All Welcome, otherwise known as Pizza Church, is a Lutheran church service hosted every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Unlike typical churches having a sanctuary, fellowship hall, or Sunday school classrooms, All Welcome conducts service in the lobby of Pizza Quick in Tifton.
The congregation is welcomed with light breakfast and conversation with around 15 people regularly attending. The service has an intimate feel with select booth seating and designated areas for their piano player, offering plate, and focus for the service.
The service is led by Synod Authorized Minister Paul Horst. His unique leadership style and background creates an interactive service allowing open understanding of each week’s sermon. Horst has a background in teaching and combines it with his ministry by asking questions and letting the congregation participate openly.
Each weekly service follows a corresponding pamphlet which helps keep the service in order. Horst makes sure to explain to visitors that certain highlighted text is for the pamphlet owner to read. There also is singing, reciting of prayer, and communion each week.
If visitors are new to Lutheran liturgical worship, Horst said, “Have someone sit with you when you come to help you through the service.” While the service is organized in pamphlets prior to each meeting, newcomers who have never been exposed to this can easily keep track with someone more experienced.
All Welcome originally was in a shared venue with a Presbyterian church. In Aug. 2024, All Welcome was voted out and began looking for a new place of worship to call their own. Owner of Pizza Quick and All Welcome member Paul Hill invited the church into his business.
Horst said, “Store front ministry was an option, and Paul had this space available that didn’t open until 11. It’s one of the best things we have done because of the outreach we get from being in a nontraditional venue.”
Nathalie Bistricky is a regular member at All Welcome and has long been associated with the congregation. She said, “We are here on Earth to take care of people. If we can help people who don’t feel like they have a place to worship and feel not judged, then I’m happy to even be a small part of that.”
Judy Thomas is also a regular member of All Welcome. Thomas and her husband were at a church with a larger congregation and felt that it lacked the intimacy of religion. “We were invited one Sunday, and we just loved it. We loved the smallness and knowing that it made a difference if we were attending or not,” said Thomas.
Anyone who is interested in attending service at All Welcome is encouraged by Horst and the rest of the congregation to visit the location at 308 E 5th St, Tifton, GA every Sunday at 9 a.m. to get your slice of Heaven on Earth.