Knox Evangelical Presbyterian Church sits on Elmwood Avenue in the heart of Kenmore, a village in the Buffalo metro area of western New York. From its front doors the church opens onto a busy weekly rhythm of Sunday school, expository preaching, weekday Bible studies, a toddler playgroup, a youth group, and a generous program of women’s, men’s, and grief-support ministries. Members describe Knox as a warm fellowship of believers who are actively involved in serving the community and building each other up in the name of Jesus Christ, and the congregation has built a reputation for careful, book-by-book teaching of Scripture.
Truthful Teaching, Graceful Living
The motto of Knox Church is “Truthful Teaching, Graceful Living.” Behind those four words sits the conviction that biblical truth and loving grace belong together. Knox holds to a Reformed understanding of the Christian faith and follows the Westminster Confession of Faith as its subordinate standard, the same confession that shapes the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), the denomination Knox joined in 2012 after a long season in the PCUSA. The EPC’s broader motto, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity,” is visible in how Knox talks about its beliefs and welcomes visitors.
The church’s vision is to be a community centered on Biblical truth and the loving grace of Christ, and its mission is to model the mission of Christ by growing, serving, and loving. Sunday by Sunday that looks like serious preaching through books of the Bible, communion on the first Sunday of each month, and a steady stream of gatherings that keep people studying, praying, and caring for one another throughout the week.
Planning a First Visit
Knox Church is located at 2595 Elmwood Avenue in Kenmore, New York. There is ample parking in the lot behind the church, with entrances off either Kinsey or Hamilton. Visitors who would like to talk with Senior Pastor Justin Olivetti ahead of time can reach him during office hours by email at pastor@knoxepc.com or by calling the church at (716) 873-2423.
On a Sunday morning the doors are open early. At 9:00 a.m. there are classes for adults, teens, and children that meet in different parts of the building; first-time guests can simply walk in and ask for directions. At 10:00 a.m. the welcome center is open for a fellowship time with refreshments, where newcomers can pick up a snack, grab a welcome packet, and meet people. At 10:30 a.m. the sanctuary fills for worship. The order of service is projected on a screen to help guide the congregation through the hour, and worship includes traditional hymns, modern hymns, and praise songs led by the music team.
The dress code is come as you are. Some people dress up and some dress comfortably; both are welcome. Free copies of the Bible are on the welcome table for anyone who does not have one, and a monthly newsletter called The Link is available there as well. After the service, one of the church’s elders is available at the front of the sanctuary to pray for anyone who would like it. Knox also runs a prayer hotline that anyone can call or text at (833) 240-1824.
Worship on Sunday Mornings
The 10:30 a.m. worship service is the heart of life at Knox. The service features great music, scripture reading, prayer, and expositional preaching through books of the Bible from Pastor Justin. Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, and all who have confessed a faith in Jesus Christ are invited to participate. Giving during the offering is presented as an act of worship but is always given freely and cheerfully with no compulsion.
The music at Knox is a blend of contemporary praise songs, modern hymns, and traditional hymns, and a choir rehearses and leads worship about once a month. Music Director Claudia Brown, who joined the staff in June of 2023, oversees the musical life of the church. She is an Associate Teaching Professor at the University at Buffalo, where she directs UB’s three choirs and teaches voice lessons, conducting, and a music psychology course, and she has served in music-director roles at other EPC churches.
For those who cannot attend in person, services are livestreamed. An audio livestream is available at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, and the service can also be watched on Facebook Live at 10:30 a.m. A full archive of sermons going back many years is posted in audio, video, and written form, with series that have covered entire books of the Bible such as Luke, 1 Peter, Proverbs, Galatians, Ephesians, Psalms, and more.
Children, Youth, and Families
Knox welcomes children as part of the worshiping congregation and does not offer a separate children’s church. Children are encouraged to attend the Sunday worship service with their families, and a nursery is provided free of charge in the education wing (to the right of the sanctuary, up the ramp) during the service. The nursery is run by trusted caregivers who have been background-checked. Free Bibles are available for children on the welcome table. If a child becomes antsy or a parent needs a quieter spot, the library, which is attached to the welcome center, has couches and the service piped in through the speakers.
