History of Creekside Assembly of God

Our Story

Pastor Charles Pezzino
Wednesday Night Bible Study in the old Sancturay
present Fellowship Hall

Pastor Charles Pezzino
Groundbreaking new Creekside Sanctuary 1999

On November 25th, Rev. Charles Pezzino was installed as pastor of Creekside Gospel Temple, Amherst, N.Y. Pastor and Mrs. Pezzino "have three sons - Chuck, Steven and Kevin." Brother Pezzino has been in the Buffalo area for several years involved in ministry and education.
Among the schools our new pastor has attended are Zion Bible Institute, Pinecrest Bible Institute, Central Bible College and the University of Buffalo. He pastored the Little Falls Assembly of God for two years and spent six years in evangelism. His ministry took him throughout our country, four other countries in North America and seven countries in Europe.

ASSUMES DUTIES 1979

Life Devoted to Religion

Made Richer in School

By DAN HERBECK

Charles Pezzino is an absolute joy to watch in the pulpit.

Waving his arms and pointing fingers to punctuate his sermons, he glides before the congregation at the Creekside Gospel Temple of the Assemblies of God church in Amherst with grace and strength.

“Jesus Christ,” Chuck tells his congregation, “is the answer, the fountain from which all life’s waters flow.”

Beaming with inner glow of a man who truly believes, he leads them in gleeful gospel song and greets every man, woman and child after Sunday services.

You’d never guess that this spunky religious dynamo leads a quietly efficient and comparatively uneventful life during the week as the acting assistant principal of the Herman Badillo Elementary School on Elmwood Avenue.

It was a combination of factors that caused Chuck, 41, to become the assistant principal of a large city school and the pastor of a small church on Tonawanda Creek Road at the same point of time.

A series of events that made him yearn for “something more in life than the regular routine” gave him his calling when he was 17, and he became a minister in the Bible-based Assemblies of God Church in 1961.

At the same time, Chuck became interested in elementary education, so he picked up his degree and began work as a teacher in the Buffalo Public School System in 1963. He’s been in the education field ever since.

“Originally teaching was going to be a ‘parenthesis’ in my life-something I was going to try for a few years,” recalls the North Buffalo resident. “But it was so fulfilling, especially in the core area schools, that I’ve kept doing it.”

During his “parenthesis,” Chuck has taught at numerous elementary schools. He speaks fluent Spanish and has been a coordinator of the city’s English as a Second Language program. He became the assistant principal at the Badillo School this year.

During that time, Chuck fulfilled his duties to his ministry by doing missionary work for the poor in places like Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Europe during the summers. He also did counseling work and “filled in” at weekend services at several local parishes.

One of those parishes was the Creekside Gospel Temple, which had built its small but pretty church and school building in 1976. The cost of the new building was a high one for the small congregation, and the church became swamped with financial problems.

Because the church had money difficulties, they could not afford a full-time pastor. Chuck, however, offered to accept the job without pay.

He was installed as Pastor last November, and he’s been in charge of the general administration of the church ever since. That includes church business, home and hospital visitation, counseling, Sunday school and three services a week.

All of the above, incidentally is done in addition to Chuck’s full-time duties as an elementary school administrator. But Chuck has no complaints about the “double life” he leads.

“Actually, being an educator and being a minister are very similar,” he notes. “Both require a lot of love and patience. The objectives are the same-preparing people to meet life situations.

“Both are a way for me to share my life with others.”

Things are looking brighter for the Creekside congregation, which has grown from 35 members to more than 100 in the past few years. What’s more, the church figures to have a full-time, live-in pastor when Chuck brings his wife, Sandy, and sons, Chuckie, Stevie and Kevin, to the rectory this summer.

It will mean leaving the Buffalo school system, but Chuck is relishing the thought of meeting a new challenge. He’ll be a salaried, full-time minister and principal of the school’s ambitious Accelerated Christian Education program.

It will also mean the end of a rather extended parenthesis.

The Rev. Charles Pezzino stands in the new
$1 million sanctuary of Creekside Gospel Temple Assembly of God in Amherst.

New Creekside sanctuary is sign of debts overcome

By DAVE CONDREN News Religion Reporter

Throughout much of its history, Creekside Gospel Temple, 2625 Tonawanda Creek Road, Amherst, has struggled with debt that was, at times, nearly overwhelming.

Next weekend, the 300-member congregation will dedicate a new $1 million sanctuary that is, perhaps miraculously, totally paid for.

The dedication of the long-awaited church building will help at 3 p.m. Sept. 9. The service will mark the end of more than 30 years of worship in multipurpose space that functioned as church, Christian school and social hall.

The guest speaker for the dedication will be Rev. Larry Albanese, pastor of Warren Assembly of God, Warren, PA.

Creekside’s longtime pastor, the Rev. Charles Pezzino and officials of the New York District of the Assemblies of God, also will participate.

Creekside was founded in Buffalo in 1930 as Riverside Assembly of God. When it was moved to North Amherst in 1970, the name was changed to Creekside because it was beside Tonawanda Creek.

Pezzino, who retired in 1994 as principal of Buffalo School 33, began serving as the church’s part-time pastor in 1979.

When he arrived, he said, the church was nearly $1 million in debt.

“My first week, I was called to the bank and told we were behind in our payments,” he recalled.

Because of the church’s financial situation, Pezzino served without a salary for about 15 years while the congregation struggled to pay the debt.

“We don’t have wealthy people in our church. It was amazing to see how God provided this money,” he said. “Sometimes we would have a payment due and no way to pay it, and unexpectedly we would receive the money we needed - to the exact dollar.” Once the debt was paid in 1995, the congregation began raising money for the sanctuary by banking the collection taken the first Sunday of every month.

The church also sponsors Amherst Christian Academy, a school with an enrollment of about 70 youngsters in kindergarten through 12th grade.