【2020 GTCA City —Pittsburgh, PA】
The Church of God in Pittsburgh
The Church of God in Pittsburgh was originally established as the Church in Pittsburgh in 1983, primarily through a migration of saints mainly from Ohio. Some years after a turmoil, the Church of God in Pittsburgh was incorporated in 2017. The church does not presently have a meeting hall, but meets on university campuses and in various saints’ homes. Approximately 40 currently gather on Lord’s Day mornings, including four children. The racial composition of the church is 59% Chinese and 16% Caucasian, with the remaining 25% a mix of Korean, Vietnamese, Black, and Indian. The current church life in Pittsburgh focuses primarily on campus work at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), though the need to gain more families is of equal priority (and not necessarily separate). Each year, the Lord adds remaining fruit to His Body through the saints’ labor on the campuses to gain college and graduate students, and sometimes university staff. In the past 12 years of campus work, dozens have been gained, but most have moved away. Only a handful of them have not been Asian. While the saints in Pittsburgh welcome all who would like to move here, we particularly see a need for young American families to migrate to the Pittsburgh area in order to share the burden of shepherding and gaining some from the population of American students and families for the strengthening of His testimony in this locality and region. We have reached significant milestones in the past years, including establishing a new church entity, beginning a children’s service schedule for bringing up the next generation in this city and region, and supporting the two Christians on Campus clubs at Pitt and CMU. These clubs have about 10 student members each.