My objective is to maximize the use of my gifts for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ by pastoring a local church with a team of mutually called elders for the equipping of the saints and evangelizing of the lost.  I desire to preach and teach regularly, to disciple and train other men, to lead and guide future expansion, and to counsel and shepherd families.  I believe my spiritual gifts are administration, teaching, leading, exhorting, and giving.

Jon Stricklin was born and raised in California. He heard the gospel from godly parents and was converted to Christ as a boy. Jon graduated from Calvary Bible College in Kansas City, MO is 1997, and The Masters Seminary in 2008.

He has served as an assistant pastor in Lincoln, CA, the Broadcast Editor at Grace to You, the radio ministry of John MacArthur, and has been the pastor at Henderson Ave. Baptist Church in Porterville, CA since 2008.

Jon has been greatly blessed with a wife whom he believes is characterized by the Proverbs 31 example. Together he and Lisa are proud of the children God has given them which include Emma and her husband Jacob, Kate, Jonah, and Claire. God is to be praised for all He has done and is doing in the lives of this family!

I was born and raised in a Christian home in Long Beach, California. Like many others who are raised in a Christian home, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date of one’s conversion. While I am not sure the specific time that the Lord regenerated me, what I can say for sure is that “my justification has taken place because my sanctification currently is”.

After graduating High School in 1998, I went to The Master’s College and majored in Biblical Studies with an emphasis in Youth Ministries. I began serving as a youth pastor in my home church after I graduated in 2002. Through this time the Lord was shaping me and helping me understand my call to pastoral ministry. I soon realized I needed more training if I was going to be the most effective tool for the Lord as I could be. I could think of no better seminary than The Master’s Seminary and I enrolled in 2005. While at TMS, I began dating my wonderful wife Kim, “a lily among thorns” (Song of Solomon 2:2). We were married in 2006 and now have three adorable children.

Looking back I can see the Lord’s goodness, patience, and faithfulness throughout my entire life. In His goodness He has given me wonderful blessings and revealed His kindness to me. In His patience He has brought me through sanctifying trials and immaturity. In His faithfulness He has always led me to the people He uses to grow me, and places He has for me to serve.

As a friend of mine says, “it’s His plan and our privilege”. It is my joy to serve the Lord and His people here at Hickman Community Church.

I have been experiencing the grace of God since my birth to an unwed teenage mother. I was adopted into a Baptist family which exposed me to Christ at a young age. However, I was raised in a divorced family and was instilled with a deep anger which ensnared my life until the age of 18 when a faithful friend shared the gospel while challenging my hypocrisy of being a youth leader in the local church while living a worldly life.

This friend and I read A.W. Pinks “Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount”. Jesus conquered my rebellious heart through the section on the beatitudes where I came face to face with the reality of my sin and the power of forgiveness. I yielded my life by faith to the Lordship of Christ and became His disciple by His grace.

14 years of marriage and 3 boys later I am profoundly humble to serve as a minister of the gospel as Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel Modesto. Our church was planted 3 years ago with the mission to ” Glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”

It’s my passion to mature Great Commission men. ISI has been doing that for over half a decade and it’s my privilege to serve you at this conference.

In the kindness of God, I was raised hearing the gospel from my earliest memories, but it wasn't until my early 20s that I became convinced that salvation was a work of sovereign grace.

I could do nothing to save myself and therefore I could do nothing to lose myself. At that moment, Christ became precious to me. The Lord called me to shepherd the flock of God through a pastoral internship, which began a journey of pursing seminary training at The Cornerstone Seminary (2009-2013).

Throughout those years, I had the joy of serving on the pastoral staff at Grace Bible Church of Fair Oaks ('07-'17). In the fall 2017, the Lord graciously lead me and my family to Elk Grove Bible Church just south of Sacramento. It has been a joy of joys to preach the Word, shepherd the flock, and equip the saints at EGBC since then. I have been married to Katelyn since 2007 and have four delightful sons. 

Jay grew up in Hayward, California, attended a performing arts high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota and then moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry as an actor.  For over 20 years the Lord allowed him to make a living this way before calling him to full-time gospel ministry.  While attending Calvary Bible Church in Burbank, the Lord graciously saved both he and his wife Julie in 1995.  He attended the Master’s Seminary from 2003-2007 before accepting a full time position as pastor/teacher at First Baptist Church of Weaverville in the beautiful Trinity Alps of northern California.

His desire as a pastor is to preach the Word (2 Tim. 4:2) and shepherd God’s people, helping to equip them for the work of service (Eph. 4:12); “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 3:18);” that they may be found “complete in Christ (Col. 1:28)” and that their desire would be to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…(Matt. 28:19-20).”  Yes, the challenges of ministry are many, but the eternal joys are incomparable.

He and His wife Julie have 6 children ranging in age from 4-18 along with a menagerie of dogs, cats, birds and fish.  Jay enjoys spending time with his family, and when given the opportunity, fly-fishing and appearing in the odd Christian film such as No Greater Love and Billy Graham’s Road to Redemption.