York Alliance Church sits on Rathton Road in East York, just across from Penn State York, and serves as the hub of a growing Family of Churches that includes Spring Grove Alliance and Stewartstown Alliance, with new works taking shape in Hanover and Hellam. The congregation belongs to the Christian and Missionary Alliance, holds to the CMA Statement of Faith, and describes its calling with the phrase "All of Jesus, for the whole person, for the whole world." A worship gathering on Sunday morning is a familiar rhythm, but the life of the church extends through the week in Community Groups, Greenhouse classes for kids, student ministry on Wednesday nights, a college Bible study, a young adult community called Haven, a Redemption Group for deeper discipleship, a busy local mission effort, and a slate of prayer and Bible reading plans that walk the congregation through the church year.
All of Jesus, for the Whole Person, for the Whole World
The phrase that frames everything at York Alliance is more than a tagline. The church organizes its life around seven values: prayer as the first and most important work, a lifestyle of worship that extends beyond Sunday gatherings, authentic community in which it is "okay not to be okay," a foundation of the Word of God that is treated as revelation rather than self-help, serving the body by using the gifts God has given, missional living in word and deed, and working for the shalom of the city. Pastors frame the Christian life as a three-fold apprenticeship: being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing what Jesus did. That apprenticeship is the lens through which the church teaches, plans its calendar, and trains its leaders. The York Alliance Family of Churches, rooted in the historic York congregation, is committed to planting more of these communities across York County and beyond.
Sunday Gatherings at 501 Rathton Road
The church meets at 501 Rathton Road in York, Pennsylvania, and offers two in-person Sunday worship gatherings at 8:30 and 10:30 AM. A livestreamed gathering also begins at 8:30 AM for those who cannot be in the room. Each gathering is centered on the Word of God, with times of prayer, congregational singing that draws on both hymnody and modern worship songs, and a message from Scripture. Visitors are welcomed with the cheerful reminder that no particular way of dressing, acting, or believing is required; the only expectation is that guests come as they are. Greeters meet people at the doors, a Welcome Center in the main lobby answers questions for first-time guests, and the Hub just off the lobby serves coffee and acts as a connection point to the wider life of the church. For the first portion of the gathering, families worship together; at a designated time, children are dismissed to the Greenhouse.
The Greenhouse: Children from Newborn to Fifth Grade
The Greenhouse is the children's ministry of York Alliance, and the room that hosts it is its home. The guiding verse is Luke 8:15, and the curriculum is designed to help children move from knowing about God to genuinely knowing Him. Dig-In meets on Sunday mornings during both services and serves newborns through fifth grade. The morning includes a creative, interactive, age-appropriate Bible lesson with teaching tools meant to make Scripture stick. Thrive gathers on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, September through April, for kindergarteners through fifth graders and functions as a midweek place to connect with friends, invite neighbors, and keep learning about Jesus between Sundays. Vine Time is a short, kid-friendly lesson that travels with the Community Groups and runs in the homes where those groups meet, weaving children into the intergenerational rhythm of the church. Safety in the Greenhouse is a serious matter. Every volunteer is background checked, including Pennsylvania clearances, and the children's area remains locked during services with a security team assigned to it. Check-in opens twenty minutes before each service and closes fifteen minutes after it starts, every child receives a matching security tag for safe pick-up, and allergy or medical notes are printed on the tag. Rooms, toys, and surfaces are disinfected between uses, and children who are unwell are asked to stay home until they have been symptom-free for twenty-four hours. If a child needs a parent during a gathering, the parent receives a text message directly to their phone.
Students in Grades 6-12
The Student Ministry of York Alliance welcomes sixth through twelfth graders to a Wednesday night gathering each week from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. The format blends Bible teaching, musical worship, and small groups, all built around a desire to give teenagers a place that feels like family. The calendar also includes larger events and trips, with sign-ups run through the Church Center app. Parents can opt in to receive a weekly Student Ministry newsletter through their Church Center profile, and a medical and liability form is part of the registration process. Students are also encouraged to take part in the full Sunday worship gathering with their families rather than meeting separately on Sundays, a choice the church sees as a meaningful expression of generational community.
LifeHouse and Haven: College and Young Adults
LifeHouse Community is the college-age ministry of the Family of Churches, and it gathers on Monday nights from 6:30 to 9:00 PM at 810 Country Club Road in York, just a short drive from the main campus. Doors open at 6:30 with time to hang out and share food, and a Bible study, sung worship, and prayer run from 7:30 until 9:00, with most students staying longer to play games and keep talking. The community is open to anyone in the college years, no matter where they are in their journey of faith. Haven is the parallel ministry for young adults, offering a regional community that meets for weekly discussions, game nights, arts and crafts, and weekend retreats. The aim of both is the same: to create space for young adults to learn a balanced, fruitful life in Christ by sharing it with God and with one another.
Community Groups, Discipleship Partners, and Redemption
Small groups are the backbone of life at York Alliance. Community Groups are small, intergenerational gatherings that meet weekly in homes across the region to build up and encourage one another, care for each other, and reach out into their neighborhoods with the gospel. Discipleship Partners narrow the circle further: these are same-gender groups of two or three who commit to meeting at least twice a month for honest conversation, Scripture application, and prayer. For women, Revive meets on the first and third Wednesday mornings of each month at the church, beginning in September, and combines video teaching, large group discussion, small group time, and home study. For men and women who want to go deeper still, Redemption Group is an intensive, semester-long, Bible-based discipleship program built around the soul care principles in Dr. Rob Reimer's "Soul Care," supplemented by excerpts from John Mark Comer's "Practicing the Way." Participants sign a commitment, complete weekly homework, meet with a same-gender mentor, attend two twenty-four-hour retreats (a Formation retreat at the start of the semester and a Deliverance retreat near the end), and finish by writing a personal Rule of Life. The fall semester meets at Spring Grove Alliance Church, and the spring semester meets at York Alliance, with weekly gatherings on Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 PM.
