The Heart behind Encounter Conference
We exist to invest in the next generation through healing, freedom, and life-changing encounters with God.
About Victory Family Church
Victory Family Church is one church with multiple locations, and we’re all about being a place where you can be the REAL you, experience the unconditional love of the REAL God, and go out to make a REAL difference in the world.
Learn more about who we are and what we believe as a church before you join us for Encounter Conference. Victory Family Church →
Who We Are
Our founding pastors, John and Michelle Nuzzo, launched Victory Family Church in 1993. They lead a team committed to helping others know God, find freedom, discover their purpose, and make an impact.
We exist to help all people realize that God loves them unconditionally.
The four desires of God for every human being are:
Know God
Instead of practicing religion, God wants a personal relationship with you. Weekend services are where we help people know God, and we’d love for you to join us.
Find Freedom
God’s process for you to find freedom begins with having the right people in your life. He made us for community, and connecting in small groups is how we find life-changing relationships at Victory.
Discover Purpose
The Bible clearly establishes that you are an important part of God’s plan, and that great joy comes from living out your purpose.
Make an Impact
When you make a positive impact in other people’s lives with the gifts God has given you, you experience the full life He wants for you. Through serving on the Dream Team and becoming a Kingdom Builder, we empower everyone to live out their calling.
Our Core Values
Start with People
God loves all people. Jesus died for all people. People are the “why,” so what we do is defined and empowered by people first.
Let Love Lead
God’s unconditional love transforms everyone it touches. It energizes our lives, directs our culture, and sets our strategy. We don’t lead people into the Kingdom—we love them into the Kingdom.
Take Faith Risks
Our faith in God acts boldly and fearlessly in the midst of life’s impossibilities. It does whatever it takes to reach and rescue people, because faith works through love.
Expect Multiplication
Where people spend eternity matters, so we dream big, plan big, and give big to multiply the Kingdom.
Make It Count
We consider every interaction with every individual a once-in-a-lifetime privilege. We seek to see everyone as God sees them and infuse our time together with kindness, hospitality, and excellence.
Surrender to the Holy Spirit
For our lives and leadership to reflect the life and mission of Jesus, we surrender to the person, baptism, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. We seek the Kingdom first by living in an ongoing personal relationship with the Holy Spirit and relying on His voice to teach, lead, and edify us.
What We Believe
The Bible is the Word of God
It was written by men under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because it is inspired by God, it is truth without any form of error. There are more than 200 specific prophecies in the Old Testament—written over a period of thousands of years by many different writers—that clearly point to Jesus. They tell of His place of birth, where He would grow up, the manner in which He would die and be buried, and even the very year He would die. Any reasonable statistical analysis of this only reinforces the veracity of this holy document.
2 Tim. 3:15-17, 1 Pet. 1:23, Heb. 4:12
God is three in one
God exists as the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Each part of the Trinity serves a different function and purpose, but they each possess equal power and authority.
1 John 5:7, John 10:30, Luke 1:35, Col. 1:15-17
Jesus is the Son of God
Jesus is completely human and completely God. He is God’s only plan for bringing people back into a right relationship with Him. Jesus was sent by God, lived a perfect and blameless life on earth, and bore God’s judgment for sin, becoming a sacrifice and substitution for all people. He defeated death by rising from the dead so that we could have eternal life, ascended into Heaven, and will return again one day to reign as King.
Col. 2:9, Isa. 9:6, John 1:14, Phil. 2:5-11, Matt. 1:23
Man is made in the image of God
God made man His most prized creation. Every human personality is uniquely created and is worthy of dignity, respect, and Christian love. Man was created to live in relationship with God, but sin separated man from Him, causing the image of God in man to become distorted. As a result, no human can fully live within His image apart from receiving Jesus, who is the express image of God’s person.
1 Cor. 15:44-49, II Cor. 3:18, Gen. 1:26-27
Salvation is a gift from God
Salvation is freely given when those who trust in Jesus—believing in His death, burial, and resurrection—ask Him to be the Lord and Savior of their lives. Salvation cannot be earned or obtained by any human effort. It is freely given by God’s grace and must be willfully accepted through faith.
Rom. 6:23, II Cor. 9:15, Eph. 2:8-9
We will exist forever after this life
Heaven and Hell are real places. Those who know God and have received salvation will ascend into Heaven when their physical bodies die. Those who have not will descend into Hell and be separated from God forever. Our sins must be paid for. We will either pay for them ourselves and bear the punishment of Hell, or we will receive Christ and, through God’s mercy, make Heaven our eternal home.
II Thess. 1:8-9, Jude 7, Rev. 20:12-15, John 14:2-4, Phil. 1:21, II Cor. 5:6-8
Jesus will return
As Jesus promised, He will physically return to the earth for a second time to establish His Kingdom. He will reward those who have faithfully followed Him and obeyed His commands.
I Thess. 4:16-18, Rev. 22:12-13, Titus 2:13-14, Acts 1:9-11
Water Baptism is a symbol of identification with Jesus
Water Baptism is a public declaration of one’s decision to follow Christ and to obey His commands. While infant baptism may be sacred to one’s religious upbringing, it is not found in the Bible. Water Baptism should occur when a person who has received Christ willfully and publicly expresses that belief. It is an outward expression of one’s faith in Christ. During baptism, a person is fully immersed in water, publicly identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. As individuals come out of the water, they are symbolically raised up as a new person in Christ.
Acts 2:38-39, Matt. 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-17
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is for all believers
While all born-again Christians have the Holy Spirit within them—in so much as they have been born of the Spirit—there is a separate and distinct experience from salvation that the Bible calls “The Baptism of the Holy Spirit.” In the book of Acts, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is detailed on 5 different occasions. When a person receives the Holy Spirit, they obtain a new prayer language, biblically called “speaking in other tongues.” Jesus commanded all believers to receive the person of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:1-4, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:1-7
Healing is a privilege for every believer
God wants us to live in full health so that we can walk out the calling He has for us. The Bible says that Jesus went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. However, it is important to understand that God’s healing power must be received by the grace of God through faith.
James 5:14-15, Matt. 8:16-17, Acts 10:38, Heb. 13:8
Marriage is God’s unique design
Marriage is the God-designed institution where one man, born biologically as a man, and one woman, born biologically as a woman, enter into a lifelong, exclusive relationship. This holy relationship is a parallel of Christ and His bride—the Church.
Gen. 2:20-25, Heb. 13:4, Matt. 19:4-6, Eph. 5:21-33
The Church is the Body of Christ
The Church is not a building. The Bible says that each of us has been placed by God into the body of Christ. Like our human bodies, each part has a very distinct function. The Church is where we move beyond our individual lives and, with each of us taking our God-ordained places, work together to reach all people with the gospel and the message of God’s love.
Rom. 12:4-5, I Cor. 12:12-27, Eph. 5:23
Bring your church
In 2025, over 20 churches from across the region joined us at Encounter! If you’re interested in bringing your youth group to this experience, we would love to connect with you. Learn more →
Tickets:
$39 until April 30th
$59 starting May 1st
(For students currently in 5th – 12th grades during the 2025-2026 school year)
Encounter Conference is hosted by and a part of

21150 US Rt. 19
Cranberry Twp., PA 16066
724-453-6200
© 2025 Victory Family Church
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