Mark Jones and Family
Mark, Pam, Carolyn and Amanda

I grew up in Hammond, Indiana, but I have lived in Lincoln, Nebraska for about six years. In 1994 I accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, and I began to sense God’s call to ministry two years later. Before being called to ministry, I graduated from Purdue University with a BS in biology and from Indiana University School of Medicine with a PhD in anatomy. I served as an elder and college and career pastor at several churches before coming to Southview Baptist Church in Lincoln, where I currently serve as bivocational youth pastor. My passions are evangelism and teaching. I will be the lead pastor of Community Harvest Church.
My wife, Pam, came to trust Christ as her Lord and Savior about the same time I did. Like me, Pam has a BS in biology from Purdue University. She has worked in the health care profession, but has worked hardest as a stay-at-home mom and home school teacher during the past eight years. Pam has the gift of hospitality, which she uses to serve the youth at Southview.
Carolyn, our older daughter, is a senior at Lincoln Christian High School. She loves basketball and theater, and she is planning to study nursing after graduation. Amanda, our younger daughter, enjoys fifth grade at her home school. Amanda loves to sing and act.
God has increasingly drawn Pam and me towards church planting. We have a burden to see the lost in Lincoln and the state of Nebraska find the hope and joy that comes with following Jesus.

Mark's Call

About two years ago I was making weekly drives to Hastings, Nebraska, a town of about 25,000 people two hours west of Lincoln, to provide pulpit supply and do outreach for a small church. As I went door-to-door visiting residents along quiet neighborhood streets, I was shocked to find people who had never heard the gospel and some who had never set foot in any church. On the weekly two-hour drives through Nebraska’s heartland, as I passed road signs for town after town, my heart ached as I wondered how many people in these towns had never heard the gospel. Through my own research and talking to other believers, I found that Hastings was not unique; many people across Nebraska pass into eternity never hearing the gospel, even in large cities like Lincoln. Nebraska is a mission field, and it is ripe for the harvest.

Burdened by what I saw, I sensed God calling me to plant churches to reap the harvest. This felt right. Since I was saved I have been burdened for lost people, and for a long time I was drawn to the idea of church planting, thinking that a new church would naturally be on fire for lost souls and would be able to reach them just as the church did in the book of Acts. God introduced me to some new friends, Mark Elliot, our associational Director of Missions, and several church planters and pastors who taught me that planting new churches is the only way to reach the lost across the state. God put a specific vision in my heart to plant a church that would be part of a church planting movement, and I surrendered to His call.

The vision is God-sized. He laid it on my heart to plant one new church in each of Nebraska’s ninety-three counties in ten years. We are stepping out in faith and trusting God to accomplish this goal through us and others who share the same burden and vision for Nebraska.

The vision centers around a church planted in northeast Lincoln that we will call Community Harvest Church. The name speaks of a church that will be used by God to reap His harvest in communities across Nebraska and beyond. We chose northeast Lincoln because God has burdened us for the many lost people here; there are not enough churches to reach the lost; the area is growing rapidly; and each member of the core team lives here. As the state capital, Lincoln is a strategic city from which to launch a church planting movement, and it is large enough to provide the resources necessary to support a church focused on planting new works.  

As I write this, I am overjoyed to tell you that God is already richly blessing this work. Churches in Texas, Arkansas, Georgia and Florida have committed financial support and mission teams. Recently, our core team families have all been called to full-time vocational ministry. Jason and Jennifer Arensdorf feel called to plant a church in western Nebraska. Jason wakes in the middle of the night deeply troubled by the thought of people there dying without Jesus. Jeremy and Iris Goodding have been called to foreign missions, possibly Africa. I am awestruck to think that planting Community Harvest Church will train these couples for future ministry assignments as our missionaries! God is laying the foundation for an “Acts 1:8” church—a church that will transform lives, families and communities through Christ not only in Nebraska, but also worldwide.

I invite you to prayerfully consider how you can partner with us as we reap God’s harvest in Nebraska. 

Mark Jones