A Church Planted at the Foot of Kings Mountain
Pisgah ARP Church sits on Linwood Road in Gastonia, North Carolina, just down the road from Crowders Mountain State Park and the Captain's Cap. Across more than two centuries the congregation has grown from a 28-by-24-foot log meeting house at the southern base of Kings Mountain into a multi-building campus that serves the southwestern corner of Gaston County. Pisgah is part of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the congregation is widely described as the "mother of churches" of Gaston County because five ARP churches in the area trace their origins to members, elders, and pastors who came out of Pisgah.
More Than Two Centuries on the Same Hill
The first mention of a church in this region is a marginal note on a sermon of the Rev. William Dixon that reads, "preached at Kings Mountain Church March 20, 1796." The original log meeting house stood near Sparrow Springs, not far from the Kings Mountain battlefield, and worship there proved difficult because members traveled long distances over poor roads. Between May 1796 and January 1797 the small flock divided into two daughter churches, one of which became Bethany ARP and the other Pisgah.
In 1805 the trustees of Pisgah bought ten acres on the north slope of Crowders Mountain, midway between Gastonia and Kings Mountain, and built a second log church. That site, known as "Old Pisgah," served the congregation until 1855, when the church had grown to 156 communicant members in 65 families, when iron factories had appeared right beside the property, and when the location had become too remote for the surrounding community. The members divided again, giving rise to Nebo Church and to "New Pisgah," which moved to its current Linwood Road location in January 1855 and built its first building there the following year for nine hundred dollars.
The church's reputation for planting new congregations began early. Around 1842, roughly sixty Pisgah members migrated to Arkansas and founded another Pisgah ARP Church near Pottsville, where a cemetery still stands and the successor Pottsville ARP Church remains active. In Gaston County, Pisgah members and elders went on to help organize Kings Mountain Bethel (1887), First Gastonia ARP (1887), Crowders Creek ARP (1892), a work in Bessemer City (1898), and Linden (Second Gastonia) ARP (1911).
The Sanctuary, the Elliott Center, and the FLOC
The Sanctuary Building, which still houses the main worship space, the chapel, the historical room, and the nursery and Children's Church rooms in the basement, had its cornerstone laid on December 16, 1951. The congregation worshiped in the basement while the upper floor was finished, and on May 6, 1956 Pisgah held its dedication service. The current manse was completed in 1962, and in 1978 the Education and Fellowship Center, now called the Robert B. Elliott Center in honor of the pastor who died of a sudden heart attack in June 1985, was finished. The Family Life Outreach Center (FLOC), which contains the gym, classrooms, and the church conference room, was built in 2003 on a thirty-two-acre tract the church purchased behind the manse in 2000.
In 1996 Pisgah marked two hundred years of ministry with a bicentennial service in which many wore clothing from the 1800s, and in 2022 the church celebrated its 225th anniversary with a large worship service and a covered-dish luncheon. In 2008 the congregation also bought a house at Bonclarken, the denomination's conference center in Flat Rock, North Carolina, so that youth and members would have a place to stay during retreats and conferences in the North Carolina mountains.
A Vision Built on Three Movements
Over a two-year process that began in 2013, a Vision Team and established prayer groups shaped Pisgah's current vision: Reach Up, Reach In, and Reach Out for Jesus Christ. Reach Up gathers the congregation around worship, sacrificial living, and grateful response to God's grace in Christ. Reach In expresses the commitment of members to serve, support, and strengthen one another for life in Christ. Reach Out directs the church outward, creating and strengthening relationships as witnesses for Jesus Christ in Gaston County and beyond.
Sunday Morning Worship
Pisgah holds one Sunday worship service at 10:30 a.m. The service is traditional in style, with corporate readings, classic and historical hymns, and congregational song led by the Sanctuary Choir. Pastor Bobby leads the congregation in prayer, scripture readings, and a sermon that walks through a passage of God's Word. Sunday School classes for all ages meet at 9:30 a.m. on the same campus.
Dress is whatever makes a visitor comfortable. Some Pisgah members arrive in their Sunday best, others in jeans. Coloring bags with activities for children are kept at the front pew for members and behind the back left pew for visitors, and children's joyful noises during worship are welcomed.
