To the dozens of parishioners at Brookville United Methodist Church in central Kansas, Jaron Bell is their pastor.
To a growing number of fans across the state, he’s a popular musician — both Christian and secular — and comedian.
And to an ever-expanding crowd of hundreds of thousands, he’s a viral sensation on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.
“I think I am a pastor,” the 38-year-old says, “I’m just a different kind of pastor.”
But the west Texas native, now based in Salina, has seen a seismic shift in his stage performances since his appointment as a lay pastor in October 2024.
“If you were to have seen my show three years ago versus my show now, it’s not the same thing,” he said. “The jokes in my comedy show are now about what it’s like to be a new pastor. I have this whole bit around learning ‘church-inese,’ church lingo and what these things mean. Also, the frustration that comes with having to try to learn theological brilliance on the fly.”
He's taken his act — including current country hits, Johnny Cash standards, his own compositions and a heavy dose of humor and interacting with the crowd — on the road this summer and fall to United Methodist churches across the state where he has a connection, including Topeka Countryside UMC, whose senior pastor, Rev. Michael Tomson-DeGreeff, is a longtime friend and confidante.
“The changes I’ve seen have been far more about his ministry and his faith,” Tomson-DeGreeff said. “He’s shifted from a country music performer to this becoming his ministry, an expression of his faith and his belief.”
Tomson-DeGreef has been a semi-professional drummer for the past four decades and has served as a sounding board for Bell’s musical and career aspirations.
“The biggest thing with Jaron has been encouragement,” he said. “I could see his talent, and I was confirming his talent, that he had whatever it is — the charisma, the voice, the passion — and don’t give up. Keep doing it. Keep believing in yourself.”
As he progresses in the denomination, discerning whether to attend the Great Plains Conference’s candidacy summit and licensing school, Bell sometimes feels like a round peg in a square hole.
“I’m an outlier in the Methodist church. I’m not like everybody else,” he said. “There are things that I do that — comedy shows and worship music — that look like a performer. But the reality is, to me in my heart, that is my ministry. God made me charismatic. Ever since I was 16 or 17 years old, I knew when I walked in a room and talked, people were listening to me, whether it was good or bad.”
The grandson of a Baptist deacon, Bell’s parents separated when he was 6 years old. Both of his parents remarried and had children, but he said he didn’t feel like he fit in with either family.
“I was always kind of the kid between two houses,” he said. “With that grew seeking affirmation from other people. I was very blessed that God gave me the gifting of being able to sing well. I’ve been very blessed with that.”
Once he graduated high school — “College wasn’t going to be happening” — he was part of a band for the next 10 years.
Bell moved to Kansas with his wife at the time, and their two sons, now 12 and 10.
“Looking back at it, I’d like to say that the Holy Spirit was with me. I just didn’t know what it was,” he said. “The reality is, there was no way I could have a relationship with Christ at that time because I was too busy having a relationship with myself. I was too selfish to worry about loving Jesus.”
Contemplating his life, he wrote a song: “I love myself, what can I say? Most of my life is spent on display. But I’m starting to realize the gifts I’ve got aren’t mine.”
Getting a job as a sales executive for a Salina car company, Bell became the e-sports coach at Kansas Wesleyan University, where he met Nick Talbott-Dixon, who was pastor at the time at Salina University UMC, across the street from the Wesleyan campus.
During the height of COVID in 2020, Talbott-Dixon asked Bell to play guitar for outdoor services on the church parking lot.
“It’s been really neat to watch. Jaron was a good friend of mine for a couple of years before he ever stepped into the church part of it,” said Talbott-Dixon, now pastor of UMCs in Tribune, Kan., and Towner, Colo. “I got to watch him go from ‘I want this just for myself’ on the music side to giving his life to Jesus and realizing there was something bigger with his talents that he could be used for.”
It was at a joint service of University and Salina Trinity UMCs in July 2022 that Bell met Chelsea Shrack, in her first Sunday as associate pastor of the pair of churches. The former campus minister for K-State Wesley, Shrack’s work is now concentrated at Trinity.
“His personality” was what drew her to him, she said. The couple married in June 2023.
“She’s literally the nicest human I’ve ever met,” he said.
“Chelsea is, as a wise man once said, the foundational rock on which I have built my church,” he said, quickly adding. “Not making myself sound like I’m Jesus. She’s my everything.”
Preparing sermons, Bell said, he has an in-house sounding board for his ideas and theological questions.
“The reality is, I’m very blessed because if I have a question that I don’t have an answer to, I can really take solace in knowing my wife knows,” he said. “She’s my ultimate asset when it comes to being a pastor.”
