Our Story

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.

Our Beliefs

God and the Bible
At The Jar Community Church we believe that the Bible is God's perfect guidebook for living. God is bigger, better and closer than we can imagine and God shows himself through his son, Jesus Christ. We believe that God made everything in creation and that nothing "just happened." Heaven and hell are real places and death is a beginning, not an end.

Our Relationship with God
We believe grace is the only way to have a relationship with God and faith is the only way to grow in this relationship. We believe God allows evil in order to provide us with a choice. God can bring good even out of evil events and He promises victory over evil to those who choose Him.

Our Mission
To love our community into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our Staff

Chris Bunch • Founding Pastor

Chris has been a pastor for over 25 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Manchester University, a Master of Divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond and received theological training from the Anderson School of Theology in Anderson, ALL in the state of Indiana.  Additionally, he received formal training through the Church of the Brethren denomination.  He is both licensed and ordained by the Church of the Brethren denomination from 1993 until The Jar was formed in 2003. He and his wife Jennifer have two beautiful girls, Jordan and Shiloh. As a family they enjoy taking walks in their neighborhood & hanging out at home. Chris loves sports (except hockey and curling), is an extremely picky eater and thinks he's a good dancer. 
Caleb Ferguson • Worship Leader / Celebrate Recovery Director

Caleb joined the Jar staff in the fall of 2018 to fill the Creative Arts Director position. Caleb is over all areas of creative art inside of the Jar: the worship music on Sunday mornings, monologues, worship paintings, poetry readings, biblical readings, skits, and assists with making videos. Caleb co-leads a young adult’s small group at the Jar. In 2019, Caleb became a licensed Pastor at The Jar and in 2020, Caleb took over the Celebrate Recovery program as the Ministry Leader. He is currently over all areas of recovery at the Jar as the CR Ministry leader Caleb studied at Ivy Tech as well as studying acting at Ball State. Some things Caleb really enjoys would be, to ride motorcycles, playing music, and running.
Dawn Richman • Student Ministry Director / Volunteer Director

Dawn Richman is married to Justin Richman and they have a daughter named McKinna.  Dawn studied secondary education at Ball State and received her Master’s degree from Indiana Wesleyan in addictions counseling.  Dawn loves to joke around and really enjoys working with adolescents.  She enjoys reading, playing volleyball, spending time with family and being outside.  She enjoys helping others and has a passion for working with youth.
​
Emily Skoglund • Small Groups Director

Emily joined The Jar staff in 2012 after teaching math for four years. She now coordinates small groups at The Jar. She loves baking, dancing, and spending time with her husband Mikey and their two kids Autumn and Joshua.
​
Mikey Skoglund • Director of Media Communications

Mikey joined The Jar staff in 2008 to assist with our creative media needs. He's the one in charge of our videos and he designs the graphics for a lot of our communication pieces. Mikey also enjoys playing music and loves spending time with his wife Emily and their kids Autumn and Joshua.
​
Rebekah Keith • JarKids Director

Rebekah Keith is happily married to Jeremy Keith and they have a handsome son named William!  Rebekah studied Music Education at Anderson University.  She loves working with children as they are so honest and have such a fun and creative outlook on life! Rebekah thrives on eating McDonalds, telling bad jokes, playing board games, and spending time with friends and family
​