The service is livestreamed each Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. on the church's YouTube channel, and recordings of recent sermons are posted on the services page.
Children from the Nursery to Bonclarken
Pisgah takes seriously the call of Proverbs 22:6 to "train up a child in the way he should go." For infants and toddlers up through age two, a dedicated nursery staff cares for children during the service in the Sanctuary basement. Children in PreK3 through Kindergarten are dismissed after the Children's Message for "Children's Church," where they enjoy a snack, hear a Bible story, and make a craft; that classroom sits in the church basement beside the nursery. Children in first grade and older are encouraged to worship with the whole congregation so they can grow into adult worshipers.
On Wednesday evenings during the Midweek season, children gather for Pisgah Pathfinders, a program built around The Biggest Story curriculum that walks them through the whole Bible over several years and shows how every story points to Jesus. At the same time, the Children's Choir practices songs that the children occasionally sing during Sunday worship. Throughout the year the children's ministry organizes service projects such as caroling to homebound members, collecting items for Crisis Assistance Ministry, and packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, along with seasonal events including the Christmas play, the Easter Egg Hunt, Trunk or Treat, Bible Camp, and Parent's Night Out.
Each summer Pisgah sends children in grades two through eight to Bonclarken for Music Drama Camp and Camp Bonclarken. The church's Christian Education Committee Finance Subcommittee reviews financial-assistance applications and may cover up to half the camp fee.
Youth Group and the Appalachia Mountain Mission
The youth ministry introduces middle and high school students to the gospel and equips them to grow in faith and service. Students meet for Sunday School at 9:30 a.m. in the FLOC, worship with their families in the main service, and gather on Wednesday evenings during Midweek for Rock the FLOC, an informal time of prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and service projects such as visits to homebound Sunshine Friends.
Throughout the year students take part in the 180 Weekend in Gastonia, the Spring and Fall Presbytery retreats at Bonclarken, and the denomination's summer conferences, Quest for middle schoolers and Horizon for high schoolers. They help lead the church's Valentine's Day Banquet, the Youth Missions Yard Sale, Vacation Bible School, and Parent's Night Out.
Each summer the high school students travel with adult volunteers to the Cumberland Gap tri-state area where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet, for the Appalachia Mountain Mission. The trip is organized by ARP Conferences and joined by more than fifteen other churches, and Pisgah's team has been part of this work for more than twenty-five years. Mornings are spent running Vacation Bible School with Wolfenbarger Missionary Baptist Church for local children and teenagers, and evenings bring everyone together for large-group worship.
Adults: From Women's Circles to Pickleball
Adult Sunday School meets at 9:30 a.m. in classes spread across the Pisgah campus. Wednesday Midweek Bible Study gathers at 6:15 p.m. for a joint opening, after which adults study a book of the Bible or a topic under Pastor Bobby's leadership, children join Pisgah Pathfinders, and youth gather for Rock the FLOC. Midweek meets only during certain months of the year, and on selected Sunday evenings the church shares a meal together in Sunday Suppers before the study time.
Three Women's Circles combine Bible study, fellowship, and service. The Rachel Boyce Circle meets on the first Sunday of the month at 2:00 p.m., the Mary Kennedy Circle on the first Monday at 10:00 a.m., and the Suzanne Elliott Circle on the first Monday at 7:00 p.m. Together they organize the Mother's Day Tea, the annual Easter Egg Hunt, correspondence with ARP missionaries and deployed service members, and meal trains for homebound members, new parents, and families recovering from surgery.
The Men's Fellowship meets quarterly for dinner, fellowship, and work projects; the men also maintain the church's soccer field and lead the Backpack Ministry. Pisgah Young Families organizes casual cookouts and fellowship for parents raising children together. The Pisgah Community Club, open to new members of all ages, gathers on the third Thursday of each month for a covered-dish lunch, a featured community speaker, and occasional day trips such as autumn outings to Blowing Rock and Boone.
