HORNBROOK, Pennsylvania (BRN) — The Baptist Resource Network welcomes Chuck Fricker to the BRN family as the new pastor of Harvest House Community Church in Hornbrook, Pennsylvania, effective June 1, 2021.
Fricker, a native of Philadelphia, hails from the Gulf Coast of Texas, about 30 miles south of Houston, where he and his family have resided for the past 15 years. He is a public school teacher and a band director, and his wife, Jeanette, teaches music at a local Christian school.
When the Frickers moved to Texas, they were not Christians.
“In Texas, we had an encounter with the living Word of God,” Fricker explained. “Obviously it has great power, and it affected us greatly.”
The couple were both baptized at the same church, and shortly thereafter, felt a call to ministry. Over the past seven years, they have been “slowly matriculating through the process God has for us,” he said.
Fricker, 42, happened to see the advertisement for Harvest House Community Church’s open pastor position.
“I remember thinking, there is a Southern Baptist church way up there!” he said, noting he decided to preview the church’s Facebook page, where he was able to hear current pastor, Arnie Johnson’s sermons.
“His accent just makes me feel at home!” he said, sharing he decided to call Johnson. That led to a three-hour conversation.
“To make a long story short, God had set all of that up and now we are called by God, I truly believe, to take everything we’ve learned here in the ‘Bible Belt’ … and apply it to Northern Pennsylvania,” he said. “We are really excited about it!”
Fricker’s wife Jeanette went to Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, where she earned a vocal degree. Fricker was a freelance musician playing in orchestras in the metropolitan centers across the East Coast.
They moved to Texas, where he could teach and “by coincidence” there was a music position open at the newly created Christian school that had just opened.
Fricker said, “For the last seven years, she has been there teaching and has built an amazing ministry there, touching the lives of all those children,” he said, noting that early on, before they were saved, “she was the stubborn one.”
They had grown up in the Catholic church, where they were not saved, but he had been playing drums at a Baptist church where the pastor was preaching through the biblical book of Philippians.
“I was immediately like, ‘This is where I need to be!’” he said, remembering telling his wife they needed to leave the Catholic church and go there. But she dug her feet in and said, “Absolutely not!”
Notwithstanding, they read the Bible together every night. Within two months, she was going to church with him, and they both were baptized.
“Now, she is one of the lead spiritual people helping guide that school and its formation,” Fricker exclaimed.
Fricker, who holds a master’s degree in music, has taken about 15 hours of classes at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While working toward this master’s degree in theological studies, he felt called by God to go on staff at a church as a ministry associate at Danbury Baptist Church.
Already in his 30s, with a full-time job, ministry responsibilities, and a growing family, he told the Lord he’d finish school – or not – whichever the Lord preferred.
“I was very fortunate to have a great mentor, my pastor David Cato, and had the opportunity to preach quite a bit and to be around very godly men,” he said.
And now, he is excited about serving at Harvest House Community Church, but does hope to finish his degree as the appropriate time.
How to pray for the Frickers:
The Frickers have two children, Noah, 15, and Emily, 12. Please pray God gives the Fricker family wisdom to make the right steps as they prepare to move to Pennsylvania.
“Leaving Texas is a big deal. This is where we established everything,” he said, noting they have a lot of great relationships with whom they want to finish well. “We want to leave a good witness… and want the testimony we live behind to honor Christ.”
Also, please pray they “would get out of the way and exalt Jesus, and let Him and the Holy Spirit guide” them. As musical performers, they are not strangers to the audience, he explained.
“We just want to make sure we are faithful to God and use the skills He’s given us, but that we exalt Him always and that we make it about His Kingdom and not ours.”
Want to encourage the Frickers? Contact them through email at charles.fricker@gmail.com.
See the full interview.