Sunday school classes for all ages meet at 9:00 a.m. Children meet upstairs in the education wing while teens go downstairs into the club room for youth group. Knox Kids Sunday school uses a 9:15 a.m. registration window on Sundays. Older teens and youth, grades 5 through 12, are part of Knox Youth Group, which meets weekly for teen Sunday school in Pastor Justin’s office at 9:00 a.m., hosts a fun event every month, and gathers for lunch with the youth group on the last Sunday of each month at noon.
The youth group also takes an annual summer mission trip. Recently five teens and two adults from Knox spent a week in Niagara Falls with YouthWorks, serving alongside organizations such as FeedMore and the Salvation Army, fellowshipping with other churches, and getting to know teens and adults from across the country. Other youth group traditions include a progressive dinner in which the teens travel around to four hosts who provide them with different courses of a meal.
Adult Sunday School and Weekly Bible Studies
Adult Sunday school meets at 9:00 a.m. on Sundays in a downstairs space in the building, and the study follows the same kind of verse-by-verse approach that shapes the worship hour. In recent years the adult class has walked through books of the Bible alongside the preaching schedule.
Beyond Sunday morning, Knox offers a wide range of weekly Bible studies:
- Women’s morning Bible study on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 10:30 a.m.
- Women’s evening Bible study on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.
- Early Bird Bible study on Wednesdays at 6:00 a.m.
- Dudes & the Word Bible study on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m.
- Grub & God men’s breakfast on the first Saturday of each month at 8:00 a.m. in the conference room.
In addition to its ongoing studies, Knox offers a free four-week teaching series every other month on a different subject. Past classes have covered Bible 101, covenants, and Jesus in the Old Testament, and the series meets in the downstairs McKnight Parlor at 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday and the Toddler Playgroup
Wednesday mornings belong to the youngest members of the Knox family. The free Toddler Playgroup runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon in the church gym during the school year, and it is a place where babies and toddlers and their parents can get out of the house, play, and socialize together. The gym is one of several large spaces available at Knox, which also rents its facility to other churches and ministries.
The prayer meeting that is a regular part of the week gathers on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in a side room off the sanctuary. Knox describes the prayer warriors who gather there as a faithful group that prays for the missionaries it supports, for the community, and for one another.
Women’s Ministry: Sisters of Faith
The women of Knox gather under the banner of Sisters of Faith for events that mix fellowship and faith. The group meets monthly and has hosted tea socials, fashion shows, a community meat raffle, and other gatherings that bring women from the church and the wider community together. Past Sisters of Faith events have included a high tea and a decades-themed fashion show in the welcome center, and the group also organizes a community meat raffle to support a women’s retreat. Sisters of Faith is one of the more visible social ministries at Knox and is part of why many women in the area have connected with the church.
Family Movie Night and GriefShare
Two of the church’s regular community offerings are open to anyone in the area. On the last Friday of every month at 7:00 p.m., Knox opens its doors for a free Family Movie Night with popcorn, and the wider community is welcome. The church also sponsors GriefShare, a thirteen-week, biblically based support group for anyone who has lost a loved one and is looking for guidance through grief. GriefShare uses videos, small-group discussion, and a workbook to walk participants through the stages of bereavement, and meetings are held in the evenings at Knox.
The Leadership of Knox Church
Knox is led by a session made up of the teaching elder, who is the senior pastor, and the ruling elders of the church. The session meets once a month to lay policy, discuss church business, pray over the members, and make decisions for the future. The current session includes:
- Pastor Justin Olivetti (teaching elder)
- Kathy Jefferys
- Dave Elder
- Ellen Keller
- Irene Beitz
- Mike Williams
- Bill Snyder
Senior Pastor Justin Olivetti has been in ministry for two decades as a youth pastor, an associate minister, and now as the senior pastor of Knox since 2018. He is a graduate of Moody Theological Seminary in Michigan, is ordained in the EPC, and is married to his wife Joy, with whom he has four children. He came to Knox from Mt. Hope Church in Livonia, Michigan, where he had served for eighteen years. He is described by the church as a quirky, easy-going, and warm man with a heart for God and his people, whose hobbies include biking, writing, reading, and video games. His vision for ministry has always been threefold: to teach the Word faithfully, to pray constantly, and to reach out to others lovingly.