Bell was hired to perform at a Labor Day picnic in Brookville, a Saline County town of 250 in 2024, in a service presented by the town’s only two churches, United Methodist and Catholic.
“I just thought he was young, energetic and gave a great sermon,” church member Cindy Lindsay said.
When a new pastor was needed in the middle of the appointive year, church members approached Rev. Karen Rice Ratzlaff, North Central Kansas District superintendent, with a question: Why not that funny guy with the guitar?
“They experienced who he was, and they asked if they could have someone like Jaron,” she said. “He doesn’t have a lot of experience in that realm, and if they want to have that adventure with him, I would invite him into the process.”
After giving a sermon inside the church, Bell got energized.
“I loved the people. They were awesome,” he recalled. “It got to a point where I just prayed. My prayer was on a Sunday evening, and it was simple — ‘Lord, I’m not challenging you. I know you’re working with me. But I’ve never been down this road, and I don’t know what you want me to do. I need you to be present, and I need you to make it abundantly obvious what you want me to do. I don’t want to guess, Lord, I just want you to step in.’
“Literally the next morning at 9:30 I got a call from Karen that the church in Brookville wanted to go in a different direction, and they liked me,” he said with a smile.
Rice Ratzlaff promised Bell she’d help him as much as she could in his appointment, as long as he did his part with his obligations to the district and the conference.
“I think he’s a good fit with who they are in a rural context,” she said. “I appreciated Jaron’s emphasis on grace, which aligns well with The United Methodist Church. I’m intrigued by his creativity and his willingness and ability to reach people in the digital world.”
“I always like to joke that Karen didn’t have a choice, because my friend and my wife were there,” Bell said.
With his best friend — Talbott-Dixson not only performed the wedding, he was the best man — and his wife as pastors, Bell said it was inevitable he would become one as well.
“Sometimes you have to look up when you’re driving and see what the good Lord’s doing and say, ‘Alright, OK Lord, I see what you’re doing,” he said. “I give Karen a lot of credit. She’s been a champion of me; she’s given me a lot of opportunities. Bless her heart, I think she’s not 100% sure what to do with me, and I mean that in the best way.”
Bell is the first to admit his sermons are unpolished, more of a conversation with his congregation — including extoling the virtues of the Kansas State Wildcats and the Dallas Cowboys and bringing his own life story and discernment into the presentation.
He’s had to counsel a divorcing couple in the congregation and has officiated at two funerals.
“You have to figure it out. I didn’t go to seminary; I don’t have a master’s degree in divinity,” he said. “But what I do know is that the Holy Spirit is actively working within me. We’re moving, and we took a church of 10, 12 people and are averaging 27, 28 after a year.”
Bell weaves not just one, but several scripture passages into his preaching.
“I still love his sermons,” Lindsay said. “Anybody you talk to will say they always get something out of his sermons.”
His performing schedule and internet fame have made for part of the bump in attendance. One family on a recent Sunday came to Brookville because they heard Bell mention his church during a performance at the Kansas State Fair.
Another woman drives several hours from Nebraska twice a month after seeing him online, Bell said.
“My hope is, as long as they come in to see me, I hope they see Jesus while they’re here,” he said. “That’s really why we’re doing this.”
Bell’s sermons, he said, are a reflection of who he is and what he believes, polished or not.
“I don’t preach theological brilliance to people, and I don’t use the perfect use of the English language,” he said. “I always say, if you don’t want to hear the use of the word ‘y’all,’ don’t come into my church.”
Bell has made himself a part of the community, Lindsay said, including emceeing the Labor Day parade — “Mind you, it’s 10, 15 minutes long,” she said — and supporting the Ell-Saline High School football team in its recent playoff run.
Several of the team members are now a part of the Brookville UMC youth group.
“He’s part of the reason for that,” she said.
Church members, she said, enjoy the fact that their pastor is also an internet celebrity.
“I personally think that’s got to be a positive for our church,” she said. “People see him, he promotes our church. It’s a good thing for Brookville.”
Bell’s place in Brookville is just where he should be, Talbott-Dixson said.
“He has a niche to meet people where they’re at,” he said. “They may not be quote-unquote church folk, but he can meet people where they’re at.”
Rice Ratzlaff attended one of Bell’s services at Brookville, on Vacation Bible School Sunday.
“He did a great job of celebrating the gifts of his congregation, giving credit to the lay people,” she said. “It’s a shift of going from a solo performer to lifting up the body of Christ that love and support each other.”
Late this summer, Bell took his biggest leap of faith — quitting his job in auto sales to concentrate on his ministry and performances.
“There’s part of the automotive sales industry that makes it very difficult to align to your faith,” he said. “I left a six-figure job to chase after Jesus. I’m willing to walk away from that job because this is what I feel God’s called me to do. That calling is social media.”