The Practices, the TABLE, and the Annual Reading Plan
The discipleship pathway at York Alliance is shaped by a collection of spiritual practices, several of which have been turned into printable and interactive tools. The TABLE tool guides slow, meditative Bible reading through five movements: Time to Listen, Ask questions, Believe the promises, Listen again, and Example to follow. BLESS is a tool for practicing hospitality, PRAY is a tool for talking with God through Pause, Rejoice, Ask, and Yield, and STORY is a tool for sharing one's faith journey. An annual Daily Bible Reading Plan is built on the Revised Common Lectionary and follows the seven seasons of the church year, from Advent and Christmas through Epiphany, Lent and Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time. The plan was developed with friends at Bridgetown Church and is meant to be used alongside a journal. A separate annual Prayer Guide gathers prayers drawn directly from Scripture, organized around three recurring themes for the year: Taking Faith-Filled Risks, Establishing for the Long Haul, and Committing to One Another.
CrossRoads Classes and the Culture and Theology Series
Three times a year, York Alliance runs CrossRoads, a four-week educational offering in which classes on a single topic meet weekly, with an emphasis on personal application and community formation. Past four-week series have included tracks on Biblical Sexuality and Biblical Gender, taught by Lead Pastor Brian Kannel, and a class on God and Politics that asked how Jesus navigated the political pressures of His own day. The Culture and Theology series goes a step further with seminar-style evenings that look at difficult questions facing the church, including seminars on God and Homosexuality, God and Politics, and God and Race, with input from guest speakers and members of the pastoral team, plus time for audience questions. Study guides for many of the major series and downloadable message notes for several of the classes are available through the church.
A Family of Churches Planting in South Central PA
York Alliance describes itself as the root of a wider network. The York Alliance Family of Churches includes York Alliance, Spring Grove Alliance, and Stewartstown Alliance, with active church planting efforts underway in Hanover and Hellam. The conviction behind the planting is simple: multiple healthy communities of Jesus-followers will make a greater kingdom impact in South Central Pennsylvania than a single larger one. Each plant shares the same commitment to the practices of Jesus, the same discipleship pathway, and the same CMA roots. Mosaic City Church, a church plant launched in 2020, is pastored by Executive Pastor Mike Carletti and continues to grow alongside the family of churches.
Local Mission: From York to the World
The mission effort at York Alliance is divided into local and global arms. Locally, the church partners with eight home mission organizations: House of Hope, Human Life Services, InterVarsity at York College, the work of York College itself, Katallasso Family Health Center, Keystone Family Alliance, Logos Academy, and the New Life Center for Mothers and Children. The church provides regular financial and prayer support, and individuals and Community Groups are encouraged to serve alongside these partners. A separate partnership with the New American Welcome Center at the YMCA focuses on Haitian refugees in the York area, with volunteer opportunities in English as a Second Language classes, donation sorting, and application help, and a bin in the Hub for donations of toiletries, blankets, coats, in-season clothing, rice and beans, and cooking oil. Twice a year, the whole church gathers for Serve York, a one-day push to serve local home mission partners and one another. Globally, York Alliance supports seven long-term partners: David and Brenda Aderholdt in Skopje, Macedonia; Steve and Karen Mack with Berlin International Church in Germany; Cullen Rast in São Paulo, Brazil; Steve and Alace Straw in Libreville, Gabon; Dr. Daniel Shayesteh with Exodus From Darkness Ministries; Iglesia Comunidad de Fe y Adoración in San Salvador, El Salvador; and Dorcas House in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Support comes through finances, prayer, work teams, conferences, and Community Group connections.
Meet the Pastoral Team
Brian Kannel is the Lead Pastor. He grew up in Massillon, Ohio, holds a Bachelor's in Marketing from Grove City College, and has been ordained with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He has served York Alliance in various pastoral roles since 2002 and became Lead Pastor in 2010. His responsibilities include preaching and teaching, vision and direction, and leadership development. Mike Carletti is the Executive Pastor of Operations and Mission and also serves part-time as the lead pastor of Mosaic City Church, a church plant launched in 2020. Originally from Boston, he began his ministry at York Alliance in 2010. Asa Sturtevant is the Executive Pastor of Ministries, working to align the vision of the church with the discipleship practices of its ministry leaders and equipping Community Group leaders. Tim Shuey is the Pastor of Congregational Care, who joined the staff in 1997 and transitioned to part-time in 2022 after many years leading Worship Arts and Pastoral Care. Jacob Shuey is the Director of Worship Arts and an elementary teacher by profession, and his work centers on helping people enter Jesus' presence through music and the arts. The pastoral staff is supported by a board of elders that includes Alec Hail, Paul Kruth, Earl Peace, Justin Kauffman, Todd Lloyd, Kagi Phaladi, David King, Kevin Norman, and Chris Smith.
Planning a First Visit
York Alliance is located at 501 Rathton Road in East York, adjacent to Penn State York. Parking is available in front of and behind the main building and along South Broad Street and Devon Road, with handicap spaces in both the front and rear lots. Guests who enter through the rear doors are greeted and directed upstairs to the sanctuary; an elevator sits just to the left inside the rear entrance. The office is open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and on Friday from 9:00 AM to noon, and is closed on Thursdays and the second Tuesday of every month. Visitors can fill out a plan-a-visit form, message the church through Church Center, or simply show up on a Sunday morning. Children are checked in at kiosks in the upstairs or downstairs lobbies, and the rest of the family worships together for the first part of the gathering. Giving can be done in person, by mail, or electronically through the Church Center app, with donors able to opt in to cover transaction fees if they wish.