Multiplying Efforts to Reach Youth of Clare

For Jonathan Harper and his wife, Addy, God is opening meaningful opportunities for ministry, pulling together the threads of a vibrant tapestry that He has been weaving since Harper was in middle school.

While in the 7th grade, Harper attended the national Fine Arts Festival event in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, at the end of one of the services, Harper felt the Lord challenging him to be a campus missionary at his school. Harper received his first Fire Bible that night and states that is when his faith became his own.

Harper entered high school and his family moved from Metro Detroit to Clare, Michigan, a small town of only 3,000 people, where his father took the senior pastorate position at Clare Assembly of God. Harper says it was a “culture shock.” The church was running an average of 40 people and was in need of intentional revitalization efforts.

He began to lose sight of what the Lord had called him to do several years earlier but, one day, he recalls that the Lord vividly brought back the memory of his promise to be an on-campus missionary for Christ. He rededicated himself to that call and set out to make the most of his time at Clare High School.

Harper began to involve himself in as many things as he could, including sports and band. He had one goal in mind: to meet as many people as possible in the rural community and make as great an impact as he could in the two years before he graduated.

Harper states, “I made friends fast, I met everyone I could and told them about church, and by my senior year, our youth group had grown to around 40 students.” Harper also joined Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) where he was part of “a great group of Christian classmates” who became a tight-knit team within the school.

“Our FCA group, called a huddle, was run by a woman named Bonnie Rae Walter who had been leading the huddle for 30 years. It was neat to be a part of this group because it is the longest standing FCA huddle in the state of Michigan, now in its 50th year.”

After high school, Harper attended Oral Roberts University where he was uncertain what he wanted to study. But after being encouraged by his cousin, who also attended ORU, and saying in an audible voice, “I am going into ministry,” Harper felt a spiritual peace that confirmed his call into full time ministry.

Harper continued his theological studies at ORU, returning to Clare in the summers to lead in different ministry positions at Clare AG where his father remained as senior pastor.

After graduation, Harper returned to Clare AG as the associate pastor, youth pastor, children’s director and the track coach for Clare Middle School.

Walter, who was still leading the FCA huddle at Clare High School, asked Harper a few times a year to come share during the Bible study. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country, the group began to dwindle and Walter was transitioning out of her role. That’s when she asked Harper and his wife to step in as the FCA leaders in Clare.

At the time he stepped into this role, Harper and his coaching staff had grown the track team to 140 students, over one-third of the school’s total enrollment. Sensing the Lord weaving different pieces of his life together, Harper launched an FCA huddle at the middle school, which runs approximately 100 kids, and Michigan’s first ever elementary FCA huddle. Harper has been blessed to work closely with the FCA Leadership Team, a group of adults that serve on a weekly basis to help lead huddles, who share his passion and dedication to the students of Clare.

All of Harper’s involvement with the youth of the Clare community allowed him to begin to see the Lord’s hand at work. He began to feel an urgency to bring together the three groups of youth he was involved with: the track team, his FCA group, and the Clare AG youth group.

“God led me to these cross over events that we call ‘team builders,’” he says. “We invite the track team and the kids from FCA to Wednesday night youth groups a few times a year and we do fun things together, like Nerf wars, and talk about Jesus.”

The last ‘team builder’ night hosted 60 area youth, 33 of which either gave their hearts to Jesus for the first time or rededicated their lives to Him.

Angela Isaac, whose daughter Chloe attends Clare High School, says that when she met Harper, things about Jesus and the Bible just started to make sense.

Chloe began attending FCA huddles in the 8th grade, hoping to make some friends and find hope amidst a year of bullying. While attending FCA, Harper invited Chloe to attend the Michigan Ministry Network’s Youth Convention.

“She was very excited about going,” says Isaac, and when she asked Chloe why she wanted to go, she replied, “I want to hang out with people to learn more about Jesus.”

Isaac wasn’t familiar with Clare AG or with Harper, so she made an appointment to meet with him about details of the convention and AG doctrine. “I was in tears with joy and gratitude,” she says of their conversation. “We signed Chloe up for youth convention, she had an amazing time, and we have been coming to church ever since."

The ability to bring student athletes and students from Clare schools into the church is something that Harper knows is truly because of God’s divine design. He says, “God is doing something and I’m saying thank you to Jesus for it.”

Harper hopes to continue to bring crossover events to the community in even greater ways and multiply what God is doing in Clare, especially in his new role as the FCA Clare Area rep, a part time missionary position with FCA.

Ashley B. Grant

Ashley B. Grant has a master's degree in Human Services Marriage and Family Counseling from Liberty University and is a credentialed Christian counselor through the American Association of Christian Counselors. Grant also holds certifications in crisis pregnancy counseling and advanced life coaching. Ashley is a fourth generation Assemblies of God preacher’s kid and has one daughter and three sons.