Aaron Proffitt

Born and raised in Southern California, I am a son of a pastor and a product of the Southern California culture. I learned a lot about ministry by growing up in Southern California. It seems to always be a little ahead of the trend curve. I played a lot of basketball growing up and it was always my dream to play it professionally. After three years of college basketball, God diverted my attention by introducing me to worship leading. I started leading worship at my dad’s last church in California in 1998. This gave me invaluable experience and allowed for me to develop as a worship leader.

In 2000, I graduated from California Baptist University with a degree in Kinesiology. As I tried to figure out what God wanted me to do with my life, I built cabinets and substitute taught during my first year out of college. I also continued to gain worship leading experience as well as ministry experience (although that started the day I was born). My desire also at that time was to try and move to the east coast. I told my dad that I was going to move to Virginia, go to grad school, and start a college-aged ministry. That was in September of 2000. By December of that same year, I had picked a location (Harrisonburg, Va.) and a school (James Madison University). I also had a few additions to my team. My dad and mom asked to come, as well as a good friend of mine at the time.

We prayed for months, asking God to use us in whatever way he wanted to. We finally moved on August 15, 2001. We packed up all of our stuff, made the trek across the country, and landed in Harrisonburg on August 22 (ask me sometime about why it took 7 long days to go 2,550 miles). That church has since grown to about 600 people in attendance on Sundays.

And out of that, two more Aletheia churches were then established in Virginia. The first plant was initiated by my father in Richmond in January, 2006. I was heavily a part of that for the first 18months as we started a church on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. That ministry was handed over to Josh Soto in 2007 and has between 150 and 200 people attending now. Then, in 2008, Jamie Limato and a small team went to Norfolk to plant the third Aletheia church on the campus of Old Dominion University. They are seeing a lot of momentum in the early stages of the church plant.

The fourth Aletheia plant, in Tampa, is spurned out of a desire to take the Aletheia model and extend it nationally. You can read the history of my newest ministry endeavor below. Ashlee and I just recently moved to Tampa to see God extend the borders of Aletheia from outside of Virginia. We are excited about what he is already doing and anticipate great things in the future.

And now, the Aletheia Church Planting Network has recently gone international. In 2009, Mark and Abby Huffman were sent out of the first Aletheia Church in Harrisonburg, Va to head down to Chiapas (Tuxtla-Guttierez), Mexico to plant the fifth Aletheia Church. They have built up a strong and growing community, seeing people reached for Christ, baptized, and discipled.

But the vision isn’t stopping there. As I write this, there is a team of about ten people, led by Kevin Anderson, who are planning to head to Raleigh, North Carolina, to start the 6th Aletheia at North Carolina State University. They are planning on moving the summer of 2010. We are also in the planning stages of going to other cities to start more collegiate churches. We just need man-power. The need is great, the harvest is there, but we need workers.

Finally I have an awesomely gifted and beautiful wife Ashlee, who I married in 2005. I also have two cute little boys Andrew David Proffitt and Asher Nathaniel Proffitt. I love my wife; I love my sons; I love church planting; I love ministry; I love seeing young men equipped and mobilized to do ministry; and I love music.

About Aletheia Tampa: Aletheia Tampa is the fourth church plant of a collegiate-church planting network aptly titled “The Aletheia Network.” The church is a cutting edge church located in Tampa, Florida at the University of South Florida. We combine an innovative worship style with sound Biblical teaching.

Aletheia’s Vision: To develop a church that targets the University of South Florida and the surrounding Tampa community, using a Biblical model which combines relevancy and orthodoxy, in order to spiritually mobilize a generation for Christ.

Our core values:

1. Win – (Connecting a person with God through a message that is specific in its content, and intentional in its delivery, to present the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ.)

2. Baptize – (Publically demonstrating of one’s new life in Christ)

3. Disciple – (Diligently developing apprentices of God through systematic instruction and influence.)

4. Equip – (Identifying Biblical tools, and transferring necessary skills as a catalyst for a life of service to God)

5. Send – (Mobilizing individuals as God’s agents for Kingdom purposes)

Aletheia’s Belief’s

Ephesians 4:4-6

1. One God who is Trinitarian, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit [Matthew 28:19, 1 John 5:7]

2. One Lord who is Jesus Christ, God and Savior [Acts 2:36,38, 1 Timothy 3:16]

3. One Spirit who is God, indwells and fills every believer and empowers the Church [Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 5:18, Acts 1:8]

4. One Faith whose components are repentance of sin and belief in Jesus Christ as the only means of Salvation presented through God’s Holy Word, the Bible, which is inspired, inerrant and infallible [Acts 20:21, 1 Corinthians 15:2-4, Acts 4:10,12, John 14:6, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 1:21, Psalms 19:7, Matthew 5:18]

5. One Body which is called the Body of Christ, the Church, the reflection of the Saviour in the world today [Ephesians 1:20,23,3:21, Hebrews 10:24-25]

6. One Baptism which is demonstated both through the Spirit’s indwellng and by water [ Romans 8:11, Acts 8:36-38]

Aletheia Tampa’s History

In March of 2008, a team of 20 people began assembling with the idea of starting the next Aletheia Church outside the state of Virginia. The intention was to go to a major city, where a major university was located, and where millions of people lived. This team began to pray each week and finally by early August of that same year, God made it clear as to where he wanted this team to go. The next location for Aletheia Church was to be in Tampa, Florida. After months of prayer, preparation, and planning, the team began to relocate to Tampa to initiate the new church plant. In the early part of 2009, three young and very courageous men (Emilio, J.R., and Jon) from Aletheia Harrisonburg packed up their stuff and made the long drive to Tampa. They worked hard at building relationships and even began holding Bible studies out of their apartment. They were soon joined by Aaron and Ashlee Proffitt whom God has called to lead this ministry in the coming years. The church now meets on the campus of USF and is awaiting the arrival of over a dozen more people who will join the team that God has already established in Tampa.

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