Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church stands at 421 Oakland Avenue in Rock Hill's Oakland section, next to Winthrop University. It is known for the refrain “Love God. Love neighbor,” for roots in a 1912 service created to give Winthrop students a church home, and for ministry that now spans children and adults, sanctuary worship and Oakland Hall, care during hard seasons, and practical service across Rock Hill. OAPC is a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation of about 800 members.
A Sending Church Becomes Oakland Avenue
When Winthrop College opened in 1895, First Presbyterian Church Rock Hill anticipated that the growing Oakland section would soon need a church of its own. The sending congregation's plan was explicit: organize “not as a secession; not as a competitor but a new organization - the two to work in harmony for a common end - the good of the community.”
Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church was built adjacent to Winthrop so students could find a church home. Its first service was held on December 1, 1912. The church was formally organized on September 14, 1913, with 181 members who came together from its sending church.
Those early commitments remain visible in OAPC's welcome, motto, and work. The congregation identifies itself with the Presbyterian Church (USA), and its shared commitment is summarized by Galatians 5:6: “The only thing that counts is faith working through love.” Loving God and loving neighbor remain the concise expression of the church's mission.
Sunday Worship at 421 Oakland Avenue
The regular Sunday rhythm begins with Early Worship at 8:45 a.m., followed by Sunday School for all ages at 9:45 and worship in the Sanctuary at 11:00. During the summer, Sunday School moves to 9:00 and sanctuary worship to 10:00.
Sunday School reaches from Birth-3 and 4 through 1st Grade to 2nd through 5th Grade, middle and high school youth, young adults, parents of young children, and several adult classes. Meeting places include Oakland Hall, the Presbyterian Student Center, the Chapel, the Conference Room, and Rooms 2109, 2110C, 2207, and 2211.
People worshiping away from the Sanctuary can join through OAPC's livestream, with worship also available through the congregation's YouTube and Facebook links.
Children are included in the rhythm of worship. Nursery care for children from birth through age three is provided in Oakland Hall during the 11:00 service. After Children's Time, children from age four through first grade are invited to join their leaders in Kids' Kirk, Scottish for “church,” and may be picked up in the Chapel. Children in grades two through five are invited to remain in worship with their families. The church's Children's Time introduces young worshipers to elements such as the Call to Worship, offering, Scripture or story, and response.
The church office is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The main telephone number is 803-327-2006, and the general email address is oapc@oapc.net. An after-hours emergency number is 803-329-6276.
Oakland Hall: Building on Faith, Rooted in the Past
Oakland Hall is a defining part of OAPC's ministry landscape. It was designed to connect congregation and community as a Christ-centered place of engagement, worship, and fellowship, creating “a generational legacy of love.” Its vision, “Building on Faith. Rooted in the Past. Reaching for the Future,” expresses both the church's history and its desire to serve generations still to come.
Stewardship leaders, staff, and members of the Session worked together to name the building and define its purpose. Three themes emerged: intergenerational fellowship, love for the community, and a new worship space that points people to Christ. Oakland Hall is intended to be an anchor for ministry and a place where OAPC can become known for how it loves God and its neighbor.
The church connects its building vision to the biblical responsibility to pass faith from one generation to the next. Oakland Hall's programs are intended to care for people from the youngest to the oldest, with emphases on engagement, connection, fellowship, service, inclusion, intergenerational community, and love. Psalm 102:18 frames the ambition: “Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord.”
Little Steps to Big Faith
OAKLAND KIDS, the church's children's ministry, begins faith formation at birth under the theme “Little Steps to Big Faith.” Its Sunday School program follows the Spark: Activate Faith curriculum, which explores key stories from Genesis through the letters of Paul in a two-year cycle. Lessons are age-appropriate and hands-on, helping children encounter the biblical story each year through the Old Testament in the fall and the New Testament in the spring.
At 9:45 on Sunday, Birth-3 meets in the Oakland Hall Nursery, children ages four through 1st Grade meet in Room 2110C, and children in grades two through five meet in Room 2211. The child-directed programming is divided by age and accompanied by leaders who help children explore Scripture through stories, questions, activity, and worship.
During sanctuary worship, the Frolic Nursery curriculum introduces little ones to faith concepts through storytelling, prayer, and music. After Children's Time, children join their Sunday School teachers in Kids' Kirk, where they revisit the same lesson, practice worship components, ask questions, share snacks, play, and create art. The goal is to help each child feel that they belong and are active participants in the church's worship life.
Children's music is a significant part of Oakland Kids. At 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, the Joyful Praise Choir gathers 4K through 1st Grade, while the Covenant Choir gathers 2nd through 5th Grade. Games and activities teach singing, musical skills, hymns, Bible stories, and worship skills. The choirs follow the school calendar from August through May.
Children also meet in Bible Club for four three-week sessions each year to study Bible truths, practice prayer, play reinforcing games, and prepare to help lead worship. Children's ministry team members complete Safe Place Training and renew background checks every three years. OAPC also offers a church basketball program for children and youth.
