On Saturday April 30, 2016, Pastor Keith Long spent the day with teens from Lancaster BFC scrubbing a vacant storefront tattoo parlor. Shortly after, volunteers from Terre Hill BFC and La Roca BFC and other Lancaster region churches painted and fixed up the storefront to become theCenter or ElCentro on Plum Street, Lancaster City.


Pastors from the Lancaster Region, Dave Peters, Dave Thomann, Ralph Soper, Ron Mahurin, Kevin Kirkpatrick, and Jason Hoy, stand in front of the former tattoo parlor in 2016.
 

The First Outreach Event at theCenter

The signage wasn’t even up yet when theCenter held its first community outreach event on July 23, 2016. A group of children from La Roca de Reading came to sing, do skits, and a puppet show on the sidewalk in front of theCenter.

Kids from La Roca in Reading, PA singing outside theCenter in Lancaster

Now the community knew we were here! This first event kicked off a host of other outreach events planned for the year including holiday parties, Biblical parenting classes, and Backyard Bible clubs. These events were planned by theCenter Resource Team headed up by Elliot Ramos who was the new Hispanic Ministry Liaison at the time.

From Outreach to Church Plant

But the burden for reaching Lancaster City did not begin in 2016. Church Extension had a heart for this unreached community for a long time.  In 2002 a man was brought in who we thought would plant there, but he did not end up qualifying through the assessment process. By then, the Hispanic Task Force was busy with La Roca in Reading, PA and with Marcos Ramirez in Merida, Mexico and Freddy Chi in Villa Magna. By 2016, those works were thriving. The Lord was directing our attention again to Lancaster City. The prayer was to gather 20-30 people from theCenter to be a core group for a church plant.

In 2017, Karo Cocom, a young lady from Merida BFC in Mexico came as a short term missionary to Lancaster City to assist with outreach at the Center. She had experience in children’s ministry and had even come to serve at Victory Valley for the summer. She taught Spanish language classes and other outreaches at theCenter. Ron Denlinger and Melodie Bechtel taught ESL classes as well.

Pastor Los Morales (green shirt), Lynette Morales (sitting), Pastor Carlos Rodriguez (with guitar) at Community Outreach in 2017

Also in 2017, Juan Carlos and Lynette Morales, contacts from a local church congregation, became involved in the outreach of theCenter and by the end of 2017, Juan Carlos (Los) was assessed as the bi-vocational church planter for Lancaster City.

Los and Lynette poured their hearts into ministry at theCenter and, most importantly, into the people of the community. They continued with the types of ministries that were already going on at theCenter and also expanded to include breakdancing classes for kids which included a time for catechism and Bible teaching.  Romeero Melendez assisted Lynette with these classes. theCenter also included breakdancing/hip-hop jam sessions called The Cypher Spot. You can check out video from these on Instagram!

Lynette Morales teaching Bible and catechism at theCenter during breakdancing classes while parents listen in.
Rome Melendez and some of the breakdancing class at theCenter

Launching Christ Alone Fellowship in Lancaster City

By November of 2018, there were enough contacts to launch Sunday morning worship and Christ Alone Fellowship was born. theCenter is not large enough to accommodate a group that size so they rented another space on 51 N. Market Street for Sunday morning. The Lord continued to bless Christ Alone and their outreaches.

By January 2021, Los Morales was ready to church plant full-time and by June 2021 God provided Christ Alone Fellowship with a church building only two miles from theCenter at 41 Caroline St. Now The Cypher Spot and the other outreach events from Christ Alone continue from their church building.

Closing the Door is Not the End

In July 2021, Diego Rodriguez, current Hispanic Ministry Liaison, and theCenter Team cleaned out theCenter of its furnishings, gave away the refrigerator, swept the floor, and locked the door for the last time. Although that door is now closed, it’s not the end of Bible Fellowship Church outreach in Lancaster City. We look forward to His continued work in the hearts of the people.


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