About Us

Pastors John and Sherry Poundstone

John Poundstone and his wife, Sherry, have lived in Reno since 1996 (with the exception of a year spent in Texas). They currently serve as the founders and lead pastors of Bethesda Reno-Tahoe in Reno, NV.

Count on John to show Jesus, and Bible truths, in new and interesting ways.  His passion is to help others apply Kingdom dynamics to everyday life, the workplace, and to grow their organizations or churches. John brings a rich background in marketplace ministry, business, and executive leadership that bridges both the "secular and sacred" arenas. 

Sherry is the founder and director of FOCUS Ministry for Women. Sherry’s passion for teaching biblical principles, and organizing leadership teams, is the basis for her ministry. She is a contributing writer to several online magazines and blogs and is currently writing a devotional for women. In addition, she has a weekly radio show: Coffee and the Word

We are hard after building and expanding God’s Kingdom.  Primarily, that means to us loving, discipling, training and equipping people and leaders.  We’ve seen that once people experience Christ and His presence—and grasp Kingdom ways—their marriages, relationships, work places, enterprises and churches thrive at entirely new levels. 

We’re pretty much all about six R’s:

Redeem, Restore, Reconcile:  Individuals, marriages, families, organizations, businesses, churches.

Recognize, Resource, Release:  Leaders, ministers, entrepreneurs, fire-starters.

We do this via discipling individuals, launching pastorates, training groups, speaking at conferences, through web-based multimedia, authoring content and partnering with other ministries, organizations and businesses.

We think it’s wonderful there are those called to build churches, movements… maybe even empires J.   In fact, we partner with many.  That’s just different from what God has asked us to do.

Bethesda in the Hebrew language means House of Mercy / House of Grace.  You will find unconditional love, acceptance and forgiveness.  However, true love and true mercy don’t stop there.  You can also expect a culture doing its best to follow Kingdom standards for personal responsibility and for honoring others.  Fueled by a loving God’s faith, hope and love, we talk normal, and speak the truth in love to one another.

God lovingly calls people into destiny, purpose and their fit into the wider body of peoples and groups.  He sets high expectations for growing in Christ’s ways, and of course provides the means.  We love to help Him in those endeavors.