Students, Youth and the Watering Hole
Lizzie Garrison directs OAPC's Youth Ministry. The youth group meets at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays, while middle and high school students also have a 9:45 Sunday School class. The ministry's aim is Christian formation and fellowship within a community of caring teachers and helpers. Young people can also serve as parent-support volunteers, adult youth leaders, or middle and high school Sunday School teachers.
Girls Bible Study meets at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays at various locations. High School Girls also meets at 5:30 p.m. at Starbucks on Herlong, providing another regular setting for connection away from church classrooms.
NeTorrian Patton directs both music and collegiate ministries. Collegiate Ministry meets Mondays at 7:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, carrying OAPC's original purpose of offering students a church home close to Winthrop. The church's music ministry also includes organist Harrison Warner and two children's choirs.
Film, Books, Walking, Sewing and Conversation
OAPC's small groups take several forms. Some meet around films, others around books, and many combine study with conversation, food, walking, service, or a shared hobby.
Film and fellowship
- Faith & Film meets on the fourth Sunday at 5:30 p.m. in the Presbyterian Student Center. The group watches and discusses movies through the lens of shared faith, with fellowship, food, and conversation about the issues raised by each film. Participants bring a drink and $5 toward pizza and popcorn.
- Theology on Tap meets on the first Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in local breweries for open-ended conversations about matters of faith.
- WOW, or Worn Out Women, meets on the first Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in local restaurants. It offers Christian fellowship, mutual support, and outreach opportunities for busy Presbyterian women.
- Walking in Faith gathers at the Welcome Center at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays for a walk and fellowship with others from the church.
Books and Bible study
- Disciples Against Racism meets on the fourth Monday at 4:30 p.m. in the Conference Room. The group reads books, watches films and documentaries, and studies racial injustice past and present, including the role of churches, through the Matthew 25 Initiative for Dismantling Structural Racism.
- Wholehearted Faith is a book study in homes on the second Tuesday from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
- M & M Circle, part of Presbyterian Women, meets on the second Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. from August through May in the Conference Room and through Zoom. Its study is Finding Resilience, Joy, and Our Identity in Jesus Christ, and members participate from other states as well as locally.
- Book Study Circle meets Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Room 2207.
- Westminster Towers Circle meets on the fourth Monday at 2:00 p.m. at Farrow Place. Church members and other residents study the Bible, share refreshments, and enjoy fellowship together.
Sewing and Sunday conversation
- Acorn Stitchers meets Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Members sew individual projects, work on mission projects, make prayer quilts and pocket prayer squares, and welcome every level of experience.
- The Watering Hole meets Sundays at 9:45 in the Presbyterian Student Center. Its Bible study begins with questions and seeks answers to life's profound questions, creating space for faith-centered dialogue.
- Julian Lake meets at 9:45 in the Conference Room. The class connects the Bible with the world and life today through discussion, some instruction, wisdom, and fun.
- The Filling Station meets at 9:45 in Oakland Hall. Aimed primarily at parents of young children in their twenties, thirties, and forties, while welcoming everyone, it addresses modern life through Scripture, prayer, and mutual support.
Care Through Stephen Ministry and Grief Support
Congregational care is led by the Board of Deacons, whose 15 members are elected by the congregation to three-year terms. The Session, made up of installed pastors and elected elders, serves as the congregation's governing body, with elders also elected to three-year terms. Associate Pastor of Care and Mission Rev. Letarshia C. Robinson leads this area of ministry alongside the Session and deacons.
Stephen Ministry is one of OAPC's most concrete expressions of that care. Stephen Ministers are congregation members who receive special training to listen, encourage, and provide one-to-one emotional and spiritual support. Their care is confidential and free. They walk with people experiencing grief, loneliness, health issues, aging challenges, caregiver stress, divorce, hospitalization, job loss, family changes, retirement, spiritual crisis, anxiety, relocation, or downsizing, as well as other difficult seasons.
Training develops practical caregiving and relational skills. It helps ministers offer a caring presence and a listening ear, connect suffering people with Christ's healing love, use their spiritual gifts, and deepen their own faith through caring ministry. The Stephen Ministry emblem emphasizes that people are broken and are made whole through the cross of Jesus.
OAPC's “Navigating Grief” materials, prepared with Sarah E. Titman, MSW, an instructor in Winthrop University's Department of Social Work, distinguish loss, grief, mourning, and bereavement. They describe physical, behavioral, and emotional responses to grief and offer self-care ideas such as exercise, nourishing the body, reaching out, making time to express grief, journaling, joining a support group, and asking for help. Guidance for friends and family emphasizes listening, calling often, using the name of the person who died, offering support without minimizing the loss, and recognizing that there is no timetable for grief.
The church also gathers information about GriefShare groups in Rock Hill and nearby communities, hospice bereavement services, dementia-friendly programs, and adult day programs for people experiencing dementia or Alzheimer's. Books and other materials address grief from the death of a spouse, parent, or child, as well as cancer, divorce, suicide, caregiving, the dying process, forgiveness, and other losses.
