Leadership

Chris Bingaman

Lay Elder

I was born in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and have lived in the Central Susquehanna Valley all my life. I was blessed to have parents who loved God and exposed me to the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout my childhood. While I had pledged faith in Christ very early in my childhood, the life altering commitment came during my freshman year at Messiah College. 

A few years later, I met my wife Heidi, who also grew up in the Susquehanna Valley, and today we live in Snyder County and are the parents of four daughters; Emily, Lindsey, Leah, and Audrey. In 1992, I was diagnosed with a terminal cancer, multiple myeloma, and underwent a bone marrow transplant from my sister that God used to restore my health and forever change my life and heart.

Our family attended Winfield Baptist Church, and Heidi and I were part of the original group who experienced God’s call to launch Sunbury City Church. It is our prayer that God will use Sunbury City Church to touch the lives of residents in our area with the hope and freedom we can experience through faith in Jesus Christ.

Derek Van Ruler

Lead Pastor

I grew up in Central California in a Christian family that regularly attended church and even sent my brothers and I to a Christian school. However, despite this upbringing, God seemed to me an angry supernatural being that simply put up with me. It wasn't until my junior year of college at Cal Poly Pomona (in Southern California) that I truly came to believe in Jesus Christ. During this time, I worked and lived a secluded life. But fortunately, my roommate hosted a Bible study in my apartment. The Bible study leader kept loving me and inviting me in. Over the course of a couple months, the truth of God's contra-conditional love and acceptance of me in Christ Jesus radically transformed my life. At this point, I also began to realize that all of life is ultimately about our glorious God, which completely transformed me.

From there God brought me to Freiburg, Germany, where I ministered to college students for one and a half years while working with Campus Crusade for Christ. During this time, at a training, I met my beautiful wife, Alecia. We were married in 2010 and moved to her home state of Wisconsin before heading down to Texas for three years, so I could attend Redeemer Seminary. 

Then, in June 2014, I took an Associate Pastor position at Sunbury City Church and officially became the Lead Pastor in August 2015. Sunbury City Church exists to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus who love God, live the gospel, embrace our community, and plant movements.  Additionally, we are currently fostering two wonderful boys. 

My hope for the future is that we as a church would treasure Christ so much that together we would desire to see the Central Susquehanna Valley saturated with the glory of Jesus Christ as the waters cover the sea.

Josh Laubach 

Deacon of Finance, Worship, Missional Community Leader

I grew up in the small town of Benton, Pennsylvania. From as early as I can remember, we attended a Presbyterian church not far from my house. We attended literally every Sunday. My mom recently gave me a few perfect attendance awards from Sunday School that she had found. This consistent attendance gave me a lot of knowledge about God, but I never developed a true understanding of who He was - I never developed a relationship with Him.  

After I went to college, I grew farther and farther away from God. Without my parents with me, I stopped attending church. It wasn't until I met my wife Angie, in college, that I started attending church again, occasionally. Eventually, Angie got hired to play trumpet at Winfield Baptist Church.  So, we started attending every week. Regular church attendance was good for me, but I was still lost and believed a superficial knowledge of God was enough.  

I remember one sermon in particular by Pastor Corey Mitchell - he was speaking from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapter five. God used that sermon to rock my foundation. I started to study the scriptures to try to understand and reconcile what I was hearing. It was during this time that I finally developed a loving relationship with my Lord and Savior.

Sometime after that, I attended a meeting where Pastor Mitchell was casting a vision for the future of Winfield Baptist Church. It was at that meeting that I first heard about his idea to plant a church in Sunbury. As soon as I heard his vision, I knew that I needed to be a part of this movement. Angie and I, and our two boys, joined three other families in leaving Winfield Baptist Church and starting Sunbury City Church.

My hope for the future is that God will do a great work in the city of Sunbury, that He will bring countless people to a loving relationship with Him, and that He will use me and Sunbury City Church to share the Gospel with those in central Pennsylvania.

David Moyer

Deacon of Buildings, Missional Community Leader

I grew up right here in Sunbury, Pennsylvania - well, the outskirts. I was raised in a very loving, church-going family. The church my family attended did not really preach the Gospel, so I grew up very good works oriented and I was rather self-righteous. Our youth group adviser became a “born again” Christian and shared we should place our faith in Jesus alone for salvation, and not in what good works we can do. I trusted Jesus in eighth grade at a youth retreat.

My faith grew in college at Bloomsburg University, as I became a small group Bible study leader in a campus fellowship group. I was able to mentor younger students individually and lead a larger group study each week. I also met my wife, Rebekah, at Bloomsburg my senior year. We married the following year and now have two wonderful kids, Megan and Micah. We attended Winfield Baptist Church for most of our married life.

Pastor Mitchel preached a sermon on church planting and his vision for Sunbury. We knew we were in as we were a bit restless to serve more. Not only did we leave our church family to start Sunbury City Church, but also, after a year, we felt led to sell our custom-built home on three acres in the country and move into town. We never looked back and love having neighbors to share with and minister too. We now host a missional community at our home and desire to reach our neighbors with Jesus.

My hope for the future can be found in part in Romans 12: 1-2:

2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

My desire is to pour out myself in service to God in view of the tremendous work He did for me on the cross. My desire is that many in Sunbury would learn the hope that Jesus offers, accept his unconditional love, repent of their sins and accept His salvation, and then turn and share their hope with others, thus repeating the cycle. All of this to the Glory of God.