place Church. Subsequently, Pastor Dino Rizzo miraculously survives a near-fatal health emergency while on a missions trip to Peru. The church's new name took on a whole new meaning. Furthermore, weekly attendance reaches 2,000 throughout the church's 3 weekend services.
2001
Healing Place Church responded to the attacks of 9/11 By sending Cooking For Christ to the Pentagon to cook for rescue workers, we led a coalition of churches in our area in an all-out effort to send support to the victims. Also, our Pathfinders Junior High Ministry is birthed, expanding the church's capacity to reach young people in a relevant way. After several years of hosting performances of Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames, HPC builds a mobile stage to take the production to several outdoor locations in the inner city, and thousands bow their knee to Christ during the performances. "Build the Vision" begins as a program to provide the funds needed for the early phases of work on the new property. And finally, our Easter services were held at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the campus of LSU. Nearly 3,000 in attendance!
2002
A major milestone is hit when Healing Place Music released its first live worship recording, "Beautiful Morning" on CD. With the new release, the culture of worship At HPC rose to a new level. Another great outreach was accomplished out during Father's Day weekend. 10,000 people attended HPC's Extreme Church Father's Day where Pastor Dino delivered a message about "Life in the Fast Lane." In addition, guests were provided with a complimentary framed portrait of them standing by Dale Earnhardt's #3 car. As one of our final outreaches of the year, HPC planned Fall Fest at the State Fairgrounds with nearly 5,000 in attendance.
2003
An unprecedented event occurred in 2003. President George W. Bush commented about Healing Place Church in his State of the Union Address. As he mentioned the problem of addiction in America, Set Free Indeed became known as a help to people hurting due to bondages of addiction. As a result, HPC hosted its first Community Health Day with hundreds in attendance. Another unprecedented but hoped for event took place for our church. The last of the 56 acres was acquired after a series of real estate miracles and favor that only God could give! Our Late Nite services started on Wednesday nights, reaching out to the "twenty somethings" of the community. Also, the Elevate program held its first session as it began teaching young people the value of being a disciple. HPC-TV began airing locally on WBTR-19. Because of all the amazing things God did in 2003, our weekly attendance reached over 3,000 in our four weekend services.
2004
Our Healing Place Annex is opened, housing Refuge Youth Church, Pathfinders Jr. High Ministy, Women's Ministry, Singles, Pioneers, etc. Additionally, a Sunday video campus service is also started. KIDS in Action hosts VBS and the children raised over $5,000 during the week to give to Children's Cup for AIDS orphans in southern Africa. Because we wanted to continue to be a church large enough to reach the world, but small enough to feel like home, HPC Life Groups are created. Life Groups gave everyone a simple and easy way to get connected at HPC. With a heart to show the love of Jesus to one of the poorest communities in our state, HPC planted the Donaldsonville DreamCenter. In 2004, DreamCenter Church held its first service. Perry Stone and Joyce Meyer Ministries join HPC in sending out Cooking for Christ again as hurricane relief in the Florida and Alabama region. Weekly attendance reaches over 4,000 in five weekend services!
2005
HPC showed tremendous support for our state in 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, Cooking for Christ cooked 1000 meals a day for many of the relief teams. PRC Compassion was formed, which united several churches throughout the region as a way to network and be more effective for the Katrina victims and the city of New Orleans. In addition to hurricane relief, our members gave even more for the holidays. During Thanksgiving, we handed out turkeys to disadvantaged families in our area. HPC also provided coats for hundreds of kids that would not have had them during the winter. With the additions of the Spanish Campus and the St. Francisville campus, the term " One Church, Many Locations" was created to better define the scope of Healing Place Church. 20,000 bottles of water were given away at busy intersections, to LSU students, and football games, in addition to 5000 breakfast bars, 5000 packs of gum, and free jambalaya.
2006
In 2006, 91 people participated in a mission trip. These 91 participants traveled 754,940 roundtrip miles. 9 mission teams (or 138 people) came in to HPC to help rebuild the New Orleans area and work at our Donaldsonville campus. Countries visited: Rome, Italy; Manaus, Brazil; Swaziland, Africa; Tanzania, Africa; Lima, Peru; Acuna, Mexico; Berlin, Germany; Jerusalem, Israel; Kiev, Ukraine, Sydney, Australia; Kemerovo, Siberia, Mozambique, Africa. We supported 54 missionaries a month; sending out $406,840.00 a year in support.
2007
We continued to extend our reach in 2007 to the forgotten and hurting places of the world. Together we provided the people of Peru with much needed relief following one of the largest earthquakes in its history. Through HP:Global more than 900 people were brought to Christ as we ministered to 15,000 people in 14 different countries. We continued to invest in the next generation through Amplified, Submerge and VBS. This year was also a year of firsts for HPC. We had our first-ever Live the Dream Women's Conference, where hundreds of women were encouraged to chase the dream that God has placed in their hearts. The Healing Place Arena got its first steel posts and concrete. And we did our first Servolution, when in a single day, we held 15 outreaches with 500 volunteers serving over 7,000 people.