VALENCIA — You could call it a leap of faith; the two ministers involved are.

Starting next month, their two churches, Valencia Presbyterian Church, 80 Starrett St., and Mars United Presbyterian Church, 232 Crowe Ave. in Mars, are joining together for dinner, fellowship and Bible study to explore the core truths of Christianity and how people can live out their faith.

The two pastors — the Rev. Jim Kirk of Valencia Presbyterian and the Rev. Nathan Esser of Mars United Presbyterian — hope to expand the meetings to participants beyond their church congregations.

Kirk said the get-togethers, which start Sept. 16 at the Valencia church and then alternate locations with the Mars church for the next four weeks at the onset, is an outgrowth of the Valencia church’s GROW, or Get Renewed On Wednesday, dinner and discussion series.

“Our church started it nine or 10 years ago,” said Kirk. “It was just to have midweek fellowship time and get-together, and it developed into a family-type thing we have today.”

Kirk said, “We used to have everybody bring a covered dish, but now we have a professional chef, Aaron Yurek, who teaches cooking at Beattie Technical Institute, who cooks the meals.”

Kirk said after dinner the participants would break into different age groups for Bible study and discussions.

“It’s just a good way for the church to grow and for us to see each other outside of church. We never did it with another church,” said Kirk.

Until this year, Kirk said, the church never looked to expand to other churches.

Esser said, “They approached me wanting to expand, make it something that the community could be involved in.”

“When we started talking about what this would look like, they have a strong children’s program, we have a strong youth program. It just seemed to kind of come together really well,” Esser said.

Kirk said, “Nathan and I agreed one of our goals is for more people to live out their faith.”

Esser said, “Getting people to think, act and be like Jesus, that excites me.”

“I love that we can offer a warm meal. No matter how busy you are, you can gather around the table and have a sense of community in the middle of the week,” Esser said. “It’s not about our churches, it’s building up the body of Christ.”

“We’ll have dinner down in the fellowship hall,” said Kirk. “Then the adults will meet in the church lounge or sanctuary and there will be groups for the kids in the fellowship hall.”

There will be both Bible study and discussions based on the scripture, said Kirk.

“We’ll discuss the 10 core Christian beliefs and discuss how to put them into action and what they call us to be in the world,” said Kirk.

“It is my goal that people will be engaged, say what they believe and what it calls them do and how it changes them.”

“I’d hope we are able to have honest conversations about our faith,” said Esser.

Kirk said the discussions and study will follow the Believe curriculum, which was created for use by youths and young adults.

Kirk said when Valencia Presbyterian was having GROW sessions by itself, it was drawing 16 to 20 adults and 10 to 12 children weekly.

Esser said, “I think it is a reasonable goal to have 50 people attending between the two churches. I would consider that a success. With more people, we get deeper conversations.”

Esser said, “We are taking this leap of faith to see if it’s something that sparks an interest in the community, and if it goes beyond a month, we will keep going.”

Kirk and Esser said anyone interested in attending one of the GROW sessions should get in touch with either church. “We’re going to have some idea of the numbers, so we would like people to RSVP,” said Kirk.

The Valencia Presbyterian Church office number is 724-625-2002. The Mars United Presbyterian Church number is 724-625-1365.