Matthew 25 in Rock Hill
OAPC describes its outward commitments as “radical and fearless discipleship” through the Matthew 25 Initiative. Its three areas are building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty. The church's mission partnerships translate that commitment into neighborhood relationships involving food, education, housing, employment, mental wellness, and care for people experiencing homelessness.
Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen has served free hot meals for more than 30 years and can provide as many as 135 lunches a day from Monday through Saturday. OAPC cooks and serves on the third Tuesday and fifth Saturday at Brannon Hall, the activity center of St. Mary's Catholic Church at 902 Crawford Road. Volunteers must be at least 16.
HOPE of Rock Hill occupies OAPC's former activities center across the street, allowing the ministry to expand into a larger space. OAPC encourages people to walk across the street and learn how gifts and time serve the Rock Hill community. Peanut butter and jelly donations are kept in collection bins in the Welcome Center and may be brought at any time. A separate monthly hunger outreach rhythm calls for individually wrapped cookies, cakes, and other baked goods for HOPE, with the first Sunday of each month from September through May as the focused collection day.
The church also supports the WU CARE Food Shelf, a Winthrop University effort addressing student food insecurity. Monthly collections are focused on the second Sunday, with donations accepted anytime through a Welcome Center bin. Needed items include macaroni and cheese, rice, noodles, tuna, jerky, heat-and-eat meals, breakfast bars, cereal, oatmeal, grits, nuts, fruit, crackers, snacks, deodorant, soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, toilet paper, and floss.
Several partnerships focus on homelessness and housing. Pilgrims' Inn combines emergency aid with continuing guidance for individuals and families who are homeless, at risk of homelessness, or struggling to meet basic needs, with particular attention to protecting children from chronic poverty. Bethel Day Shelter provides daytime services for men and women, including laundry, showers, restrooms, lockers, respite, and connections to other agencies. Family Promise of York County provides meals, shelter, and case management through a network of congregations and staff, with the goal of helping families maintain long-term self-sufficiency in permanent housing.
The Life House Women's Shelter is a community collaborative focused on moving homeless women and children into housing. CACH, the Catawba Area Coalition for the Homeless Housing Assistance Network, supports individuals and families transitioning from homelessness to housing and works with OAPC's direct-service partners.
STAR serves 24 students in grades one through five on Thursdays. Children walk with adult volunteers from Ebenezer Avenue to the church, receive a snack, and then move into individualized tutoring. Older students work with tutors in the Student Center, while younger children hear a story or take part in a musical activity before beginning their own study. At 4:00 p.m., materials are gathered and church vans take the children home.
The Hut, a National Alliance on Mental Illness drop-in center on OAPC property, welcomes people with a mental health diagnosis, those concerned about their mental wellness, and families, friends, and loved ones. It emphasizes community, mental health, education, and opportunities to socialize, with volunteers serving on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Better Bound Bookstore and Youth Development operates as a social enterprise giving job training and development to at-risk youth ages 16 through 21, including young people in foster care, involved in court, or experiencing academic difficulties. Participants work in an online resale bookstore while learning life skills through mentoring and coaching.
Bethelwoods Camp and Conference Center, founded in 1965 in affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA), is another mission connection. Its 157 wooded acres in York host retreats, youth gatherings, camping, conferences, and Scout experiences. The center welcomes adults, youth groups, and families with an emphasis on Christian hospitality and openness.
Leadership for Worship, Formation and Care
Rev. Dr. Jeff Bryan serves as Senior Pastor and Head of Staff. Rev. Letarshia C. Robinson serves as Associate Pastor of Care and Mission. NeTorrian Patton directs Music and Collegiate Ministries, Harrison Warner serves as organist, Lisa Gallagher directs Children's Ministries, and Lizzie Garrison directs Youth Ministries.
Together with the Session and Board of Deacons, these leaders oversee a congregation whose work reaches from the sanctuary and classrooms to homes, local kitchens, shelters, food shelves, and tutoring spaces. The Session governs the congregation, while the deacons lead congregational care. Their three-year terms place spiritual oversight, family formation, music, youth, collegiate work, care, and mission within a shared structure of service.
Spaces for Worship, Learning and Service
Giving to OAPC is available through secure online giving or by texting OAPC to 73256. Guests may direct a donation to a particular fund or memorial.
Oakland Hall and other church spaces can be reserved for gatherings. The scheduling process gives priority to OAPC groups, mission partners, and individual members before considering outside organizations, which must be nonprofits. The church's kitchen, meeting rooms, sanctuary equipment, and transportation resources can be coordinated for approved events, with kitchen training required for groups using Oakland Hall's kitchen.
At 421 Oakland Avenue in Rock Hill, Oakland Avenue Presbyterian Church continues a story begun in 1912: worship beside Winthrop, faith formation for every generation, compassionate care, and a shared commitment to love God and love neighbor.