Music Director Claudia Brown joined the Knox staff in June of 2023. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this is her third music director position within the EPC. She also serves full-time as Associate Teaching Professor at the University at Buffalo, where she directs UB’s three choirs, teaches voice lessons, conducting, and a music psychology course, teaches private lessons out of her home, and sings in professional choirs and engagements around the greater Buffalo area.
Administrative Assistant Irene Beitz, who also serves on the session as a ruling elder, keeps the Knox office running. She has worked in ministry in various churches in the choir, board of trustees, and treasurer roles, and she is the first point of contact for many who walk through the door.
A Hundred Years on Elmwood Avenue
Knox Church traces its roots to December 1926, when eleven Christians came together in a storefront to worship. The congregation was originally called Kenmore United Presbyterian Church. In 1968 the congregation changed its name to Knox Presbyterian in honor of the Scottish Reformer John Knox, and it remained a part of the PCUSA for many decades. In 2012 the church left the PCUSA to join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a move the congregation describes as a better fit for its commitment to theological truth and the authority of Scripture.
Through it all, Knox has stayed devoted to two rhythms the original storefront Christians would recognize. The first is expository preaching through books of the Bible, week after week, with a teaching elder at the pulpit. The second is the steady work of praying for missionaries, for the community, and for one another. Today the church supports several missionaries and missions organizations in countries such as Argentina and Germany, and it works alongside local organizations.
As Knox approaches its centennial, the building is rarely closed. Almost every day, people stream through the doors on various projects, ministries, and meetings, and the facility, which includes a sanctuary, a fellowship hall, a large gym, a club room, a nursery, and several meeting rooms, is also rented out to other churches and ministries in order to expand the kingdom of God. It is anything but a quiet church, and that has been part of its identity in the heart of Kenmore for nearly a hundred years.
What Knox Believes
Knox holds to the essential beliefs of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Scripture is treated as the inerrant and authoritative Word of God, uniquely and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and the supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks. Knox teaches the historic Christian confession of one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ, the church teaches, is the eternal Word who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth, who died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures, who on the third day arose bodily from the dead, and who now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on High as our High Priest and Mediator. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts, to convict us of sin, to draw us to the Savior, to indwell us, to empower us for service, and to seal us for the day of redemption.
Salvation, Knox teaches, is wholly dependent upon the work of God’s free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation and thereby justifies them in His sight. Only those who are born of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life. Knox also teaches the personal, visible, and bodily return of Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God, and the Lord’s command to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to make disciples of all nations.
Within the EPC, the Westminster Confession of Faith is the sole subordinate standard of Scripture and the standard of doctrine shared with other Reformed churches, and Knox celebrates the Five Solas of the Reformation as part of its identity. On the foundation of Scripture, Knox believes and teaches covenantal and Reformed theology, and the congregation encourages members and visitors to grow in their knowledge of the historic creeds and confessions of the Christian faith.
Getting in Touch and Giving
Knox can be reached by phone at (716) 873-2423, by emailing the church office at office@knoxepc.com, or by emailing Pastor Justin directly at pastor@knoxepc.com. Those who would like prayer can call or text the prayer hotline at (833) 240-1824. The church also maintains a Facebook page where services and updates are shared, and a Knox YouTube page where full services and a growing archive of sermons can be watched.
Giving to Knox is offered as an act of worship, freely and cheerfully with no compulsion. Financial gifts can be dropped into the offering plate on Sunday, mailed to the church at 2595 Elmwood Avenue, Kenmore NY 14217, or given online through PayPal, which allows donors to give by credit card with a small percentage deducted as a processing cost.
For newcomers, Karch has a simple invitation. Come for Sunday school, share a snack and a conversation at the welcome center, and join the worship service at 10:30 a.m. Bring your questions. The elders will be at the front of the sanctuary after the service to pray with anyone who would like it, and the rest of the week offers many more ways to belong.