Ken Landis grew up in South Jersey.  Ken attended Messiah College .  After graduation Ken decided to stay in the Harrisburg community to live and work.  For 12 years, Ken climbed the corporate ladder in the mortgage banking industry.  He discovered that all the rewards and achievements didn’t fill the giant hole he had in his soul. 

   From Ken’s testimony.  I became so desperate to find meaning in my life that I finally decided to go back to God.  I gave up running from God and began visiting all the local churches.  When I walked into Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ Church, I knew God was there, I felt it.  Ken Hepner was an anointed leader like my father [Richard Landis]. 

   It was this church community, McBIC, where God began to piece my heart back together.  More specifically, Layne Lebo challenged me to grow and gave me opportunities to lead.  Years later, our bishop Ray Hock, Ken Hepner and Layne Lebo asked me if I wanted to lead a new church plant in the Rt.15 South corridor.  I knew this was right, I felt it.  I grew up in my father’s church plant, I grew up in the corporate world, God had prepared me.  So my answer was yes.

   The reason MRC was created was to be focused on reaching people who are dying and going to hell.  That means people who need God are our priority.   Jesus put it like this in Luke 15:4-7  Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it?  When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!'  Count on it - there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue. MSG   Did you see what Jesus was saying?  Lost people matter to God so much that they are His priority.  In fact, ‘...there's more joy in heaven over one  sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.’ Simply put, lost people matter more than church people and their likes and dislikes. 

   The focus on the lost that Jesus had even offended the church people of his day called Pharisees.  When the Pharisees saw Jesus keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus' followers. "What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?"  Jesus,overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick?  Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." Matthew 9:11-13  Wow.  If you are a Christian, can you imagine Jesus looking over the dinner table to you and saying, ‘I’m not here to make you happy.  My mission is bigger than you.  I’m here to reach the lost.’  That’s MRC.  A place that encourages people, who call themselves disciples of Jesus, to exchange their self serving agenda for a bigger agenda.  A God agenda of working with others to reach the lost.  This, of course, demands  maturity.  The maturity to know that church isn’t about ‘me’ and my likes and dislikes.  Church has a bigger calling than ‘me’.  As Jesus suggested, it’s about the lost.  Your personal relationship with God, at home, is all about ‘me’ but church is different.  It’s a special place where we join together to live out the God mission.  So at MRC, we like to say, ‘We are unapologetically passionate about people.’ It’s our goal, our focus and passion to create a place of hope for the hopeless and to defend the defenseless.  

   Today, on my desk, I have reminder for myself:  "You have been created to build and lead an organization that pulls people out of hell."  That’s MRC’s and my leadership passion in one sentence.  Taking all that I have learned, I wanted to create a place that is unapologetically passionate about people who matter to God.  So today, in partnership with McBIC and under the leadership of Brethren in Christ (BIC), MRC is busy creating a place for people who matter to God. 

   Pastor Ken has been fully ordained by the Brethren in Christ (BIC) Church since 2001. The official celebration for his ordination and leadership was Feb 26, 2005 and was overseen by Bishop Ken Letner.