Our Board of Elders

The scriptures clearly teach that the roles of Elders in a local assembly of believers involve both shepherding and governance and that primary emphasis is to be placed on the shepherding role. The first century church established the precedent for an Elder focus on shepherding while delegating the organizational needs of the community to others:

“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.’”
- Acts 6:1-4

Having defined the mission, purposes and values of New Community Church, the current and future Board of Elders will focus on defining ends or results which are aligned with the mission, purposes and values and will delegate the determination of the means to those ends to the Senior Pastor.


Elder Manual

  • Erin Blechman

    Erin, and her family, joined NCC in the fall of 1998 and she has been active ever since. She has served in Kids’ Kingdom, Family Time, KidZone, Student Ministries, Women’s Ministry and more. Erin and her husband, Bill, have also served as Small Group Leaders. Erin’s passion is to see marriages and families thrive and believes that Jesus is the key. She has served as an Elder since 2007. Erin and Bill are parents to Max and Sam.

  • Bill Cavey

    Bill has been an active member at NCC since 2009. Bill serves on the Security Team and is active in small-group programs, he has served as an usher, and he has participated in Compassion Day and various other programs when offered. Bill joined the Elder Board in 2018. He and his wife, Tami, live in Cranberry Township. They have one daughter, Ashley, who currently teaches 2nd grade in Texas.

  • Ken Fraser

    Ken has varied experiences in Christian ministry including serving as chairman of Family Ministries, as a trustee at the Butler/Cranberry YMCA, a Bible study leader in various North Hills locations, and part of the construction committee of Penn Christian Academy. In addition to this busy schedule Ken has served at NCC as an elder since 2009. He also leads a small group.

  • Bob Fuller

    Bob has been active at NCC since its inception. He is a founding elder. Presently he is a small group leader, a Cafe team coordinator, and a Travel Companion in the Covenant Membership program. Outside the walls of NCC, Bob provides counsel and service regarding car problems to various ministries, such as Family Guidance, Urban Impact, and Off the Floor Pittsburgh.

  • Frank Hajduk

    Serving presently as Chief Financial Officer at NCC, Frank has had a heart for this ministry since the beginning in March of 1998. He has also been an elder since then and has had other responsibilities as a small group leader and a member of a Community Cafe team. He uses his gifts as a member of the Stewardship Committee on the Elder Board.

  • Gitti Hajduk

    Gitti and her husband Frank, a founding family, serve as the Business Managers of NCC. She has been an elder since 1998 and has used her talents on the Stewardship Committee. In addition to those responsibilities, she is a small group leader and a team member at the Welcome Center.

  • Tim Kostilnik

    Tim has been at NCC since its beginning. He has served the church in Kids' Kingdom, High School and Middle School Ministries, College Small Group Leader, Adult Small Group Leader, and became an Elder in 2013. Tim and his wife, Dawn, have their own graphic design business. They reside in Ingomar and their daughter, Amy, is a missionary at Urban Impact on Pittsburgh's Northside.

  • Aron Martino

    Aron and his wife, Jenn, were invited to the grand opening of the new building in 2004, and they never left. They have raised three daughters (Kyra, Ryann, and Leah), and love the church’s commitment to children’s ministry. Aron has been involved in youth ministry with Kids Kingdom, AWANA, Family Time, and KidZone. He has also grown spiritually through small group ministry and discipleship triads. Aron and his family have a heart for adoption and missions. They currently lead one of the Agros teams to Nicaragua and have taken their children on four different trips abroad. Locally Aron is involved with feeding the hungry by serving at Hot Metal Bridge ministry. Aron loves serving as an usher at NCC, with the opportunity to greet and welcome both friends and newcomers. Aron is most famous as Turtleman.

  • Gary Proie

    Gary's passion for ministry lies in service-based missions at a local and global level. Having been an active member of NCC since 2000, Gary has served in a variety of places in the church from Kids' Kingdom to the Missions Team, where he served as leader for seven years. He became an elder in 2015. He is a champion for Urban Impact Foundation, where he volunteers much of his time helping wherever he is needed and with the organization of the annual Man Up Pittsburgh Conference

  • Betsy Sicher

    Betsy’s passion is for missions, both local and international, and she has participated in various trips as well as helped organize many local mission projects, including Compassion Day and Love Your Neighbor events. Betsy serves on the Mission Team and is a mentor in the Women’s Ministries mentoring program. She became an elder in 2017. She, her husband John, and three children have been active at NCC for over 15 years. 

  • Eric Templin

    Eric has been at NCC since the beginning and has served as an elder since 2010. Eric is the Chairman of the Overseeing Team of Elders and serves on the Stewardship Team. His present ministry involvement is as a Friendship Ambassador, a small group leader, Cafe and usher teams. Outside NCC, he served as Chair of the School Board in the Avonworth School District.

  • Rebecca Harper

    Having attended NCC since 2011, Rebecca has consistently served in Kids’ Kingdom, AWANA & Kidzone, as well as taught in multiple other ministries. She has a passion for making disciples of Jesus both in community & through individual mentoring.  Outside of the church, she runs a neighborhood Bible study.  Rebecca has been an elder since January of 2022. She is married to Zach and they enjoy raising Luke, Benjamin & Meghan.  

  • Bill Peduzzi

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  • Mark Milliken

    Mark has been an active member of NCC since 2002.  Mark has a passion for serving local ministries with his construction background and has been participating in and leading various mission trips with NCC for many years including the trips to Appalachia. Throughout his time at NCC, Mark has been involved in many ministries including Kids Kingdom, AWANA, Thrive, tech team, and small group ministry. Mark has participated in a number of discipleship and CLC groups. Mark and his wife, Erin, have three children. He has been an elder since 2022.

  • Matthew Mason

    A California native, Matthew was called to Pittsburgh in 2009 as an urban missionary with Urban Impact Foundation. Though he was raised singing gospel music, both his musical training (at California Baptist University) and experience have provided him with a diverse musical background. Matthew has been blessed to work with Disney, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, American Opera Company, and more recently, the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. He has had extensive experience singing for national contemporary Christian gospel recording artists including Steve Green, Norman Hutchins, and Zacardi Cortez, as well as being a singer/songwriter in his own right. His greatest fulfillment is in leading worship. Matt began leading worship part-time at NCC in 2013 and became the Worship Pastor in 2018. He is currently attending Fuller Theological Seminary pursuing a Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies degree. Matt is married to Zuli, and they have two sons, Ezra and Elisha.

  • Joel Friend

    Joel has served at NCC since October 2008. He graduated from Geneva College where he studied Youth Ministry and Sociology. He has served in our Student Ministries for the past 13 years until his recent call to become Pastor of Discipleship. Joel loves Pittsburgh sports, music, and learning. He is currently pursuing his Master of Divinity from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Amber, reside in Cranberry Township with their children, Noah and Avelyn.