A Westfield Congregation Approaching Its 300th Year
The Presbyterian Church in Westfield, often shortened to PCW, stands at 140 Mountain Avenue in the heart of Westfield, New Jersey. With roots that reach back to 1728, when a small band of settlers built a log house for worship near what is now Benson Place, the congregation is the oldest continuous institution in town and now numbers close to 1,300 members. As it approaches its 300th anniversary, the church has welcomed its 21st called Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Aaron Shepherd, and continues a ministry that weaves together two Sunday worship styles, deep family and youth programming, and a wide-reaching mission footprint that reaches from Westfield to Zambia.
Two Sunday Services, Two Very Different Rooms
Worship at PCW takes place twice each Sunday, in two adjacent but visually distinct spaces on the same campus.
The Traditional service begins at 9:30 AM in the Sanctuary, the white building crowned by the large spire that has defined the Westfield skyline since 1862. The order of worship follows a familiar pattern from week to week, so newcomers quickly learn what comes next. Long-time members sit alongside young families, and the Chancel Choir, accompanied by a pipe organ installed in 1875, leads the singing. The service is livestreamed every Sunday on YouTube and Facebook.
At 11:00 AM in Westminster Hall, the Wired contemporary service fills the renovated lecture-hall space with a band, vocalists, and an audio team whose mix is as important as any instrument in the room. Wired describes itself as being "wired for worship, wired for connection, and wired for service." Both services share a common communion table: Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, and all are welcome to receive it without pre-conditions or age requirements.
Three Centuries on the Same Hill
PCW's history mirrors the growth of Westfield itself. After the original log meeting house, a second building went up around 1734 near the corner of East Broad Street and Mountain Avenue, and a third across the street about 1805. The present Sanctuary, with seating for 800 at its 1862 dedication, was built during the early Civil War years and stretched to 1,000 seats in a remarkable 1964 project that physically split the building in two, slid the front section with the spire forward 34 feet, and then put the two halves back together without visibly changing the exterior.
Rev. Benjamin Woodruff, the patriotic pastor who rang the church bell on June 26, 1777 to warn residents that 14,000 British troops were approaching, and again on June 23, 1780, when Redcoats climbed to the belfry and flung the bell to the ground. That bell, after being taken to Staten Island, was eventually returned and rehung. Westminster Hall, originally built as a lecture hall in 1853 and added to in 1908, now houses Wired and the Family Ministries wing. The Parish House grew in stages, with the first part completed in 1926, a chapel and assembly hall added in 1949, and the entire sanctuary renovated in 1997 with a new sound system, air conditioning, lighting, chandeliers, and accessibility improvements.
The earliest worship services could last two hours, lit by candles and warmed by wood stoves, with members bringing foot warmers in winter and the floor covered in sand. A long row of posts along Mountain Avenue once held the horses of arriving families.
Children and Youth: The Family Ministries Wing
Family ministries at PCW are led by Associate Pastor Rev. Emily Harris and are built around the third floor of the Parish House.
The Cribbery welcomes newborns through age 3 during both Sunday services from 9:15 AM to 12:15 PM. Qualified and vetted staff care for the children while parents worship, and parents are asked to pick up their children immediately after each service.
Sunday School serves children age 4 through fifth grade during both the 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM services. Children are excused from worship and dismissed to the new Family Ministries Wing for Bible lessons, multi-media activities, and play. Pick-up times are 10:30 AM and 12:00 PM.
For students in grades 6 through 12, the youth program gathers for the Middle School Breakfast Club every Tuesday morning at 7:00 AM in the youth room. Students eat breakfast together, play games, hear a short devotion, and are then driven to school. High schoolers participate in an annual mission trip focused on disaster recovery, Confirmation classes, retreats, movie nights, and year-round fellowship. Children who wish to receive Communion are prepared through a Children's Communion Class co-led by Pastor Marcy and Pastor Emily.
Baptisms for infants are scheduled on the second Sunday of each month, with parents attending a required instruction class. Adult baptisms are usually part of a new-member or Confirmation service.
Music that Fills Both Spaces
Music is central to life at PCW, with ensembles that cross generations and styles.
The Chancel Choir sings each week at the 9:30 AM service and rehearses Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 PM and Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM, September through June. The choir welcomes singers of all backgrounds and frames group singing as praying twice.
The Wired Band rehearses every Sunday at 9:30 AM and leads the 11:00 AM contemporary service, with occasional Saturday morning rehearsals. Guitar, keyboards, vocals, bass, drums, and percussion all contribute, and the band is described as "a small family within the larger church family." A separate Wired audio engineering team handles live mixing for the contemporary service.
A Children's Choir, a Handbell Choir that rehearses on several Wednesday evenings before ringing in worship, and a wide range of seasonal offerings round out the music program. The Director of Music and Organist is Paul Sanner; Kevin Wilkin serves as Director of Contemporary Worship.
Mission Near, Far, and Across an Ocean
PCW's mission work is organized into local, national, and international arms, and is rooted in the church's three-fold statement: invite people into a relationship with God, grow together as devoted followers of Christ, and serve others through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Agape Local fights food insecurity right in Westfield, providing weekly boxes of food and everyday essentials to more than 140 families each week. Donations of non-perishable and perishable items, including eggs, fruit, vegetables, and butter, are dropped off at the church by 3:00 PM on Thursdays.
