who we are

Our Mission

Community Bible Church exists to glorify God by uniting a community of Christ-followers who Love God, Love Others, and Reach Out.

core values

loving God

We love God through gathering together to learn more about and acknowledge who He is. We look to His Word, the Bible, for insight and direction into our lives and use music and song to express our love for Him. 

Loving Others

We love each other by being real and opening ourselves to true community, to knowing and being known. We look to encourage, support, and champion the needs and realities in each other's lives. 

reaching out

We reach out to the world around us to meet tangible and spiritual needs through the hope we’ve found in Christ. We open ourselves to opportunities to share ourselves, our resources, and our relationships with Jesus to those in our community and around the world. 

statement of faith

THE BIBLE
The Bible is verbally inspired by God, without error in the original languages, and the authority on all life.
 
GOD
There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
JESUS CHRIST
Jesus is fully God and man, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He died for our sins. He rose from the dead and is reigning with the Father in heaven where He advocates for all those who believe in Him.
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the triune God. The Holy Spirit's role is to glorify Christ. At salvation the Holy Spirit indwells and baptizes all believers into the body of Christ. Today the Holy Spirit convicts people, brings them to repentance, regenerates the believing sinner, indwells, guides, instructs, and empowers believers for righteous living and service.
 
SATAN
The devil is a real spiritual being that the Bible often refers to as Satan. He is the father of all lies, a deceiver, an accuser of the saints, and the prince of darkness and sin. He blinds the minds of unbelievers and also tempts believers. Satan’s power is limited to what God allows him to do. Jesus has already defeated Satan through His death and resurrection and his destiny is the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire.

CREATION AND FALL OF MAN
Mankind is the direct creation of God. Both man and woman were made in God's image but fell into sin, and their sin separated them from God. This separation, or spiritual death, has been continued through every person since. Every person born is in essence sinful and needs divine grace. God's Son, Jesus, who lived a perfect life, was the sole exception. Only through Jesus can salvation and spiritual life be gained.
SALVATION
Salvation is the act by which a sinner is freed through faith from the penalty of his sin and is accepted by God as righteous. It is accomplished by God’s grace alone, through faith in Jesus alone, and cannot be earned or maintained by human effort. This is a result of a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ when a person repents of his sin and believes in the sinless life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the complete and sufficient payment for his sin. Those entering into this relationship by faith are eternally born-again and have become children of God.

HOLY LIVING
The evidence of salvation is a changed life. The mark of a growing believer is the presence of the fruit of the Spirit. The believer's Christian walk will express itself as a reflection of Jesus' life, conduct, and service.
 
THE CHURCH
The Church is composed of individuals who have come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The purpose of the Church is to make disciples who will make God known. They are united with one another in the Church Body of which Christ himself leads.

THE FUTURE
Jesus Christ's return is imminent and He will return to earth in bodily form. This will happen before the tribulation and before His thousand year reign and His final victory over Satan. We must continually be ready for that day since it is not for us to know the day or time of His return. We believe in eternal joy for believers and conscience torment for the unbelievers.
 
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
Marriage, as ordained by God at creation, is the sacred union of one man and one woman in a lifelong covenant commitment. All sexual relations must therefore be reserved for that union. Christian marriage is a representation of Christ's relationship to His Church. All children are a blessing from the Lord. All human life is sacred and worthy of protection from the moment of conception.

Our History

John S. Hiestand founded Community Bible Church and was known for his dynamic leadership and strong pastoral ministry. He was ordained by the Lancaster Mennonite Conference in 1938 as a bi-vocational pastor of Marietta Mennonite Church.

Tension soon arose between Hiestand and the Lancaster Mennonite Conference as Hiestand and others had developed a burden to begin a radio broadcast which the Mennonite Conference viewed as a worldly intrusion into the home. Hiestand saw it as an opportunity for evangelism. On Easter Sunday 1951, Hiestand and others inaugurated the Crusade for Christ Hour on the Red Lion station in York County; as a result, the bishop board took action to relieve him of his ministry.

On September 16, 1951, all but one family from the Marietta Mennonite Church joined Pastor Hiestand in forming a new congregation, which met at the Marietta Community House. In the ensuing years, Congregational Mennonite Church moved away from its Mennonite roots and its strict Mennonite theology. By the 1960's, the church had become an independent bible church and in 1970 it adopted the name “Congregational Bible Church.”

In 2001, the congregation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and rejoiced in its remarkable growth, its mission outreach, and its bright prospects for future growth and expansion. John Hiestand continued as bi-vocational pastor of the congregation until his retirement in 1970, but his influence and counsel remained until he died in 1992. Other pastors followed in his footsteps. Leonard Anderson, James Reapsome, Ralph Marks, Dave Sheaffer, Michael Moriarty and Ron Susek.

In 2007, several significant events occurred in the life of CBC. To better describe the church’s outreach orientation, the congregation approved a change in the church’s name from “Congregational Bible Church” to “Community Bible Church.” CBC also completed and moved into a new and larger facility across Route 441, celebrating its first service in the new building on March 11, 2007. Finally, in July of 2007, Pastor Jeff Burkholder was confirmed as CBC’s new Senior Pastor.