Pastor John A. Withers

Following the deaths of his brother and father in separate drownings, teenager John A. Withers convinced his mother to turn over her life savings to him and a surviving brother so they could begin anew after a cross-country relocation.

The family, including John’s five siblings, lived in North Carolina in the late 1960s, in an era when African-Americans still felt the sting of de facto segregation. John had to ride 20 miles to the nearest black school, even though white students learned in a facility just three miles from his home. Although government-mandated school desegregation occurred in 1969, educational assimilation didn’t necessarily change hearts in the community.

At the age of 38, Withers decided to enroll in college, in part to better serve the church. Over the next 12 years, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in English literature from San Francisco State University, a master’s in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary, and another master’s in clinical psychology from Santa Clara University. During that stretch, Senior Pastor Jay A. Herndon invited Withers to be associate pastor at Three Cities AG (now Limitless Church) in Burlingame, California. Withers left a high-paying job as full-time superintendent of Santa Clara County.