Our Story
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Our story began in 2003 as God placed it on the heart of pastor Chris Bunch to start a new church, a different kind of church, a church for the unchurched. We started in Chris’s home with 6 adults, 2 kids and one cat (as Chris says, “We counted anything that could breathe!”) and we simply prayed that God would grow our church.
As we thought about a name that would relate to our community we looked at Muncie and all of east central Indiana and saw the historical impact that jar companies have had on the development of the area. In a spiritual sense all of us are ordinary jars and the church is a collection of these jars. We may be made of different materials, but the focus is not on what the outside looks like, but on the priceless treasure inside the jar which is God’s love and grace that dwells in us. This connection between our spiritual lives and the history of east central Indiana is what led us to adopt the name The Jar Community Church. Our small gathering continued to pray and seek God and at the same time reached out to our community and showed love in practical ways, letting everyone know that regardless of where they were at, that God loved them no matter what. And God moved. We outgrew our homes and began gathering in the upstairs meeting area of the Downtown YMCA. From there we decided to officially throw our doors open to the community in a more public way with an official launch on October 10, 2004, now meeting in half of the YMCA gym. |
As we continued to move forward in faith God has met us every step of the way. We launched Saturday ServeFest to show that small things done with great love really could change our community. Our Sunday celebrations grew to use the entire gym at the Y, then we were blessed with the need to start holding two celebrations on Sunday morning. In 2016 we opened a ministry center near downtown to house our staff and to provide ministry space for those inside and outside The Jar. With that space available we were then able to open The Community Basket, which provides much needed household and personal care items for members of our community.
In October of 2018 God brought us an opportunity to move into a newly renovated space while remaining downtown, and so we moved into the Muncie Civic Theatre. God has blessed us greatly as we strive to fulfill our mission to love people into a relationship with Jesus Christ. The Jar is a place where everyone belongs. We’re just a group of imperfect people who are learning to follow and love Jesus better and we’re excited to see where God is leading us as we continue to do our best to follow Him faithfully. |
