CJ Ortega

Pastor CJ Ortega, what a man of God he is. He wasn't raised in church and joined the United States Marine Corps going around the world. It was on the island of Okinawa, Japan that he accepted Christ as his savior with the help of his born again staff sergeant. That was the first discipleship experience that he had. Following 17 years in the Marine Corps CJ moved to the Reading, PA area and got a job as a bouncer at a nightclub. Because that environment was as conducive to being a Christian as the Marine Corps was he fell from the Lord.

He married his second wife (after the first abandoned him) and found himself in the hospital praying to God for good health for both the baby and mother while she was in labor for over 24 hours and said to God that if the baby and mother came out problem free then he would it all and serve Him. The mother gave birth to a healthy child and suffered no problems herself. Holding to his word CJ then began to follow after Christ with determination.

He now serves as a pastor of a plant church in inner city Reading, PA. which is thriving in its ministries to the poor and homeless which are very dominant populations of that city. This church holds a soup kitchen every Friday producing over 150 plates of food for some 100-120 homeless that come. The kitchen is operating off of an absolute minimal budget of $1.20 per plate or less. They also have a house that is used to provide shelter to drug addicts who want to break their addiction and allow them to stay for a 9 month intense program that equips them to be able to support themselves financially, setting them up to become eligible for jobs on the outside and more importantly provide intense discipleship that their faith and knowledge may grow so they can stay drug free.

He has learned a lot from church planting, the difficulties, the do's, the don’ts, and so much more. What was neat was that it was obvious as an audience to tell that he is a pastor fir for an inner city plant church. He was charismatic, untraditional, straightforward in speech, and most of all loving.