A church in and for the North Side of Pittsburgh
We were created to live in right relationship with God, one another, and creation, and to work alongside God and make all things new.
We seek to meet the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors and neighborhoods, and be a people whose lives are marked by goodness and justice.
We are a church for people all across the City of Pittsburgh who desire to be a part of a faith community like this.
Our Values
MULTI-ETHNIC
We see and recognize every person’s ethnicity, language, and culture as reflective of God’s image, beauty, and goodness. We aren’t color blind. We hear and listen to each other’s voices. We value and learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives. We fight racism and prejudice everywhere we encounter it.
EMPOWERED
Every one of us is empowered to lead and live into the fullness of our gifting within the church regardless of our gender or age. Together, we are apostles (dreamers), prophets (revealers), evangelists (story-tellers), shepherds (healers), and teachers (equippers).
INCLUSIVE
Nothing qualifies nor disqualifies us from being loved by Jesus. Every person can belong and is worthy of being known and loved exactly as they are, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or ability. Jesus tears down every wall that separates us from him and one another. Every person is welcome and has a place, because God wants his kids to come home.
GENEROUS
Jesus saw and addressed the spiritual and physical needs of people. We believe the church is to do the same today. Our financial model is simple and streamlined so that our resources can be allocated to meeting our and our neighbors’ spiritual and physical needs.
JUSTICE-ORIENTED
We take up the work of personal and communal repentance, relational reconciliation, institutional reform, and cultural repair. We stand with those who have experienced injustice, and stand against any form of abuse. This is what it means to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
BURDEN-BEARING
Jesus is the ultimate burden-bearer. He sacrificed his life, taking onto himself all of humanity’s brokenness. When we bear one another’s burdens, we imitate Jesus. We celebrate and rejoice together. We grieve and lament together.
Our Practices
LOCALLY-ROOTED PRESENCE
God’s passions and plans for people become concrete when they are localized. We seek to embody the presence of Jesus within our neighborhoods. We will be a people who live in and for the well-being of our neighbors and neighborhoods with a peculiar and generous kind of love.
BOUNDARY-CROSSING MISSION
God desires to see all people and all creation reconciled to himself and one another. That means there is no boundary we aren’t supposed to cross over and no dividing wall we aren’t meant to tear down in order to love and serve one another. Every person is created as a child of God, bearing his image. We will always move towards people in love.
TIGHT-KNIT RELATIONSHIPS
God works through communities who live in deep, committed relationship with one another. We’ll demonstrate a love that sacrifices for the well-being of one another. Through our shared life together, we will demonstrate God’s goodness to our neighborhoods, our city, and the world.
LIFE-FORMING DISCIPLESHIP
God wants people to become increasingly like him. We are to reflect his ways of loving, serving, and doing justice in every facet of our lives every day of the week. We will seek to be people whose lives are marked by righteousness and justice and who take seriously Jesus’ command to love God and one another with every ounce of who we are.
Our Name
The story of God and his people begins in a Garden (Genesis 2:8) and ends in a city (Revelation 21:1). In the garden, Adam and Eve live in perfect harmony and relationship with God, one another, and creation. They tend and cultivate the garden, building and creating culture, experiencing safety, security, and wholeness in God’s presence.
In the end, there will be a Heavenly city where God will live with his people again. He’ll wipe away all of our tears. He’ll put an end to death, and there will be no more mourning, crying, or pain. Everything that is broken will be healed. Every relationship will be reconciled. Every need will be met. Everything will be made new.
We live in between the garden and the City of God. We experience the brokenness of the world. The ways that our relationships with God, each other, and the world have been disfigured are self-evident. We know deep in our bones this isn’t how things are supposed to be. So, we live today as ambassadors of that future city.
Our faith community is intended to be a signpost that points back to the garden and ahead to the Holy City and declares, “That’s how it’s supposed to be.” We know where all of human history is heading. We know where the story ends. And so, in our imperfections, we’ll seek to embody that future and coming city here and now.
Visit
North Side Partnership Project
We meet on Sunday mornings at the North Side Partnership Project for our weekly worship service. We sing together, spend time talking with one another and building relationships, hear a message, and receive communion together each week. Kids Church is available for children birth through fifth grade.
Service Time
10AM
Location
2610 Maple Ave. PGH PA 15214
Parking
Street parking is available along Maple Ave., Legion St., and Perrysville Ave. There is one parking lot adjacent to the building that our parking team will help you to access.
Our Team
Julia and Dennis Allan, Shaq and Ruth Hager
DENNIS AND JULIA ALLAN
Dennis and Julia grew up in the Pittsburgh region. They married in May 2009 and have lived in the North Side since. Julia grew up in Mars and came to know and love Jesus in the church her parents helped found. She developed a desire to practice medicine as a means to care for people’s physical and spiritual needs, and now works as a Pediatric Physician Assistant in a local practice. Dennis grew up in Allison Park. He’s worked as an analyst and software manager, studied theology, and served as the High School Ministry Director and Campus Pastor at a local church. Today, Julia and Dennis call the North Side’s Perry Hilltop neighborhood home. They’re raising their five children there and are committed to a lifelong mission of digging deep roots, and seeing every one of their neighbors thrive and flourish.
Shaq and Ruth Hager
Shaq and Ruth have been married since June 2017. They have two foster children who are 9 and 10 years old. Ruth was born and raised in Buena Vista, Colorado. It was there that deep aspirations began to illuminate her heart for God’s universal mission to reach people of every tribe, nation, and tongue. From 2011 to 2012, Ruth served with Adventures in Missions in 11 different countries for 11 months. Shaq is a Pittsburgh native and has lived on the Northside all his life. He grew up in Northview Heights, a predominately African-American neighborhood. Shaq has served in several North Side non-profit organizations. He is a community activist and advocate known for empowering young leaders and building up youth and families. Ruth and Shaq live in the North Side’s Brighton Heights neighborhood where they serve their community’s emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.