Meet Jon Hand.
When Jon signed on to plant a church in Carlisle, Pa., in late 2008, he had a lot of questions to answer—not the least of which was, there are already lots of churches in Carlisle, including two other bic churches. Why another one?
“It’s a good question,” Jon admits with a smile. “And my answer is this: We try to see ourselves as missionaries to an unreached people group in our area. Right under our noses here in south-central Pennsylvania, as is true in communities everywhere, there are growing numbers of people who have given up on church or have written it off. They say, ‘Yeah, Christians—those are the anti-homosexual, politically right-wing people who are judging others all the time. If that’s what it means to be a Christian, no thanks.’
“Admittedly, that’s just a perception, and it’s not true of all Christians,” Jon is quick to add. “But when we’re reaching out to people who know nothing about church except what they've perceived, we have to deal with those issues.”
Jon and the other folks at Engage Community Church—the name the young congregation has adopted for itself—encourage people to “come as they are” and explore what it means to be a Christian without the burden of stereotypes or fear of judgment. “A lot of churches are very good at doing church for people who already believe that the Bible's the Good Book, that Jesus is the Son of God,” Jon states. “That’s an awesome calling, but it's not ours. We're not assuming that people come to us knowing much of anything about the Bible or believing that Jesus is any different from Mohammad or Buddha or anything like that. We are trying to meet those people where they are, starting where they're starting from.”
Jon sees church planting as essential to bringing more people into a lasting relationship with Jesus Christ. “Church attendance is in free-fall in the U.S. and Canada. If we don't plant more churches, those who are following Jesus, pursuing Christ, will just continue to decline and we’ll become like Europe, where something like 2 percent of people have an evangelical faith,” Jon cautions.
“We can say we know about Jesus. We can even say we believe in God, but unless we’re connected to a healthy Christian community, we will not fully experience the person of Christ. It just doesn’t happen,” Jon states.
