Our Story
The story of Midtown Community Church goes back to the planting of Community Free Church in 1999. Community was planted by a team of people from Hershey Free Church who had the goal of reaching into the city of Harrisburg with the gospel, either by settling there themselves or planting another church in the city. Some 23 years later, that vision began to materialize. At the beginning of 2022 the Lord brought together 40 people from Community Free Church who lived in Midtown, including pastor Ben Bechtel, and gave them a desire to reach their neighbors with the gospel.
Around this same time, Ben reconnected with his friend Greg Kabakjian who started dreaming about planting this church together. Ben Bechtel and Greg Kabakjian got to know one another while in seminary in the Philadelphia area. After introducing themselves in class, they quickly found out they both lived in Harrisburg. This discovery began a three-year adventure of commuting and dreaming about what God might be doing in bringing them together. As Ben dreamed about planting a church in Harrisburg and Greg prepared to begin a pastoral residency with Liberti Church in Camp Hill, the Lord opened the door for Ben and Greg, along with their respective churches (Community Free Church and Liberti Church), to partner together to see Midtown Community Church planted. This group of people began praying and dreaming together in of April 2022 about a new church in Midtown and God answered those prayers in the planting of Midtown Community Church.
Since its inception, Midtown Community Church has been passionate about seeing the neighborhood of Midtown Harrisburg blessed because of their presence in the city. When the people of Israel were sent into exile in the foreign nation of Babylon, rather than telling them to isolate themselves and live in their own separate enclaves, in Jeremiah 29 God commands the people to seek the good of the city. He urges them essentially to get jobs, buy houses, and spend their time and energy for the common good of the place where God has them. In the same way, God has called his church, his “pilgrim people,” to root down in specific places in order to love the city and invest in its flourishing. We want this church to be made up of those who love Midtown and the city of Harrisburg, who root down here to love this neighborhood, to see people come to Jesus, and to see its culture thrive. This is why we chose to put the title of the neighborhood of Midtown into our name. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we hope to show this neighborhood a counter-cultural community of love created by the gospel of Jesus.