Presbytery of Shenango – PC(USA)

Shenango Presbytery consists of 43 churches and over 5,000 Presbyterians in western Pennsylvania, half-way between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Folks here like to say that we in Shenango are more “dense” than anywhere else in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Of course, what they mean is that Presbyterians make up a higher percentage (10 %) of the population than in any other presbytery around the denomination. No matter where you live in Mercer or Lawrence counties, you are within fifteen minutes of at least a half-dozen Presbyterian churches of a variety of Reformed denominations.

This data is important to the cultural identity of Shenango Presbytery. We are a familial group of believers, essentially homogeneous. Our small town and rural contexts make families especially important, including the extended families that overflow into and out of the church. Most folks have lived here a long time and that means that ours is a traditional, highly relational culture. It is not unusual for pastors in our bounds to serve a church for more than ten years, sometimes twenty. On the up-side, this traditional setting has fostered a great deal of stability and steady leadership for our presbytery over the decades.

The Presbyterian-related Westminster College (founded in 1852) is located within our bounds. This was also the heartland of the former United Presbyterian Church of North America, a small but highly mission-focused denomination whose New Wilmington Mission Conference still thrives after more than 100 years of annual gatherings on the campus of Westminster College. Vital global partnerships with sibling Presbyterian denominations are maintained in Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. All of this combines to make Shenango a highly mission-oriented presbytery.

Our vision for Shenango Presbytery includes fulfilling our governance function in Presbyterian polity in a pastoral and non-regulatory manner, and serving as a resource to our pastors, sessions, and congregations by nurturing them as missional congregations. We strongly believe, in the words of Emil Brunner, that “the church exists by mission in the same way that a fire exists by burning.” The leadership of our presbytery strives to cultivate authentic missional thinking and action in our congregations. This includes critical thinking about the meaning of mission and its practice. It is thoroughly evangelical and socially incarnate. A vital presbytery is one where churches are becoming authentically missional, staying connecting to the communities in which they find themselves as well as to the world Christian community at large.