Bell averages 480,000 views a month on his Facebook page. He has 30,000 followers on TikTok, and one of his videos received 200,000 views in its first 48 hours on YouTube.
His videos range from the humorous — his quest for Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes is a current topic, with 24 million views this season — to songs such as “Letter to Jesus,” whose lyrics include “If I wrote a letter to Jesus/I wonder what I’d say/Do you think he would have time to read it anyway?”
“‘Letter to Jesus’ is a song that’s 1,000% authentic,” Bell said of the song, recorded in his home studio. “It’s actually what I was thinking, actually what I meant. I find that writing faith-based music like I go about writing sermons.”
Although he initially signed a contract for a country album with a Nashville music label, he backed out and opted instead for a Christian album with the CDX Nashville label, which has both Christian and mainstream artists.
“Jaron Bell is part of a growing wave of artists who, you know, are blending kind of traditional country storytelling with the heart of Christian gospel,” CDX president Joe Kelly said. “We call it positive country, or country music with messages of faith and family and home.”
Kelly has worked with established country artists including Luke Combs, Florida Georgia Line and Mitchell Tenpenny.
He said he liked what he heard from Bell.
“You know, his music just feels authentic,” Kelly said. “It's rooted in honesty and elevated to some degree with faith-filled lyrics — they inspire and encourage people.”
Kelly was especially impressed with “Letter to Jesus.”
“I found a real resounding message there. My spiritual walk is one that has had many turns over the years. And so I've really, really gotten stronger in my faith,” he said. “I just found ‘Letter to Jesus’ to be really strong, and that's what initially attracted me to it. He's not just singing songs; he's carrying on the tradition of country music as a testimony and a witness.”
For Bell, “I think the sky's the limit,” Kelly said.
“He's unique, he's funny, and he has charisma,” he continued. “Every successful artist I've ever worked with, and you could go down a list of all the hits of the ’90s, I was involved in all of them. Every successful artist I've ever worked with, if we were all in a dinner party, and there were 50 people, invited guests at this dinner party and one of them was an artist who had charisma, everybody in the room would be looking at that one person. Not that they were doing anything to draw attention to themselves, it's just naturally occurring.
“And I think Jaron has that in bucket loads.”
Others see an exciting future for Jaron Bell as well.
“He can walk into a room and command attention. There’s something about the work we do each and every Sunday, and that’s a big part of it. He’s uniquely qualified before he ever did his first sermon. When he walks into a room, people want to listen,” Talbott-Dixson said.
“I’ve said this to him 100 times: If he can stay patient and stay locked-in, he can go whenever he wants. I think he has something unique to offer — a show where people can laugh and people can worship. I think that’s a niche that’s not being filled,” he added. “I look forward to seeing how he lives into that.”
Shrack said she’s seen progression in her husband to the performer and pastor that he has become.
“It’s definitely made him consider his lifestyle and his actions reflecting back on his ministry,” she said.
As part of his social media blitz, Bell has a daily, streaming episodes on TikTok called “Church in the Woods,” where he talks about Jesus while playing video games. He gets 50-70 viewers a day, a higher attendance than many churches, he said, and talks about Jesus.
“Church can look different for everybody,” he said. “I’m just trying to do church a little different.”
Rice Ratzlaff said she and Bishop David Wilson have been in discussion with Bell about using his talents in an online Fresh Expression – a movement through the denomination to reach those seeking Christ, through Discipleship Ministries.
Bell wants to gain more knowledge that he can impart on a growing number of followers, whether in person or online.
“I just want more theological training in general. But also finding out how my track looks in The United Methodist Church,” he said. “A lot of times in the UMC, we sit back at conference and say things like, ‘We want to reach young people,’ ‘We want to modernize the way UMC looks.’ I sit back and I go, ‘That’s what I’m doing.’”
Talbott-Dixson said Bell can write his own ticket.
“I’m really proud of him, especially on the Christian music side,” he said. “I nagged at him for quite a while that this was where not only his talents could be used for, and this is where his passion is. It’s great to see him coming into this passion. It’s changed who he is as a human, and the trajectory of where he’s going. I’m really proud of him.”
He also said that Bell can find a place in the denomination.
“That’s one of the things that’s the strengths of the Methodist connection, that we allow pastors to be who they are and offering that context,” Talbott-Dixson said. “He’s become a pastor, but he’s also still Jaron. He hasn’t lost who he is trying to fit a mold. He’s able to live out his calling of being uniquely Jaron, and that’s something that needs to be celebrated.”
Contact David Burke, content specialist, at [email protected].