Carmen Shullo has taken over this month as pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Butler Township. Just don't call him reverend yet.

Shullo explained he is not ordained. Right now he's a “commissioned ruling elder.”

What commissioned ruling elder means, he said, is someone who has gone through pastoral training and demonstrated Biblical knowledge and diplomacy.

“I can step in and do everything a pastor could do,” he said.

“I have been filling in at Trinity off and on during the summer,” said Shullo. “And a relationship developed.”

“That's just the way God works. I just look to see what he will do next and I get excited about it,” said Shullo.

Asked if he plans to eventually be ordained, Shullo said, “It would be my hope if time permits.”

Presently, time is not something of which he has an ample supply, explaining he works at both Trinity Presbyterian and at Thoma Meat Market in Saxonburg where he works at the counter.

Still, Shullo said, he is at Trinity Presbyterian at least three days a week.

He noted the church has a congregation of nearly 30 but 50 to 60 people have been attending Sunday services.

Shullo explained the increase in attendance by saying “The Holy Spirit is drawing people.”

That's all part of his plan to foster togetherness at the church.

“We have an 11 a.m. service, there's no Sunday school,” he said. “We are working to develop a community out of this church.”

“We want to get people to come together, live, love and laugh together,” he said.

“The last Sunday we had 64. It was very heartwarming for the people here,” said Shullo. “They love sharing their faith. They struck a chord with me right away.”

Elder Becky Bauer was part of the group that brought Shullo to Trinity Presbyterian.

“Our session of the church is the governing board. Small church, small group,” said Bauer. “We were the primary contact point for the group effort.”

Bauer said her group worked with Tom McMeekin of the Committee of the Presbytery who put the church together with Shullo.

Bauer said, “He happened to know Carmen from hearing him preach.

“We started talking to him back in April. We heard nothing but good reports,” said Bauer. “He gave up being a youth pastor and an associate pastor, a full-time position in Saxonburg, that's how strongly he felt called to come to Trinity.”

“He made us believe he was the one for us,” she added.

And Shullo hopes to keep his congregation believing that.

“The church will vote every year on my status,” he said. “I'm hoping when I get ordained they will keep me on as permanent.”

But any ordination ceremony is four to six years in the future, he added.

It would be the culmination of a process that began in 1996 when Shullo first got the call.

He credits three ministers at Saxonburg Memorial Presbyterian Church with charting his spiritual path — the Revs. James Gordon, James Boos and David Brewer.

He eventually was serving as associate pastor and youth director when he felt compelled to take the pastor's position at Trinity Presbyterian.

“Trinity asked me to fill a pulpit for them in the summer. One of the members had heard me preach in Saxonburg,” he said.

Shullo, who is married with five children, said his immediate plan is to get a Sunday school up and running.

“We are trying to get an immediate feel on what children want to learn,” he said.