For more on the vision behind the Philadelphia Church Planting Initiative, read First Steps Towards Church Planting in Philly. Written by Church Planter Scott Newcomer Somehow, it has already been about eight months since Mhei and I began this church-planting journey here in South Philadelphia. We began last September to lay the groundwork for an eventual church plant and it has been an exciting (and at times, challenging) experience. We continue to take our vision from Luke 4:18-19. While the following provides a general update, there are many God stories that I’d love to share if you’re inte ..read more

Praise God that 17 new international workers were appointed by the U.S. C&MA Board of Directors in February 2024. Among those workers are Jacob and Sarah from our Eastern PA district! We asked Jacob to write about God’s calling on their lives. When Sarah and I first met about a decade ago, we were Alliance missionary candidates planning to head out as singles. That all changed. Our Story After we were married, we were sent to France in 2013 for a year of language study and then to Guinea to serve among one of the larger people groups. We divided our time between engaging those who had nev ..read more

God continues to amaze us with how He is answering the prayer for more workers. Still a bit surprised as we write this, Terry and Ruth Smith are returning to pastor one of our churches in Eastern PA. As many of you know, Terry is a former pastor and superintendent in our district and current Alliance Vice President for Church Ministries. Read more of the story from Terry Smith. In July 2023, I made a passing comment to Nate Howard that I might need a church to pastor in a couple of years. Of course, I was referring to the time at the conclusion of the Alliance president’s tenure. However, in ..read more

If we took every church that currently existed in Eastern PA and pushed them to their limits in terms of leaders, programming, or building capacity, we wouldn’t come close to reaching the 9.2 million people in our district who still need the Gospel of Jesus. This is why disciple making through church planting is essential. May we each commit ourselves and our churches to being disciples that make disciples.  As of today, we have five developing church plants in our district reaching the communities of Harrisburg, York, Upper Darby, Scranton, and Lock Haven. We want to share stories from ..read more

Because of your church’s partnership, $174K was awarded in 2023 by our district to help develop workers, churches, and communities. We want to celebrate and report back on the Kingdom impact. Experiencing Alliance Missions with Envision With a short-term trip grant, Fairlawn Community Church and Common Places joined together to visit Envision NYC. The trip exposed the group to new cultures and religions, and they were able to interact with immigrants and hear their stories. Since their trip, they continue to pray for the women they met who are working towards their citizenship and continue to ..read more

BY DAVID DIXON, EPD DISTRICT TEAM Of the 9.2 million people who live in the Eastern PA District, 45 percent live in the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs. In our district, we also have 87 Alliance churches. Of those 87 churches, 10 of them are located amongst the 4.2 million that live in Philadelphia and its suburbs. This disparity, among other factors, led DEXCOM in May 2022 to commit our district to the Philadelphia Church Planting Initiative—the goal is to see three new churches planted in the city limits of Philadelphia by the end of 2026. Our first step was to listen and le ..read more

A few on our district team set a daily alarm to remember to pray for more workers for the harvest. But it is still easy to doubt that God will provide, especially for our small congregations. It was in 2022 that lay pastor Dave Hickman announced that he would be retiring and had a vision that God would send him a younger pastor to take over the role. Still holding some doubt, we posted the bi-vocational job posting online. God is so good, and he was already leading Bret and Staci Norton to shepherd Countryside Alliance Church in Brodheadsville, PA. Keep reading to hear more of Bret’s story. My ..read more

BY Mark Giacobbe, Teaching Pastor at Citylight Church Back in April, a team of eight from Citylight Philly traveled to an aXcess location in Central Asia for a ten-day missions trip. Our team hit the ground running ready to serve–and serve they did! The trip had a lot of moving parts. The first task was to provide a retreat for the international workers. Long-term workers in hard-to-reach places like Central Asia benefit abundantly from rest and spiritual refreshment, yet they can’t easily get away to get it. Over the course of several days, the Citylight crew sang, taught, prayed, played ..read more

Written by AN EPD ALLIANCE international worker Due to the creative needs of our situation, we cannot say who we are, but I think some in the district may refer to us as “the family with a lot of children serving in the Africa Region.” It has been about 16 months since we left the lovely land of Pennsylvania, and we do miss it. We have been encouraged to see how back home you have been caring for and providing for the young family that will be teaching our kids for two years. You have joined in this new work by partnering with them and with us. It is a joy to work with you! What have we been u ..read more

BY Alan Rathbun, EPD DISTRICT TEAM We are changing the way workers travel through the consecration and ordination process in Eastern PA. In the past, workers completed the process in a one-on-one relationship with an ordination mentor. While there has been good fruit from this over the years, we wanted to bring greater consistency and strengthen the consecration and ordination process with deeper relationships, increased ministry skills development, and deeper personal transformation. To accomplish this, we have replaced one-on-one mentoring relationships with consecration and o ..read more