The Rev. David Janz has only been senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, 200 E. North St., since July 1, but he's already been impressed by the resilience of the church's congregation during the changeover of ministers.

“The congregation in the midst of all this change, it's amazing they stayed the course and kept their eyes on Jesus Christ,” said Janz.

Janz took over for the Rev. Eric Park, who left to assume the post of Butler District superintendent in the Western Pennsylvania Conference.

“My predecessor is now my boss,” said Janz, who has been a friend of Park's for the past 26 years.

Park said, “In our system, the bishop and a group of district supervisors oversee the clergy appointments and deployment of the clergy.”

Almost at the same time, the Rev. Tim Goodman left First United July 1 to become pastor of a Methodist Church in Beaver.

Janz said the Rev. Hannah Loughman also started July 1 to help him attend to the needs of the 2,000-member church and its three campuses.

“There's the downtown campus, the Connection Center, 232 E. North St., and the Crossfire campus,” said Janz.

“The Connection Center is where we have the “Seeds of Hope” ministry for recovering addicts, Thursdays at 6 p.m.,” said Jenz. “It's also where we have the God's Country country-western services at 7 p.m. Saturdays.”

At the church, Janz says the three services are traditional services.

“We try to be unapologetically traditional devotion,” he said of the church's worship services at 6 p.m. Saturdays and at 8:20 and 10:50 a.m. Sundays. He added, “Crossfire is really much different. There is a worship band and it can get loud. The space looks more like an auditorium. ”

The space at the Crossfire campus, 1802 N. Main St. Ext., is the site of a 9:45 a.m. Sunday contemporary service.

Janz said the three locations make for three different kinds of worship services.

“The God's Country service at the Connection Center appeals to people well across the gamut from young people to those in retirement age,” he said.

“Von McCommons has got a great country-western band. It's a quality music band and people choose that service because of the style of music.”

There is one constant. Janz said, “I am the preacher at all three campuses. While Hannah's primary responsibility is to be the preacher at Seeds of Hope, I preach twice on Saturdays and three times on Sundays.”

“The primary message is the same, but I will include some different things depending on which campus I'm at,” he said.

Janz said he is an old hand at doing multiple sermons at multiple locations. His first pastorate was four small rural churches in Greene County.

Janz and his wife, Betsy and their daughter Katie, who is in her second year at Slippery Rock University, have moved into the parsonage on Elizabeth Drive. Their son, Ben, is an optician in the South Hills.

Previously he had served 11 years as pastor of a Methodist church in Franklin.

Janz, whose grandfather was a minister, said, “People told me all my life I would end up a pastor. I preached as a youth leader.

“But it was a Bible study that my wife and I attended in 1983 that I sensed that God was calling me to the ministry,” he said.

The turmoil of the recent past may be repeated in the new year, he said.

In February, he said, there is going to be a global general conference of the United Methodist Church to take up the contentious issue of human sexuality.

“What's it going to be like to be a United Methodist after February?” Janz asked.

“I think people have asked me a lot where I stand on these issues. My response has been the direction for First Church has been a place where Jesus Christ changes lives.

“It's just that simple. Butler County is a lot like Venango County in that people need the hope that Jesus Christ can bring,” he said. “I want us to be the place that brings them that hope.”