The Agape Community Kitchen is a youth-led mission that sends volunteers from the church parking lot at 3:15 PM each Wednesday to First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, where they prepare and serve a hot meal to neighbors in need. The ministry welcomes adults and youth in grades 6 through 12. When Westfield public schools close for snow, youth and adults prepare take-away meals at PCW for delivery to Elizabeth. The annual high school mission trip sends older students to assist with disaster recovery around the country.
Internationally, PCW has shared a covenant partnership with Livingstone Presbyterian Church in Zambia since May 2011, with relationships dating back to a 2008 discernment visit. The partnership includes mutual visits, conversations, and fundraising to support community projects.
National mission support flows through organizations including CASA of Passaic and Union County, El Centro Hispanoamericano in Plainfield, Imagine, a Center for Coping with Loss in Mountainside, Johnsonburg Camp and Retreat Center, Restore Ministries in Elizabeth, Roots and Wings in Denville, the Westfield Food Pantry, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and the Presbytery of Northeast NJ.
Adults: Study, Fellowship, and Service
Adults at PCW have multiple paths to dig deeper. The Theology Discussion Group, meeting the first and third Mondays of the month from 7:30 to 9:00 PM, has been reading and discussing significant theological works since 2009. The reading list stretches from Augustine's Confessions and Calvin's Institutes through Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope, Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Rob Bell's What Is the Bible?, and Rachel Held Evans's Inspired. The group has met authors such as Diogenes Allen and Darrell Guder in person and meets both in person and online.
Questers gather Sundays at 10:30 AM in the George Plenty Room, between the two worship services, for a relaxed hour of Bible study. Serendipity Bible Study reviews the lectionary readings or the passage preached that day; it meets at 11:15 AM in Westminster Hall and again at 5:00 PM.
Dawn Patrol meets Wednesdays at 7:00 AM in the George Plenty Room for early-morning theological discussion, relationship building, and a first cup of coffee. Presbyterian Women offers scheduled educational programs, mission work, fellowship, and Bible study through monthly circles representing all ages and backgrounds. The Men's Fellowship Group gathers several times a year for meals and discussion and hosts an annual retreat with outside guests.
Care that Extends Beyond Sunday
Pastoral care at PCW is woven through a network of trained laypeople and small groups. Stephen Ministers are laypeople who have completed special training to provide one-on-one Christian care during life challenges. Caring Friends brings seniors together on the third Monday of each month at 11:00 AM in the Christian Lounge for discussion and fellowship. The Parkinson's Support Group, non-denominational and free to attend, meets in person on the second Monday of each month at 1:30 PM in the Christian Lounge and via Zoom on the other Mondays. Prayer opportunities are available during worship services and through a prayer chain.
One of the church's longest-running outreach efforts has been sheltering groups of homeless men and women from Union County. For one week every other month, guests are housed in the church with food, beds, and bathing facilities. Deacons and other members also volunteer at the Community Food Bank in Hillside.
The congregation is always served by an on-call pastor. In a pastoral emergency, members can call the church office at 908-233-0301 at any hour for information on how to reach the current person on-call. Pastoral visits to those who are hospitalized or in rehab are arranged through the Board of Deacons.
The Presbyterian School and the Cemetery
The church campus also hosts The Presbyterian School, a preschool that promotes discovery through playful experiences. The school's approach builds on children's instinct to investigate, encouraging a strong self-image, confidence, critical thinking, and positive relationships within an engaging, supportive environment.
Across Mountain Avenue lies the Burial Grounds of the Presbyterian Church in the West Fields of Elizabethtown, active since 1737 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2007. The cemetery is the resting place of Westfield's founders and 73 Revolutionary War veterans, and remains an active section for cremation burials of church members. Cemetery tours can be arranged through the church office.
Beliefs and Identity
PCW is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a member of the Presbytery of Northeast NJ. The church describes itself as a community rooted in grace, "a safe community composed of families, children and youth, single and retired people, all of us coming from different walks of life, brought together by Christ." It frames its mission in three movements: invite people into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, grow together as devoted followers of Christ, and serve others through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of Baptism, the church teaches, is "the sign and seal of our incorporation into Jesus Christ," a gift of grace marking the beginning of new life in Christ and uniting the baptized with Christ and with one another. Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, and all are welcome to receive it.
New Senior Pastor, Continuing Story
Rev. Dr. Aaron Shepherd, ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 2019, holds a PhD in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Emory University. He most recently served for more than six years as Pastor and Head of Staff at Union Congregational Church in Walpole, Massachusetts, and has taught philosophy and religion at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is the author of Challenging the New Atheism. Aaron and his wife Whitney, who met through Presbyterian Campus Ministry at the University of Oregon, have four children. He is a trained classical pianist, coaches his children's soccer and baseball teams, and once served as a volunteer shark wrangler.
Supporting him on the pastoral team are Rev. Marcy Ryan, Associate Pastor for Congregational Life, and Rev. Emily Harris, Associate Pastor for Family Ministries. Pam Shaw serves as Clerk of Session. Office hours run Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM, and the church office can be reached at 908-233-0301.