OCV Pastor Cotherman Named 2018 Venango County FLEX Young Professional of the Year

| April 10, 2018

TITUSVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – Growing up in Kossuth, Charlie Cotherman, a 2002 Keystone High School graduate, always had in the back of his mind that he might want to be a pastor.

(Photo: Charlie Cotherman (back row third from right) with the other finalists for the 2018 Venango County FLEX Young Professional of the Year. The finalists were (bottom from left): Laura Anna, Joni Hulse, Ashley Cowles, Bobbie Jones and Hannah McCarthy. (Top from left): Stephen Reinsel, Alan McBride, Nicholas Hess, Cotherman, Will Price and Zachary Covington. Submitted photo.)

Eventually, that thought turned into a reality, and through that reality, he and his wife Aimee (Myers) Cotherman, a 2001 Keystone graduate, planted the Oil City Vineyard Church (OCV) in 2016.

And, Charlie Cotherman was honored for his work with the church and in the Oil City and Venango County communities, when he was named the Venango County Future Leaders & Entrepreneur Exchange (FLEX) Young Professional of the Year at the organization’s Annual FLEX, Presents Friday, April 6, at the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad.

“It’s humbling,” Cotherman said. “It’s a real honor. A lot of people have done such great work in the community. It’s a privilege to be part of such a great young professional network.”

Cotherman had the opportunity to give a small speech following the presentation of the award.

“I was able to talk about my heart for the community going forward,” Cotherman said. “My hope and vision, my heart, for it.”

Through his work at the OCV, which averages a congregation of 100 people per Sunday, Cotherman has been involved in plenty of civic-minded efforts including an annual Sunday morning art gallery, a Princess Party for kids and an adopt-a-block program in Oil City. He has also overseen the church’s effort to donate money to many local service organizations including Community Services of Venango County, Mustard Seed Ministries, and Jamie’s Kids. The church also hosts a Narcotics Anonymous group at the church’s space in the National Transit Building and offers a support group for parents of special needs kids.

“All told, we, a community of Christ followers who meet in rented space and call ourselves Oil City Vineyard, are becoming a family,” Cotherman said in his FLEX biography. “In our first year, we’ve learned a lot about each other. We’ve seen glimpses of the amazing talents and hearts that we each bear, and we’ve watched as God has gradually brought the people of His own choosing through our doors and into our lives. We serve a God who is on a mission to save the world (including us earthlings) he created. Praise God. It’s not us, the Church, who has a mission in the world; rather, it’s the God of mission who has a Church in the world. We get to join Him. It is both a privilege and a responsibility. We are grateful that we get to be part of this mission in this corner of the world.”

A strong student and athlete at Keystone High School – Cotherman ranks seventh in school history with 1,245 career points in basketball – Cotherman went to Grove City College where he played basketball and majored in Secondary Education/English.

“I always knew pastoring was something that was in the back of my mind,” Cotherman said. “But I got some great advice to major in something practical, and I taught at Grove City High School for a couple of years. But I couldn’t get away from the sense that pastoring was a call for my life. My wife and I bounced around to New Haven, Conn,m back to Pennsylvania and to Charlottesville, Va.”

It was while in Charlottesville that the Cothermans decided to move back to Pennsylvania and start a church.

“It has always been home for both of us,” Cotherman said. “We wanted to invest back at home. It was a place we wanted to be. So many young people move away from this area, we need young people to move back. That was some of the motivation, and we also saw there were needs here. There are real needs, and our church can help meet some of those.”

The Cothermans, who while both Keystone and Grove City graduates and friends in high school and college didn’t start dating until after college, have three young children all under the age of seven.


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