Shana LiVIGNI

Light on the Corner church is home to a small congregation, “a family” as Pastor Jon Karn calls it, and is a self-proclaimed unique and unusually friendly congregation of people who have decided to follow Jesus. It has big dreams and an even bigger God who has promised to love, forgive and walk with his flock. Their hope is in the Lord and all are welcome who wish to know more about God and his Word and who seek to apply Bible truths to daily life. This congregation is made up of people who value kindness, honesty and a Christian worldview.
“We have illegal amounts of fun in church,” Pastor Jon admits with a smile. “Someone asked me after church, ‘When does it ever get grim around here?’ You know, people grow up with unfortunate church experiences, but we have stripped it down so we are still biblically faithful, but we have taken out a lot of the man-made religious regulations. We love Jesus, we love each other and the Bible and we try to behave.”
The church’s purpose statement is simple: They are a growing family driven by love to make authentic followers of Jesus Christ.
“That’s what we want to do, but how we want to behave is really important to people when they come to a church,” explained Pastor Jon. “What will people behave like when I get there – what kind of people will they be? So we came up with four core values.
“First, we want to be biblical people, so that we are not making it up as we go along and we are actually following God’s word. Second, we want to be relevant people, not answering questions no one is asking. We want to be doing and talking about what people are going through and not wasting our time on Sundays.
“Third,” he continued, “we want to be authentic people. We want to be godly, loving and kind – we are a sweet spirited congregation. And fourth, we want to be gracious to people, not snotty. I think we are living by our core values.”
Pastor Jon will present the church’s first live drama that includes members of the congregation performing three delicate conversations based on the book of Luke – the first being between the angel Gabriel and Mary, Mary and her fiancé Joseph and Mary and her parents.
“It’s a fascinating story that had to take place and the explanations had to seem wild. When Mary was betrothed to Joseph, she was between 12 and 15 years old and the story she comes upwith is a real whopper: ‘My child is going to be from the Holy Spirit and he’s going to be the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.’ Joseph knows the baby isn’t his, so he breaks up with her and an angel had to come to him in a dream and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
What happens after that is quite a precarious situation and will be played out at 10:45 a.m. on Dec. 20. The community is invited to this first run drama written by
Pastor Jon.
At 6 p.m. on Dec. 24, the church celebrates its annual Christmas Eve candlelight service with the reading of scriptures and singing of carols with the talented house band. All four band mates are professional musicians who for the past 10 years have driven to Montrose from cities throughout the southland to perform at the church.
Pastor Jon has been in pastoral ministry for 27 years. He holds a master’s degree in church music from Western Seminary in Portland, Ore. and a master of divinity degree from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. Pastor Jon is passionate about transcendent worship, biblical preaching and is jazz lover and singer. He is married to LeLani and together they have a daughter named Kiana.
In January, the pastor will begin an enlightening series of sermons tentatively
called “First Things First.” The church is very active with its youth ministry run
by youth pastor Brian “Darth Ballistic” Dombroski, as well as other programs. Anyone can attend AA meetings held at the church at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays. The children’s center is open weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for kids ages 6 weeks to 5 years. Sunday Bible classes and Sunday school begin at 9:30 a.m., and the main worship service starts at 10:45 a.m.
Light on the Corner church is located at 1911 Waltonia Drive, on the corner of Montrose Avenue and across the street from the Montrose
post office. For more information call (818) 249-4806 or visit www.lightonthecorner.org.

  Karn