Faith community comes together for annual service at Lebanon Area Fair

Earl Pyles of Myerstown was at the very first worship service held at the Lebanon Area Fair in 1998.

“There may have been 25 to 30 people at that service,” said Pyles, who said he accepted the Lord as his Savior that year and has been a volunteer ever since at OnFire Youth Ministries, the organization that today runs the annual worship service.

The fair runs the last week of July annually and is celebrating seven decades of offering fun, good food, and a close-up look at the agricultural industry in the Lebanon Valley.

What began as a religious service for exhibitors at the fair in the late 1990s has evolved into an event that packs the rafters at Wenger Pavilion and then some today, according to organizer John Kline, who recently retired after 25 years of leading the Myerstown-based faith organization. Kline, a Myerstown area dairy farmer, preached at Sunday’s service.

“It’s just been so embraced by our community,” Kline said. “It shows how healthy and wonderful our community really is, and that we do have strong faith in this community. It’s a coming together.”

OnFire board member Jim Ehrman told the audience – which overflowed both sides and beyond the rear of Wenger Pavilion – that there are between 30 and 35 denominations represented at the service.

Extra wooden chairs were set up on the perimeter of the pavilion and the picnic tables near the Outside Eatery were also packed with attendees. Many others set up their bag chairs along the edges of the pavilion for the service.

“There’s so many different churches. There’s folks here that were in church already this morning, early church, and come right here. And then they’ll go right over for the ham dinner after the service,” Kline said. “People desire a healthy community and desire to be with their friends. They want to hear the word and offer praise, and while our (individual) churches are great, they occasionally come together as a community. And doing so is so uplifting.”

Kline kicked off the service by reading a portion of scripture from Chronicles. The next 20 minutes were a time of praise through song, including three that segued from one to another. “How Great Thou Art,” “How Great is Our God,” and “Holy Forever” were performed by OnFire members who led that part of the service.

As they sang, some congregants chose to demonstrate their faith by lifting their arms in worship. 

During the message, Kline explained to the congregation that he struggled with the fair and church happening simultaneously, adding he was raised to faithfully attend Sunday services. 

The dilemma arose when the fair began to require animals to arrive on Saturday instead of Monday, meaning his children needed to be on the fairgrounds to tend to their animals on the Lord’s Day. Going to the fairgrounds, then to their home church and back to the fair was problematic, he added.

“As a young dad I was trying to figure out how to do best with my five young sons and I was struggling with that concept of Sundays. And so, you know, I wanted my sons to experience 4-H and FFA, but also wanted to raise them to understand what Sunday was about,” Kline told the attendees. 

He took that concern that was burdening his heart to his pastor. 

“So I went to my pastor for some advice,” Kline said prior to the service about his struggle. “He listened to me. He looked at me and said, ‘You take something you think is bad and turn it into something good.’ And he turned and walked away. It was the best thing he could have ever done.”

He then approached past fair board president Ben Bow about his desire to start a Sunday morning service at the fair. That was a Thursday, just a few days before the 1998 edition of the fair was set to begin. 

“I had to share an idea from the Lord, a vision that God would be the solution to that thing that the enemy meant for evil, but the Lord meant it for good and for His glory. He knew then that you would be here today. He knew it,” Kline said during the service. “If I had to give a title for my sermon today, it would be to turn that which appears evil into something that is good and for His glory. God is the master of doing that.”

Kline continued with his praise for the Lord’s provision during his message. 

“He is the one that takes something that our enemy, the devil, intends to destroy and kill and turn it into something good,” Kline added. “Hallelujah, he is the best at that. God, you are good. You’re a good, good Father and you care about us and you’re indeed worthy of our praise…” 

Before the main message, Dylan Varner of Myerstown, who is an OnFire youth member, gave a testimonial and Ehrman led the congregation in prayer. Varner said he would have laughed at anyone who suggested to him that one day he’d be on the platform at the Lebanon Area Fair speaking to a capacity crowd at a church service.

“If you would have told me three years ago, OnFire would have changed my life completely, I wouldn’t have believed you at all. If you would have told me three years ago, that I’d be in front of a whole crowd telling you guys about it, I would have laughed at you,” Varner said.

He said his life changed, making him a better servant for the Lord in 2024.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord say, ‘Whom shall I send and who shall go from me? Then I replied, here am I, send me.’ That’s Isaiah 6:8, and that is the verse that I live by. That is my calling,” Varner told the audience.

Kline provided audience members at the end of the service the opportunity to accept the Lord as their personal Savior and for those who already walk in the Christian faith to give something “bad in their life to God for Him to turn it into something good.”

Following the service, LebTown spoke with Mary Zimmerman of Myerstown who had raised her hand when Kline had earlier asked the crowd who had attended every fair church service since the late 1990s.

“I think the farmers are very wonderful people, good Christian people. The cows, the atmosphere, being outside, and farmers like to be outside,” Zimmerman said in answering why she believes attendance at the service has grown over the years. “I was raised on a farm. I would have slept outside in the summer if my mother would have let me. But it’s just the atmosphere here. You see so many people from your church and these people are from the church I went to before. But, you know, you just have fellowship here.”