Joe and Senta Jenkins

I am one of the few true locals on staff with Meridzo Ministries, born and raised in Lynch, KY.  I met my wife Senta nearly 15 years ago.  She had moved down here from Indianapolis (I love her even if she is a Yankee).  We met, fell in love, married and worked in ministry in the local church where I had attended since high school.

As the years passed we both began to sense a deeper calling in our hearts and began to pray together concerning God's will for us and for our area.  We seemed to experience what I call a "divine discontent" with the direction we had taken and even the church we had both attended for so long.  We sensed that God was calling us to a deeper place with Him, a place of service and discipleship--not only for us but for our entire community.  This phrase--"service and discipleship" became our mantra for over a year.  We prayed and we waited.

Then one fateful day Lonnie Riley pulled up into our driveway and everything changed.  (Now, I had known Lonnie and Belinda since childhood. Belinda's mom lived in the other side of the duplex where I was raised there in Lynch)  There in the December cold, in my driveway Lonnie shared with me that God had been speaking to him about reopening a new church where the Lynch Baptist Church used to be located. 

He shared a few of the details with me, which included that the new church would be based on service and discipleship.  There it was, "service and discipleship" the very phrase that Senta and I had been praying about for so long.  After I picked my jaw up off the ground, realizing that this was the answer to months and months of prayer and preparation.   I told Lonnie that we were on board.  We would serve in any way that we could.

Both God and Lonnie took us up on our commitment to serve.  We worked in several areas in Meridzo Ministries, including cleaning and scrubbing detail, furniture delivery, helping out at Solomon's Porch, establishing a candle making business (Scents and Such) all the while helping to prepare the old church building for something brand new.  As the church began to grow and develop Senta and I became more and more involved there.  I even served for a short time as worship leader, armed with 3 chords and the truth, and not much else.  Thankfully my stint as worship leader was short lived. 

 Community Christian Center as it came to be known had developed into quite a lively little congregation.  It soon became apparent that Lonnie was so busy with other areas of Meridzo Ministries that he would not be able to pastor.  As Senta and I had prayed and committed ourselves to service, God called us to step into this role.   I serve as senior pastor and Senta is the Director of Ministries.  She is also personal assistant to Lonnie at Meridzo Ministries.

Community Christian Center has expanded and developed over the years.  Our congregation is very diverse,blue hair is not limited to little old ladies.  We have everyone from punk rockers to librarians, from flat tops to mowhawks, from teachers to tattoo artists.  If a person was to see pictures of our congregation--they would likely shake there heads and wonder, "what could this group of people ever have in common?".  Admittedly on the surface it does not look like there could be much, but the one thing that this community has in common is a deep and abiding love for Jesus and the sense that every one of us belongs and every one of us is loved. 

We want to make a difference in our world, this is the heart of c3.   Senta and I are so thankful to be a part of it.

When you surrender your heart and life to service of our most awesome God you can never be certain just where He'll take you.  But you can be certain it will be one incredible journey.  We just can't wait to see what's next.

Joe and Senta Jenkins, C3 Pastor and Ministry Director