The Common Places Church Newberry is an outreach of the Common Places Church in Lock Haven. According to the Lock Haven site, “We believe that smaller church families help build and maintain [a] healthy community.”

A smaller church allows attendees to avoid “one large church in a centralized location…instead…start simple, smaller gatherings that reach new neighborhoods.”

Peña said he had not expected to go into the ministry, but he felt pulled in that direction. He had grown up the son of Mexican parents and attended a Catholic church. However, in college he became protestant and felt led in another direction.

“I am an engineer by trade and have worked in the manufacturing industry for about 12 years,” Peña, a married man and father of three kids, said in an email exchange. “I felt called into ministry leadership about eight years ago, not really knowing how or where we would be serving.”

He soon attended a Christian Missionary Alliance (CMA) church.

“I began leading an evangelistic small group at my work and was accepted into the LEAD CMA program,” Peña said. The LEAD CMA is a program “that is geared to equipping people to become ministry leaders. It fulfills the credentials needed to become ordained in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which is the network of churches Common Places belongs to.”

He said he felt an immediate need in Newberry.

“After graduating from Lead CMA we were looking for opportunities to serve, that’s when we connected with Common Places Church in Lock Haven,” Peña said. “We loved the vision to start small…churches on mission with God to serve its community.”

Peña mentioned that Lock Haven’s Common Places Church Pastor Josh Grimes “offered me the opportunity to be their second Church Planting Resident. Because we saw the need of more diverse churches to reach the overlooked and outcast people of our Newberry Neighborhood.”

Grimes confirmed the need in Newberry.

“We believe that church should be simple, personal and rooted in the places where people already gather. When we looked at Newberry, we saw a neighborhood with a deep history and strong community ties but few churches are designed for people who may not connect with a traditional church setting,” Grimes said. “We felt God calling us to bring a faith community there–one that is welcoming, relational, and built around finding Jesus in everyday life. Our model is about meeting people where they are, and Newberry felt like the right place to do that.”

Grimes praised Peña for his leadership.

“Gerry has been a gift to our church family. He has a heart for people, a passion for discipleship, and the kind of steady leadership that makes others feel seen and valued,” the Lock Haven pastor said. He added that Peña and his family “live in the Newberry community…[Peña] understands the realities of everyday life, which makes his ministry deeply relatable.”

Peña said the goal is not so much the quantity of people to attend but the quality of their lives.

“I think a lot of the time we mistakenly measure the growth of a church by the number of seats filled on a Sunday morning. That’s never been our measuring stick. It’s our hearts’ desire to see those who spend time with us trust Jesus and allow him to transform their lives,” Peña said. “Whether that’s five people, or 50, or 500…Jesus changing lives is the main focus. [That transformation is] going to spill out into the streets, allowing our body to serve and love the people of Newberry well.”

When asked about the kinds of people coming to the church, the Newberry pastor said he has been seeing many attendees in some sort of emotional distress.

“We are finding more and more each week that God is bringing us people in search of a place to rest and heal, both spiritually and emotionally,” Peña said and added he wants people to find that needed rest and healing at their service.

Peña said the attendees of the church enjoy being at the West End Christian Community Center.

“We are so grateful to the community center for allowing us to use their building for two reasons,” he said. “One, the space is breathtaking, and perfect for a Sunday gathering, but second, more importantly, it’s a common place. Each of our locations is an everyday common place during the week. It’s important to us that the space is open to community life every day, and not just on Sundays.”

Calvin Phillips, the WECCC director, is thrilled about it. “What the WECCC is doing is an attempt to provide a service for the community. I wanted to see the facility used to the utmost of its capacity and reach our community,” Philips said. “We have an awesome group of people here [with the Common Places Church]. We really love the way they are reaching out to [Newberry].”