Known together as the Lykens Valley Charge, Peace and St. Peter's churches are less than 5 miles apart and have a 50+ year history of sharing a pastor and working cooperatively to support each other.
Both churches are excited to begin a new journey with a senior pastor who will bring energy and new ideas to our congregations as we plan to grow our youth and young adult ministries by adding more contemporary components to our worship. If you value singing praises to our Lord, and have a desire to partner with us to grow our ministry, we pray that the Spirit will move you to learn more about us. We can't wait to meet you!
We expect the pastor will work between 35-40 hours per week. The actual hours could vary based on visitations, scheduled meetings, church activities, and time of year. The salary is negotiable and will include benefits and a pension. We are open to candidates with any years of experience, and we expect that the hired pastor will be ordained or become ordained within a reasonable period of time.
Peace Church is in a small, family-oriented town. St. Peter's church is in a rural settling. Nearby there are farms and woodlands. Everyone knows their neighbors, and neighbors help each other when needed. We live among Amish in our community too, and occasionally Amish participate in our activities. Our church family is considered to be an extension of our actual families.
We are part of the United Church of Christ which has significant diversity among churches. The autonomy of the United Church of Christ allows us to be more conservative than progressive churches within the denomination. When describing the United Church of Christ, someone recently said, "if you have been to one UCC church, you've been to one UCC church." This is because no two churches are the same. While we may be more conservative than other churches in our denomination, we extend an extravagant welcome to anyone who wishes to worship with us no matter where they are on their faith journey.
The churches are in a rural area, and shopping centers, hospitals, universities, museums, sports venues, and amusement parks are within a 45-minute drive, and Wal-Mart is less than 10 minutes away. There are manufacturing jobs available within a ten-minute drive, and there are all types of jobs within a 45-minute drive to Harrisburg. The schools are smaller, so students receive more attention.
For a complete profile of both churches, please contact Sherri Keiter-Reed, Search Committee Chairperson, at [email protected].