Aaron Tull prefers working with his hands rather than sitting at a desk in an office all day long. He is creative, not just in his construction job, but also through his side gig of graphic design. God has used Aaron and his creativity in Kingdom work in many places including Covenant Bible Fellowship of Naples, FL.
Busy and bustling Naples could not be more different than the rural Southern Indiana town where Aaron grew up. His home was 30-40 minutes from the nearest Walmart. He grew up in a Christian family who attended a small Mennonite church. He looks back fondly at the close-knit community in the church. At the age of 12 he was already volunteering at church with music and sound. When Aaron graduated from high school, he took the step of making his family’s faith personal and trusted in Jesus Christ as his Savior. He was baptized at 18 years old and continued being committed to serving the Lord, this time as a pouring out of his personal faith.
Next, Aaron attended Bible College and he served as President of the youth organization of his church’s Conference. Aaron’s work in construction brought him to Naples through his father’s company. His father was the comptroller for a 55 plus community in the area. Aaron decided to stay in Naples and now works as a supervisor of new construction and maintenance.
Aaron met Jason Filbert at church and when Jason felt a call to church planting, he asked Aaron to plant with him. Jason connected with Church Extension Ministries of the Bible Fellowship Church through his father who knew David Gundrum from the “old days” in Reading, PA. When Jason planted Covenant Bible Fellowship Church (CBF) eight years ago, Aaron was there, too, beginning this new adventure of church planting.
“I didn’t know anything about church planting until I came to Naples,” Aaron said, “but my small-town church upbringing did give me a longing and an appreciation for a church whose people reflect the community and are doing life together in order to make disciples of all nations. They also had a simple way of doing church and that’s a culture that can be created in a church plant. Today, CBF has a simplicity that reminds me of the Mennonite church I grew up in.” Aaron noted how this kind of church community differs from larger churches where people are driving an hour to attend and don’t really get involved in each other’s lives and differs from churches who don’t reflect the diversity of ages and ethnicities in the community around it.
After two years of helping Jason start Covenant Bible Fellowship, Aaron moved on to help two other church plants with the technical aspects of church life. The first church plant had a hard time when its founder went through some trouble. The second church plant moved farther away from Aaron’s home and transitioned to a seasonal gathering for snow birds. Aaron was sensing it may be time to move on and he was missing worshipping with a church that has a family feel with people from a variety of ages. That’s when Jason Filbert called him out of the blue to see if he would be willing to come back to CBF. Aaron agreed. Since March 2023, Aaron has been serving as the part-time Technical Director of CBF. He oversees the website, does graphic design, keeps track of church contacts and information in Planning Center, and organizes volunteers for the nursery and other church needs.
I asked Aaron what he would say to someone at a BFC church who is thinking about joining a church plant and being part of a Core Group Launch Team or an Aquila and Priscilla Team or just attending to help. Aaron said, “Expect to do life as a church family. Church plants can effectively reach their immediate community and reflect who is there. You get more opportunities to personally disciple people.”
Aaron also commented on the personal faith-building benefits of participating in a church plant. “When you make the commitment to help in a church plant, you can grow in self-discipline. There is a built-in accountability to be in the Word because of doing life together with a small group of people.”
What hopes does Aaron have for the future of CBF? “I believe that the Lord will build His church. As we are faithful to keep rowing the boat of reaching the community with the gospel, we will see growth and be able to send out another group to church plant. That’s my motivation; to see our efforts further the gospel.”
