About Our Church
We're a United Methodist Church located in east-central Lancaster County, just minutes from downtown Lancaster city, as well as tons of the local sights. Contact UsOur Mission & Vision
Our vision and mission is to help connect people to faith
At BIH we focus on sound scriptural teachings, filtered through the lenses of experience, tradition, and reason. There’s no reason that faith should be confusing or hard to understand. We want anyone to be able to learn about God’s love for them and how to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Our ultimate goal: moving people closer to God so that they become disciples and can change the lives of others through God’s love.
Mission & Purpose
The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We do this by spreading the good news of God’s grace and by living Jesus’ command to love God and our neighbors. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the Lord of all. As we make disciples, we respect people of all religious faiths and their right to religious freedom. Jesus’ words in Matthew provide the mission: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you” (28:19-20), and “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. . . . You must love your neighbor as you love yourself” (22:37, 39).
This is our grace-filled response to God’s Kingdom in the world, announced by Jesus. God’s grace is active everywhere, at all times, carrying out this purpose as revealed in the Bible. It is expressed in God’s covenant with Abraham and Sarah, in the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and in the ministry of the prophets. It is fully embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is experienced in the ongoing creation of a new people by the Holy Spirit.
In order to be truly alive, we embrace Jesus’ mandate to love God and to love our neighbor and to make disciples of all peoples.
Our Beliefs & Values
John Wesley and the early Methodists placed primary emphasis on Christian living, on putting faith and love into action. This emphasis on what Wesley referred to as “practical divinity” has continued to be a hallmark of United Methodism today. At Bird-in-Hand UMC we carry those same traditions, experiences, reasons, and primarily our understanding of scripture forward with us as our core values.
Believe
We believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus ministered to the poor, the hungry, the sick, sinners, welcomed the outcasts, and sacrificed himself to save us. He rose from the dead and gives us hope, and restore our relationship with God.
Share
We believe that God has commanded us to share his ‘good news’ with the world. (Matt 28:16-20) Our job as disciples is to tell people about Jesus Christ and the love and hope he brings.
Serve
We demonstrate God’s love by serving others. We participate in local and global missions, help with community meals, and do our best to help others in need whenever possible.
Worship
We meet regularly (Hebrews 10:25), on Sundays and on other days, to worship God because we love Him, and He loves us. Every aspect of what we do should be an act of worship whether it’s reading God’s word, teaching, singing songs together, or even giving.
Love
We love because He first loved us. Jesus teaches us that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Jesus died to save us all because He loves us all, and so we love unconditionally.
“We can connect, personally, to each person in the Bible because each of them represents us in some way. We all bear the same strengths and flaws that they do. This is why the Bible is so real to us. Each of them was a real person, each failed and succeeded in some way, yet all served and were redeemable. In the same way, even with our failures, we are redeemable and able to serve.”
– Pastor Kevin Kresge
Who We Are
Bird-in-Hand UMC is made up of a diverse group of believers: young, old, male, female, and people from many races and cultures. As God’s children, we believe that there should be no barriers between us and that our commonality is that we are all co-heirs with Christ to God’s Kingdom when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord.
Our Pastor: Kevin Kresge
Pastor
Pastor Kevin is a Licensed Local Pastor within the United Methodist Church, serving in a part-time appointment at Bird-in-Hand. Kevin is also the Digital Marketing Director at GRIT Marketing Group based in York, PA where he manages all digital marketing projects like websites, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and social media marketing (SMM), as well as other pay-per-click campaigns (PPC) for clients from a large variety of industries. Kevin is a musician, playing many instruments as well as singing, and majored in Music Performance and Music Business at Indiana University of PA and Millersville University of PA. Kevin and his with Iris share a home with their son Tony.