Location: Wilkinsburg, Pa.

Presbytery: Alleghenies

Organized: 1973

Membership: 112 communicant; 16 baptized

Pastor: Bruce Hemphill

Website: CovenantFellowship.org

History

The Covenant Fellowship congregation came to birth 35 years ago, with a felt need to witness for Christ, minister in His name, and grow in the eastern boroughs and suburbs of Pittsburgh. Paul Wilson and others preached through 1974, when Kenneth G. Smith came to be pastor at the beginning of 1975. We met in the RP Seminary building at first, then in the former Wilkinsburg RPC building. In the mid-1980s we moved to a now-permanent location in the northeast part of Wilkinsburg.

We grew significantly for the first 20 years till we had an average attendance around 195. This growth came by means of the preaching in the worship services and the witness of the people in their community, social, and work settings. There was also a great variety of ministries going on during those years: women’s and men’s Bible studies, prayer and sharing meetings, support groups, area fellowship groups, and a strong missions ministry for prayer and news. There was a significant emphasis on living in proximity to one another, in communities. In the early 1990s we had some turmoil in the congregation that developed into the loss of more than one-third of the membership within a few years.

Ministries

In recent years we have been working more intently on ministry to the neighborhood where we meet. Our membership is mostly white, middle class, and well educated, and the surrounding neighborhoods are quite different culturally. The community also is very urban, and many of us are suburban. The immediate neighborhood of our building is economically blighted, with a large number of empty, dilapidated houses and buildings. We have recently taken some steps to renew the vacant lots and buildings, and are learning how to network with others for this gargantuan task.

We have developed two important ministries for the neighborhood. One is a year-round weekly club for kids, which we call KidZone. It includes a meal, games and crafts, and a Bible lesson. The primary goal for this ministry is long term (generational), with focus on the kids, but a related goal is the kind of contact we can have with the parents. This is supplemented in the summertime with a week-long VBS and several special events.

The other important ministry is an evangelism training program that gets us out into homes in the eastern boroughs and suburbs of Pittsburgh, through a variety of contacts, to share the gospel and develop our skills as witnesses for Christ. We are working on improving our ability in followup with our contacts in both of these ministries.

Fun Fact

The sub-basement of the building owned by Covenant Fellowship RPC has a firing range that was once used by the Boy Scouts.

Prayer Requests

• Pray that we would persevere in our relationships with people from the neighborhood, as well as with local government and organizations.
• Pray that each member would be well discipled and would themselves be disciplemakers.