After three years without a permanent pastor, Hill United Presbyterian Church at 502 Second St. will install the Rev. Leigh Benish at a special service at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Actually, Benish who spent the last five years as an associate pastor at Grace Presbyterian Church in Temple, Texas, has been at Hill United Presbyterian since mid-October, but the installation service will make it official.

“We did two phone interviews, and my family came up to visit, and then I did another visit with the (Beaver Butler) Presbytery,” said Benish. “I started talking with the search committee in February.”

Alan Milanovich, a 45-year member of the church and member of the Hill United's search committee, said after the Rev. Clark Sawyer left the pulpit at the end of 2015, the 250-member church went through a period of self-reflection.

“We had a committee that spent a year deciding what we needed as a church. It was an internal evaluation of about a year before we finally got the Pastor nominating committee together,” said Milanovich.

The committee spent 16 months winnowing down nearly 300 resumes to phone interviews with half a dozen candidates and face-to-face meetings with three or four, he said.

Milanovich said, “We wanted someone young. And after her interview we were struck by her enthusiasm. And we had very good conversations with a half dozen of her references.”

Benish said of the installation service at the church, “Actually it is a service of the presbytery, so there will be a number of pastors there and other church elders.”

The Rev. Tom Harmon, pastor of Westminster Church in Evans City, and moderator of the Beaver Butler Presbytery, said, “The installation means Leigh is coming into that congregation, but the congregation is part of a larger group of 63 churches of the Beaver Butler Presbytery.”

“This formalizes the relationship between Leigh and the Hill congregation,” Harmon said.

“One pastor will give me a charge and another will give a charge to the congregation. I don't really do anything other than give the benediction at the end,” she said. A reception at the church will follow. The public is invited to the installation and the reception.

Benish moved to Butler with her husband of 11 years, David, an accountant, and their 3½-year-old son, Gabriel.

Benish, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said of her husband, “We've actually known each other since middle school. We met in the church we grew up in.”

She said, “I heard a call to the ministry when I was 14, so I've known from a very young age, but it was something I fought a little bit.

“I went to college for theater and wanted to do that at first, but nothing felt right until I switched to religion and went down that path,” she said.

“We didn't start going to church regularly until I was 11 or 12,” she said. “Our going was the product of our parents' marriage falling apart. Nobody wants to get divorced, but it started the path for me to the ministry.”

After graduating from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Benish attended the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary were she graduated with a master of divinity degree in May 2013 and was ordained in September 2013.

“My dad and stepmom are flying out tomorrow to be here for my installation,” she said. “The first official act I did after becoming ordained was officiating their wedding.”

Benish hopes to officiate at a lot of weddings at the 106-year-old church.

She wants to bring stability to Hill United Presbyterian.

“Right now, I'm focused on listening and observing, trying to understand the traditions and practices of the church,” said Benish. “I have some ideas, but I'm not pushing them at this point.

“I really think at this point what they desire and need is a consistent pastoral presence that they haven't had,” she said.

Milanovich said, “We're an older congregation, and we want to focus on getting young people coming back to church. We think her enthusiasm and spirit will do that.”

Benish said, “Overall they (the congregation) have been incredibly welcoming.

“They realize that society around them is changing, and they can keep doing what they've been doing or they can change and adapt. I think this church has come to that conclusion,” Benish said.