With the rapid growth of the presbytery has come a significant number of congregational and pastoral exams. We’ve formed ministry networks and we’ve focused on the building of relationships.” He describes a ministry network as “a cluster of six to eight churches that meet regularly for pastoral support, elder training, joint mission work and,” he says of one of the groups,“to take in a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game.”

From zero to 35 in 12 months would be slow if talking about a new car, but when talking about a new presbytery, it’s unprecedented acceleration.     

In September, the Presbytery of the Alleghenies of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) celebrated its first anniversary. In 2011, the new presbytery was created by carving out portions of three existing presbyteries; a part of the Presbytery of the East (Western Pennsylvania and Western New York), a region of the Presbytery of the Mid-West (Central and Eastern Ohio) and elements of the New Wineskins Transitional Presbytery. The new presbytery began with eight congregations. A year later that number is 35. Another 20 churches are in conversation with the presbytery about joining the missional movement known as the EPC’s Presbytery of the Alleghenies.   

“It is exciting,” said Dean Weaver, one of the founders of the New Wineskins Association of Churches and now Chair of the Ministerial Committee of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies. “The Lord is growing His Church and adding to our numbers daily,” Weaver shared.     

That new growth includes congregations transferring in from other denominations, but it also involves a high level commitment to church planting. Memorial Park Presbyterian Church (EPC), where Weaver is senior pastor, is planting a church in partnership with the presbytery in downtown Pittsburgh, called New City Church.     

“The EPC places a strong focus on church planting,” claims Rodger Woodworth, founding pastor for New City, “that was the focus of our most recent General Assembly, and that is the focus of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies.”   

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