Pastor Jon Pitman
I was born, July 13, 1979 and grew up on the plains of central Colorado near a town called, Ellicott. Praise the Lord I had Godly parents who knew the Lord and made sure that my siblings and I were at Ellicott Baptist Church every time the doors were open. Their model of faithfulness, consistence, and loyalty is the reason I'm here today.
At the age of 7, on April 8th, 1987, I was sitting in a Wednesday night church service and Pastor Dan Dean was preaching. He spoke of salvation and gave an invitation at the end of the service. It was then that I first felt the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart; I knew I needed to be saved. When I got home I told my dad what was going on in my heart, and he showed me from God's Word how I could be saved, and I repented of my sins and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and be Lord of my life. And He did!
Sad to say, I didn't live for God very diligently after that. I went through the rest of my childhood and teen years inconsistent at best in my walk with the Lord. It wasn't until I was 20 and halfway through my time at Heartland Baptist Bible College that I settled down and allowed God to really have His way in my life. I served on staff at Silver State Baptist Youth Camp for all 4 summers in college, and on July 26, 1999 while working in my 2rd summer at the camp, I surrendered my life to the Lord and He called me to preach.
Upon graduation in 2001, I moved to Deale, MD and was Music and Youth Director for First Baptist Church there. Little did I know that all this time, God had been molding and working in the heart of a wonderful lady who had grown up there in Deale, and would have us to be married. On August 8th, 2003, I married my best friend and beautiful wife, Melissa, and in January, 2004, God moved us to Dumas, TX. It was there that the Lord blessed us with our two children, Hannah and Elijah.
We served at Bible Baptist Church in Dumas for several years and around 2008, God began working on my heart about eventually pastoring a church. That calling only got stronger and more pronounced over the years and in 2011 I was officially ordained to the gospel ministry. In Spring of 2014, God made it clear to my wife and I, along with our Pastor, Rick Korsmo, that it was time for us to transition out of youth ministry and go through final preparation to Pastor. We wanted to gain one more perspective of ministry at a different church before diving into a pastorate, so the Lord opened the door for us to spend a year with Calvary Baptist Temple in Ft. Collins, CO. Pastor Park Sutton and his church were greatly used of the Lord to help establish us in what we needed to be as pastor and wife.
God opened and closed doors for a few months from January to July in 2015, and then in late July the call came from Pastor Ronald Aebersold at Central Baptist Church in Corning, NY. He had been pastoring for 47 years and felt the Lord leading Him to step down as pastor and find a man to take His place. After a visit by Melissa and I to NY and much prayer, the church voted unanimously to make me the next pastor of Central Baptist Church in Corning, NY on August 19th, 2015. On September 20th the transition was officially made, and the torch was passed.
Our ministry philosophy is clear. We want to make God's highest priority -- people, our highest priority. Reaching people with the gospel(Matthew 28,19,20) and feeding people from God's Word(I Peter 5:2) with the grace and compassion of God. My wife and I love people, and it's been our dream for some time to have a group of people that God has entrusted us to serve, love, and grow with. We can hardly wait to see how God will bless in the years to come at Central Baptist Church in Corning, NY.