Sanctuary Choir, Handbells, and Children's Choir
Music is woven into nearly every part of Pisgah's life. The Sanctuary Choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. and warms up on Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m., leading the congregation in traditional hymns and contemporary arrangements. Pisgah Ringers, the handbell choir, rehearses on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and adds its distinctive sound to services on special occasions. Children's Choir meets at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday evenings during Midweek, teaching children to lead worship alongside their church family.
Meals on Wheels, Backpacks, and Crisis Assistance
Pisgah's outreach ministries put the Reach Out vision into concrete practice. The church partners with Gaston County Meals on Wheels to deliver meals to seniors age sixty and older; drivers are asked to commit to one hour of deliveries four times a year. The Crisis Assistance Ministry partnership brings monthly financial gifts and regular food drives to support CAM's work helping families in greater Gastonia with utilities, rent, mortgage payments, and food. The Backpack Ministry, sponsored by the Men's Fellowship, fills backpacks with nonperishable meals for Gaston County students through the BackPack Weekend Food Program, addressing weekend hunger for between eight hundred and one thousand local children each week during the school year.
The Kenley Committee directs funds to teachers at schools within five miles of the church so they can purchase supplies for their classrooms. The Pickleball Ministry, a more recent addition, gathers players of all skill levels in the FLOC gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. for fellowship, exercise, and friendly competition.
Easter Egg Hunts, Trunk or Treat, and the Fall Bazaar
Several annual events invite the wider community onto the Pisgah campus. The Easter Egg Hunt draws families from across Gaston County for age-appropriate egg hunts, crafts, and a retelling of the Resurrection. Vacation Bible School is free and open to all, with a parallel Missions Week for adults who want to hear from visiting missionaries and local ministries. Trunk or Treat on Halloween offers a safe, decorated alternative to street trick-or-treating, and the Christmas Program begins with a crockpot potluck dinner before the children present a nativity play and the youth read the Christmas narrative.
The Fall Craft and Vendor Bazaar, hosted by the Women's Ministries, fills the campus with up to thirty-six artisans, makers, and small businesses for a Saturday of shopping, a bake sale, and a barbecue lunch.
Reformed and Presbyterian
Pisgah holds to the historic Reformed and Presbyterian faith of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. The church confesses the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, affirms the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation, and embraces the Five Points of Calvinism summarized in the acronym TULIP. Members are committed to the worship of the Triune God, the Bible as the Word of God, unity with other believers in Christ, total stewardship of life through the tithing of time, talents, and money, excellence in education, loving care for one another and the world, the spread of the Gospel, and the readiness to evaluate and change structures while preserving the best of the past.
ARP church government rests on elders elected by the congregation. Local elders are accountable to regional Presbyteries, which in turn answer to General Synod; the denomination has four General Synods in Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, and the United States. The ARP has its roots in eighteenth-century Scotland, where the Associate Presbytery (1733) and the Reformed Presbytery split from the Established Church of Scotland; the two streams joined in Pennsylvania in 1782.
A Pastor Who Came Home to Gastonia
Pastor Bobby Duran became Pisgah's seventeenth minister when he was installed as Senior Pastor in January 2025. A native of Gastonia, he grew up under the shadow of Crowders Mountain, came to faith through a Vacation Bible School at Pisgah, and was active in its youth group before graduating from Hunter Huss High School and earning a B.A. in Christian Education from Erskine College in 2013. He later earned his M.Div. from Erskine Theological Seminary while serving in admissions at Erskine and as Youth Intern at Greenville ARP Church. He returned to Pisgah as Church Program Coordinator in late 2018, was called as Associate Minister of Christian Education in August 2022, and was installed as Senior Pastor in January 2025. He and his wife Becca have four children.
Becca Duran serves as Director of Communications, and Laradon Pilot directs the Sanctuary Choir.
Tree of Life and the Capital Campaign
Pisgah's regular ministry is supported by tithes and offerings given online through Realm, by mailing checks to the church office, or by using giving envelopes. The Tree of Life is a permanent tribute displayed on the Pisgah campus; donations of leaves and stones support the Capital Campaign Fund for ongoing maintenance and improvement of the buildings and grounds.