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.
Our Board of Elders
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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.
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Gina Bolton
Gina is the wife of Senior Pastor Mark Bolton, so she has been at NCC since its inception. She has willingly used her gifts in the areas of Children's Ministries and Women's Ministry. She considers her public school teaching position to be an opportunity to show Christ's love to her students and fellow staff members on a daily basis. Gina published her first book, Through Their Eyes: Bible stories told by the women who were there., on August 1, 2016. Click here for more about her book.
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Mark Bolton
Mark is one of the founding pastors of NCC, so he has been active since the beginning. He has officially served as an elder since 1998. As an elder and as a pastor, Mark spends much of his time teaching, leading, and pastoring. Specifically, he is involved on the Stewardship Team on the Elder Board.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 and provide many of the graphics used at NCC. They reside in Ingomar and their daughter, Amy, is a missionary at Urban Impact on Pittsburgh's Northside.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.