New
Church Developments in Pittsburgh Presbytery
+ Fountain Park Church
+ Hot Metal Bridge
+ Mosaic
Community Church
+ The Open Door
+ Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Fellowship
+ The Upper Room
+ Aftrican Christian United Fellowship
Fountain
Park Church (back
to top)
Fountain Park
Church is a community of real people. They believe that God created each
of us to be in relationship with Him. Their belief is that relationship comes
through Jesus Christ.
Contact Information
Fountain Park Church
8533 Peters Road
Cranberry Township, PA 16066
Phone: 724-779-2003
Fax: 724-779-2043
E-Mail: info@fountainpc.com
Web Address: http://fountainparkchurch.com/
Worship
Sunday morning utilizes a full, non-traditional worship band and various interactive worship elements. On a given Sunday, you may hear an interview, view a video clip, participate in a small group discussion, visit a prayer station, or simply sit and worship from your seat. Children share in the early part of the worship hour with them, and then are invited to KIDZONE for well-planned, age appropriate, programming. Worship is at 10:00 am.
Hot
Metal Bridge Faith Community (back
to top)
The Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community is a new church on the South Side of Pittsburgh. They use a style of worship that shares the story of God through drama and the arts. Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community seeks to bridge the gap between people and Jesus Christ by helping them experiencing the Kingdom of God. Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community will be a bridge between God and others by participating in communion, welcoming all into community, listening and having compassion, and sharing Christ’s story with the community of the South Side, the surrounding neighborhoods, and the world. Hot Metal Bridge is a union church of Pittsburgh Presbytery and the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The Pastors
Pastors Jim Walker and Jeff Eddings have been working together in ministry since they served together as camp counselors at Ligonier Camp in 1989. After graduating from Point Park College, they spent many years using drama to proclaim the Gospel in churches and camps across the country through a ministry called “Crosslight Productions.” They also created an outreach to elementary schools through the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, performing plays about conflict resolution, handling peer pressure, and reading. They are now serving the Lord together again, along with their families and many, many friends, to help create this new faith community on the South Side.
Contact Information
Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community
Office: 2000 East Carson Street,
Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Worship: 2700 Jane Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203
Phone: 412-481-4010
Fax: 412-481-4112
E-Mail: jeff@hotmetalbridge.com or jim@hotmetalbridge.com
Web Address: http://www.hotmetalbridge.com/
Worship
Hot Metal Bridge worships on Sunday morning at 11:00 am.
The
Open Door
(back
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The Open Door Presbyterian Church seeks to be a community of people which does not “go to church” but is “being the church” everyday. They are Presbyterian, missional and emergent, seeking a “generous orthodoxy” to guide how they live out their faith. They seek to equip followers of Jesus to live missional lifestyles in changing and at times turbulent city. As a community they are seeking to engage the Creator God and culture in ways that are meaningful and reverent. They are a part of a rich historic Judeo-Christian heritage and seek to honor and incorporate the ancient practices of those who have come before them. They desire to honor God's purposes, plans, and perspectives first and foremost. They long for people to contribute, partake, and share who they are in worship. They are striving to be receptive to the needs of all people because they believe that the spiritual life hinges on an earnest search for God. They place high value on creativity because they believe that God is creative and that being made in God's image and likeness means they are creative beings as well. Their hope is that God the Father, Jesus his Son, and the Holy Spirit will mold and shape them as a community in this process called life.
The Pastors
B.J. (Brandon James) Woodworth is the pastor of the Open Door. He serves the community by being a visionary guide, worship choreographer, mission equipper, community catalyst, and prophetic poet. He enjoys reading Walter Bruggemann and Karl Barth. B.J. loves playing racquetball, basketball and soccer, watching movies, writing slam poetry (which you can check out on the site), and listening to music like Linkin’ Park, Dylan, Lauren Hill, VOL, Coldplay, Bruce Cockburn, and U2. He is married to Katrina and has four children, Kyra, Elena, Zach and Alex (who are twins). He is particularly passionate about social justice and community development, which is evidenced in his involvement in racial reconciliation initiatives, Habitat for Humanity and living in an intentional urban community in Pittsburgh’s East End.
John Creasy is the Associate Pastor for the Open Door. He serves the Open Door by leading the band, equipping new members to use their gifts and explore their dreams, and by developing and implementing ways for the Open Door to serve the larger community in which we find themselves. He also works closely with BJ Woodworth designing worship and brainstorming and implementing ways to make the church more missional. John serves on the board of advisers for Open Hand Ministries and seeks to involve the Open Door in this ministry of justice in the neighborhood of Garfield. John also spearheads Garfield Urban Farms, a ministry partnership between Valley View Presbyterian Church, The Open Door, and Open Hand Ministries in which food is grown and made available in the struggling neighborhood of Garfield. John and his wife Alyssa have two kids, Teah and Micah, and live in an historic house in East Liberty with their dog Emma and housemate Abraham.
