'For the whole community'
Pastor Brady Randall knows that the third time's the charm for his church, Orchard Hill Church Butler, which will have its first worship service Sunday at its new location at 120 Walker Ave.
Randall presided over the church's first service Oct. 15, 2017, when Orchard Hill Butler opened in the gym of Penn Christian Academy at 199 Airport Road in Penn Township.
The church was the newest campus of Orchard Hill Church, which has locations in Wexford and Pittsburgh's Strip District.
The church then moved in August 2018 to Trinity Presbyterian Church at 107 Staley Ave.
Now, Sunday will see Orchard Hill's first service in what Randall said is the church's permanent home at the former Intersection Community Church, which closed in June 2020.
“We are excited to have the new space, a space that can be used 24/7,” said Kurt Bjorklund, Orchard Hill's senior pastor.
“It's a great group of people who have gathered there to make up Orchard Hill Butler,” he said.
“We bought the building and have done some modest renovation,” Bjorklund said. “This is the home of Orchard Hill Butler for the future.”
Randall said contractors and volunteers from the church's 170-member congregation have been renovating and remodeling the church's interior since December.
Work has included taking out old carpeting and installing new carpeting, putting up wood in the alcove in the front of the church, cleaning the stained-glass windows, repainting the sanctuary and doing electrical and mechanical work.“We've also painted the kids' ministry space,” said Randall. “We've put in a cafe and installed new flooring in the gym in the basement.”“We've had numerous volunteers do painting, patch leaks and beautify the outside space,” he said. “This wouldn't have been possible without the hard work, passion and commitment of our dedicated volunteers.”Their hard work is about to pay off when Orchard Hill Butler opens its doors Sunday for services at 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.Masks are required during the 9 a.m. service, and encouraged but not mandatory at the 10:45 a.m. service.And for people still leery of attending large gatherings, Orchard Hill's Wexford campus worship services are livestreamed at 6 p.m. Saturdays and 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. Sundays at live.orchardhillchurch.com and its Facebook page.“We feel it is important for families to worship together,” Randall said.He said that for the first half of each service, families will be together before children head to the children or student ministry rooms for the second half.The topic of his first sermon in the new building will be “Why Here? Why Now?”“We've been searching for a building for four years ever since the launch,” Randall said.The combination of the church's need for space and the need for a 100-plus parking lot stymied the church's search efforts.
Buying the former Intersection Church gives Orchard Hill more space to expand on its core mission.Plans for the future include opening the gym for gym nights and using the space for after-school programs as well as Bible study, other classes and offering space to different support groups.Orchard Hill Butler plans to put on a Kids Fest July 31 for children in first through sixth grades, he said.“There will be bouncy houses and food and a band,” Randall said. “It will be a blast, and the kids will learn about Jesus.”That's all part of the church's mission, said Randall, “to expand our reach into the community further and love the community of Butler well.”As part of that mission, the congregation will conduct a food drive called the Love Butler Campaign the next two Sundays with the proceeds going to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank.Randall said his nondenominational church can help feed another hunger.“How do we help people in Butler County find and follow Jesus?” he asked.“This is a church for the whole community: the investigators, the seekers, the doubters, people looking for a sense of belonging,” he said. “It's a safe space for people who want to investigate who Jesus is.”While it's great to have a permanent home, Randall said it's important to remember “a church is not a building, a church is the people of God.”
Randall, who grew up in East Butler and graduated from Butler High School in 2004, joined Orchard Hill in 2014 as the adult ministries/new campus pastor after spending 3½ years as pastor of a Presbyterian church near New Castle.He received his undergraduate degree from Grove City College and his master of divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.He and his wife, Susan, have a 6-year-old son, Nash.People wanting to check out Orchard Hill Butler are welcome to attend a worship service, Randall said.While the new sanctuary has plenty of room to socially distance, he asked that people planning to attend register at orchardhillchurch.com/butler to help the church gauge the number of seats needed.“We are really excited about the door God has opened and to be a steward of what God has given us,” he said.
