Neighbor Spotlight: Etna pastor, a North Hills native, works to build community

Editor’s note: Neighbor Spotlight is a monthly feature that aims to let our readers learn more about the people in their communities who are working to make them a better place, who have interesting stories to tell or who the community feels deserve “15 minutes of fame.” If you would like to nominate someone as a Neighbor Spotlight, email Neighborhood News Network editor Katie Green at kgreen@triblive.com.

Spend a few minutes with Pastor JJ Lynn at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Etna, and it won’t take long to tell he’s a people person.

The burly man, a former tow-truck driver with a passion for motorcycles, eschews the traditional look of a religious leader.

But the message in his work is loud and clear.

“I believe we are all connected and interdependent,” said Lynn, a Ross native and North Hills High School graduate. “How I am affects you, and how you are affects me.”

He’s made it a mission of the church to bolster community relations by opening the doors of the cavernous building along Grant Avenue to a bevy of programs that serve people from across the region.

Particularly since the start of the pandemic, the church has focused on crisis relief. It hosts 50 daily meal distributions for all ages and has partnered with the Shaler Area School District to host its Backpack Initiative, which provides weekend food to more than 100 children in kindergarten through eighth grade.

“Etna is blessed with good relationships,” Lynn said. “This congregation has a heart for showing up when an emergency happens. A simple text will draw plenty of volunteers.”

The church has doled out more than 38,000 meals since the pandemic started in March 2020.

As a board member of the borough’s Bread of Life Food Pantry, Lynn said he joined other community leaders when covid-19 first shut down everything to determine how they could provide for people in need.

“We assumed it would be a long-haul effort,” he said. “We were happy to have the space to distribute school lunches, and it quickly turned to the realization that we need to provide for the whole community.”

Borough manager Mary Ellen Ramage said weekly covid-19 calls have continued, with Lynn participating along with Mayor Tom Rengers and others to map out a plan to address lingering needs.

“He steps in where there is a need, rolls up his sleeves and just tackles it,” Ramage said.

The church’s role in crisis relief dates to its beginnings, Lynn said, when the building served as a shelter after the 1936 St. Patrick’s Day flood and briefly as an evacuation center in the 1986 flood.

“After Hurricane Ivan in 2004, this congregation cooked meals and provided muck-out crews and did whatever it could,” he said. “We have always shown a desire to help folks in crisis.”

On any given day, the church is home to a variety of community groups, from scouts to gamblers anonymous, who use the building for meetings.

There also is the summertime God+STEAM day camp that began in 2018 that seeks to connect faith, science, math and art for elementary-aged children.

Lynn, whose wife is a pastor in Wexford, said what he most relishes in his leadership role is listening to people’s stories. In his spare time, he likes to read and play Minecraft with his son. He recently has taken up hiking as a means to sneak outdoors.

A graduate of Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, Lynn earned his Master of Divinity in 2010 at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, also in Columbus.

Ministry carried him across the country to Oregon and Texas before he landed back in Pittsburgh, serving a dual role as pastor in Etna and at Sharpsburg’s First English Luther Church.

Lynn serves on the board of Etna Commons and accepted the role of Etna Volunteer Fire Company chaplain a few years back, stirred by his teenage Eagle Scout achievement and a current interest in emergency services.

Outreach has had a positive effect on church enrollment, especially in recent years.

When Lynn took over in 2015, there were about 45 members. That number has swelled to 85, despite not being able to host in-person services for much of the year.

Nearly $20,000 in technology upgrades and a focus on social media have boosted the church profile as well, with Lynn saying the goal is to be a place of hope that people across the region feel comfortable calling home.

With more than a dozen rooms and a new $80,000 roof, the church structure is solid, Lynn said. He hopes to revamp the fellowship hall soon and name it for the late Earl Fugh, a Scout leader who ran the church’s ham dinner for 48 years and whom Lynn called the “most engaged parishioner ever.”

Sunday services are streamed live on the church Facebook page, and Lynn predicts that will continue even when physical gatherings resume.

“One of the benefits is that eventually when people age and can’t attend church, they can keep connected,” he said. “God is calling us to expand our understanding of community.”