Campus Call
SLIPPERY ROCK — Gateway Community Church has no building of its own, but church leaders like it that way, for now.
Without walls, they have no problem reaching out to attract members and find ways to help the surrounding community. In the past few months, those forming the church have held informal meetings and visited various events in the Slippery Rock area to get the word out.
"We're intentionally engaging, not passively receiving (members)," said Bob Stauffer, pastor of the new church, which is beginning with 15 families.
The Evangelical Presbyterian congregation meets at Slippery Rock University's University Union, where its services are described as mostly contemporary. The first public worship will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 9 in the building's lower level.
Slippery Rock was chosen based on a study done by the North Park Evangelical Presbyterian Church, now considered the mother church for Gateway. It was also based on the fact that the university is in town, according to Stauffer.
"Our desire is very intentional about impacting a campus community," he said. "Others (churches) often approach it as, 'if (students) come here, we will welcome them.' We're not satisfied with waiting for them to come in. We want to get them involved."
The national leadership of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church has made the decision to plant churches in college towns, according to Stauffer, a former national outreach planner for the church. It's a new movement, since college towns have a constant mix of students in addition to professors who influence those students.
"If you want to influence culture, the easy way to do so is a college town," he said.
"It puts us in the position to influence generations of students," he said. "It really could begin to have the multiplying effect."
At the same time, members don't plan to take students away from other churches.
"We're not intending to pluck them away from their church," said member Paul Kemeny of Grove City. "Usually there are a lot of young adults who are unchurched or lost."
But those forming the Slippery Rock church want to make it clear that families are welcome to join as well. The church will have a nursery available every Sunday for parents with young children to use.
"We want an intergenerational feeling," said Marc Santom, director of student and young adult ministries. "There's so much families can learn from students and students can learn from families."
The church plans to begin a youth group for high school students, according to Santom, who is from Detroit but will help with the church formation here. He hopes to train high school and college students to do a variety of outreach work in the community.
"We may also do mission trips later," he said. "We want to see service start at home first."
The church leaders have been meeting with community leaders to assess needs in Slippery Rock. The church plans to become involved with existing community efforts, not start new ones, according to Stauffer. The church may help at the Feed My Sheep Food Cupboard or other organizations, for example, he said.
Stauffer wasn't sure when Gateway would have a more permanent location. Right now, money to start the church has instead been spent on having two full-time staff members, he and Santom, to recruit members. They both hope that their efforts continue by word of mouth with other community members.
"This is a very relational endeavor," Santom said. It's up to those who come to the church to spread the word about the church, he added.
Stauffer, who has recently moved to Slippery Rock, feels starting the Gateway Community Church is a way for him to come full circle. Stauffer helped start the North Park Evangelical Presbyterian Church 26 years ago and said that church will be a mother church to Gateway
"I just hope someone else starts a church from this one," he said of the Gateway church.