Contact Information
The Open Door Presbyterian Church
Union Project
801 N. Negley Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Phone: 412-687-3222
E-Mail: bj@pghopendoor.org
Web Address: http://www.pghopendoor.org/
Worship
The Open Door Presbyterian Church gathers as a community to worship the living God at 6:00 PM on Sunday nights at the Union Project. They desire to allow individual expression and to create a space where distractions and facades may be removed and the community may discover and experience God's presence in worship. This may occur in any of a variety of expressions, such as in song, painting, writing, prayer, dancing, or wherever the Spirit leads.
The Pastors
The Rev. Saleem Ghubril Saleem was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Because of the civil war, his family immigrated to the United States in July of 1976. Saleem and Patti were married in 1981. They have two children, Christina and Nathan. They live on Pittsburgh's urban North Side. Saleem is an ordained Presbyterian minister. His life and work are deeply shaped by his Christian worldview. This includes a commitment to serving those who are poor, embracing those who have not experienced God’s personal love, and reconciling those who are alienated. He is now working as Executive Director of The Pittsburgh Promise.
Elder Ed Dixon is the Homeowner Care Coordinator of the Pittsburgh Project. He graduated from Hardy Bible School in Pittsburgh and was formerly licensed to preach and helped to start a new congregation in Wilkinsburg before he joined the Mosaic family. He is married to Christine and has 10 children.
Contact Information
Mosaic Community Church
at Pittsburgh Project
280 North Charles Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15214
Phone: 412-321-3911
Fax: 412-321-3813
E-Mail: ghubril@verizon.net or edixon@pittsburghproject.org
Worship
Mosaic desires to communicate the message of the gospel to the unchurched and believers in an effective way which will bring about lasting change in their lives. Sunday morning begins at 10:30 am with a free breakfast followed by worship at 11:00 am.
Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Fellowship (back to top)
The Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Fellowship's vision is to bring the good news to Vietnamese immigrants and their families who might have never heard of the love of God, disciple Vietnamese Christians, and help Vietnamese immigrants in their new life in Pittsburgh.
Contact Information
Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Fellowship
at
Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church
199 Old Clairton Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15236
Phone: George Tichi at 412-327-1346
Worship
The Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Fellowship gathers on Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM in the chapel of Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church.
The Upper Room (back
to top)
The Upper Room does not exist for its own members. Their goal is to be a body of believers dedicated to the growth of the Kingdom of God. As such, they focus on calling new people into relationship with Jesus Christ, equipping them as disciples for ministry, and sending them into the world in mission.
As a congregation, they seek to be:
The Pastors
The story of the Upper Room began when two students at Pittsburgh Seminary shared with one another a sense of calling to new church development. A few weeks after that conversation, Chris Brown and Mike Gehrling began praying once a week about whether either one was called to plant a church. A few weeks after that, they began praying about whether or not God was calling them to plant a church together as a modern day Paul-and-Barnabas partnership. A few weeks after that, they began to visit and pray in different neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. A couple weeks after that, they visited Squirrel Hill and discovered a young, diverse sub-culture with the potential to do great things for the Kingdom of God, and so the vision for the Upper Room was born.
Chris Brown and his wife Eileen moved to Pittsburgh from Colorado in 2005 for Chris to attend Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. While in seminary, Chris interned at The Open Door, where he first felt called to church-planting. Chris graduated from the University of Colorado where he studied Creative Writing and Religious Studies. In his spare time Chris enjoys spending time with Eileen, reading, playing mandolin and guitar, and making coffee at the 61C Cafe in Squirrel Hill.
Mike Gehrling graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in May, 2008. Before starting the Upper Room, Mike worked part-time as the English Ministry pastor at Korean United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. Mike received his BA in Christian Thought and Theatre from Grove City College. In addition to the Upper Room, Mike can also be found on the campuses of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt as a campus minister for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate Student and Faculty Ministry, hanging out in one of Squirrel Hill’s many cafes, or running in Schenley Park.
Contact Information
Phone: 412-302-8612 or 412-592-9094
E-mail: mike@pghupperroom.com or chris@pghupperroom.com
Web Address: http://www.pghupperroom.com
Worship
Starting April 5, The Upper Room will worship in the Botany Hall of Phipps Conservatory at 7:00 PM on Sunday nights. Go to their website for more details.
African Christian United Fellowship (back
to top)
Pittsburgh, a multicultural city, has many African immigrants speaking a variety of languages. Many are refugees who came to the United States to escape danger, war, hunger and violence. Some have lost their connection with Jesus Christ because they cannot find a church in their own language. To remedy this situation a group, of six families created the African Christian United Fellowship to adore and glorify God according to African culture. In this multilingual congregation, they use French and some African languages to preach the Word of God.
Contact Information
Malu Mutombo
Phone: 412-758-4452
E-mail: bmutombo@hotmail.com
Worship
The African Christian United Fellowship currently worships at the Eastminster Presbyterian Church every Sunday afternoon at 2:30 PM. Eastminster is located at 250 North Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206.