Pastor Jonathan Leath is ‘pushing the envelope’ to help people find their Destiny.
When Jonathan Leath was working in corporate America, he couldn’t help but notice there was a certain emptiness to the day-to-day work. He said people would dread going to work and live for the weekend. The experience got him wondering about how he could show people that there’s more to life and help them find their purpose.
“I just saw that we were just culturally devoid really of purpose,” Leath said. “Our church is called Destiny Church because everyone has a destiny — some just need help in finding it. That was really the impetus.”
For that reason, Leath, who holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership, founded Destiny Church in 2007. The non-denominational church moved to Moorestown in 2014, at which time it held worship services at William Allen Middle School. Today, the church shares a space with Maranatha Christian Fellowship in Moorestown.
Despite devoting the last 10 years to helping his parishioners find their purpose, Leath said his own purpose wasn’t always so clear.
Leath, 47, grew up on a tobacco farm in Elon, N.C. The son of a Baptist pastor, Leath’s father had a simple rule.
“He said, ‘As long as you’re in school, you don’t have to work on the farm,’” Leath said. “So we loved school.”
While attending North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Leath studied business marketing. His senior year he wore business suits to class and carried a briefcase. He said he dressed for the part he wanted to play, and he wanted to be a businessman.
Upon graduating, Leath stepped into that role, moving to Connecticut to work for Chrysler Financial. He worked for Chrysler for nine years, and it was one day after he had been transferred to the Philadelphia branch that he found himself looking through the paper for a new job. Leath said he happened upon an advertisement for a headhunter in Mt. Laurel and made the drive from Philadelphia to Mt. Laurel that same day.
Following their conversation, the headhunter asked Leath if he had ever considered going into the ministry. He said at the time, the idea seemed laughable. He told the headhunter he wanted to change the world, and a life in the ministry wasn’t the way he was going to do so.
The suggestion stuck with Leath, though. Leath attended a church in Philadelphia, but when he married his wife, Kamili, he began attending the North Jersey church she attended. Leath had been working at Chrysler for six years, when Kamili got a job working at Beaver College, which is now Arcadia University.
Through a combination of a tuition reimbursement program for spouses and tuition reimbursement from Chrysler, Leath went back to school and combined his passion for business with some of the biblical courses he had been contemplating. Ultimately, he earned his master’s degree in organizational leadership from Philadelphia Biblical University, which is Cairn University today.
“Some folks do seminary, which is great, but most of the problems in church aren’t around theological issues; they’re around organizational issues,” Leath said. “How do you deal with people? How do you deal with attitudes of people? How do you move an organization from one place to the next.”
Leath eventually left the corporate world behind and worked as the administrator for the church he and his wife were attending. At Agape Family Worship Center in Rahway, he helped grow the church from 500 members to 4,500. After nine years, however, he said he felt the urge to create his own church.
Leath’s goal in creating Destiny was to break the mold. He said growing up Baptist, he appreciated the tradition and history, but he realized churches need to change with the times. While Destiny draws on Christian fundamentals of scripture, prayer and stresses the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ, Leath takes a different approach to his delivery system of these messages.
He said he incorporates technology, books, music and dancing into his sermons and tries to talk about issues that are “outside of the box.” One week, this meant having everyone doing the “Cupid Shuffle” after an especially heavy sermon, while another he discussed author Andy Stanley’s book “The New Rules for Love, Sex & Dating.”
Leath wants church to be “practical, relevant, relational and real” for those in attendance. He said this runs the gamut from giving people tools such as classes on finance or sermons on how to find the right person.
“Church should be enjoyed, not endured,” Leath said. “If you come to church and it’s boring, it’s probably because someone is doing something wrong.”
The church draws people from all over Burlington County, with around 70 people regularly in attendance each week. Destiny started by meeting at a church in Burlington City and moved to sharing a church Willingboro before moving to Moorestown.
Leath, his wife and four children moved to Moorestown around 2009 and were looking to move the church to the area when they came upon an opportunity to hold church within a movie theater at the Moorestown Mall. When that fell through, they began meeting at William Allen Middle School for two years before holding services at Maranatha Christian Fellowship. The goal is to put an end to the church’s transit nature and have its own building for people to meet. Leath said they are searching for that space. The goal is to find a space in Moorestown, but he said they are also looking at the surrounding towns.
In the meantime, Leath said he has formed strong connections with the churches in Moorestown. However, he said Destiny brings something a little different to the area.
“In our Moorestown ministerium, I’m the guy that will kind of push the envelope a lot,” Leath said. “I think it’s fun.”
Leath is also active in the Moorestown community. Next year, he’ll have one child at every schooling level with a kindergartner, sixth grader, eighth grader and 10th grader. He said he doesn’t know if any of his children will gravitate toward a life of ministry, but he wants them to know the same message he preaches, which is lifestyle is the greatest evangelism tool.
Leath said what he’s learned is life isn’t about attaining the money, house, spouse, dog or family. He said it’s about connecting with people, living genuinely and doing whatever you do with passion — all of which, he says, can be found through Jesus.
“God’s got a purpose for your life,” Leath said. “That purpose is a good one; that purpose involves him. It involves a life that you never even dreamed of having.”
Destiny Church meets at Maranatha Christian Fellowship on North Lenola Road at 1 p.m. on Sundays. For more information on Destiny Church, visit https://www.destinynj.org.
