Photo by Amy Cherry Shiloh Presbyterian Church’s newest pastor Rev. Scott Wiest is looking forward to serving the St. Marys congregation, which he feels is a perfect fit for he and his family.

By Amy Cherry

Staff Writer

Rev. Scott Wiest, 45, the newest pastor of Shiloh Presbyterian Church in St. Marys, considers himself  “just a normal guy sent to do God’s will.”

While the Harley Davidson-driving father of eight breaks the typical mold of the pastor stereotype, Wiest is dedicated to help his parishioners become more like Jesus.

Wiest and his family moved here on July 13, and he celebrated his first mass this past Sunday.

“This church is wonderful. They love the Lord, they’re a family and understand God’s grace and that they’re on a journey,” Wiest sasid.

“I love getting to talk about Jesus, seeing someone’s life changed and getting to share Christ all day long showing them that our God is a God of grace and wants to have a relationship with us,” Wiest said. “This is amazing to see.”

For the past 8.5 years, Wiest was the pastor at a church in Pikeville, Ky., located in the eastern portions of the state in the Appalachian Mountains. Prior to his time in Kentucky, he served part-time for five years at two Pennsylvania churches, Upper Octorara Presbyterian Church in Parkesburg and at the Forks of the Brandywine Presbyterian Church in Glenmoore.

Five years ago, Wiest was appointed to serve on the national Presbyterian Pro-Life Board. He also served as the President of the Ministerial Association in Pikeville, where various religious congregations worked together on habitat projects and worship services.

According to Wiest, the Presbyterian church systems works on a “call basis,” meaning a pastor may stay in a church as long as God calls them to be there.

He added that when pastors sense God is calling them to serve elsewhere they fill out a resume-type application which is utilized to find a match that fits the pastor’s criteria. Churches also fill out similar forms for matching purposes.

Wiest explained that he and his wife were drawn to St. Marys once they read the description, before even being matched to the location.

“St. Marys jumped out at us. It had the same vision and heart as we do being pro-life, evangelical, mission-minded, family-oriented, located in a small community, servant-minded and congregation shares a love of music,” he said.

Members of Shiloh’s search committee conducted a phone interview and visited Wiest in Pikeville.

Wiest was then invited to visit the area for a tour, during which time he preached at a neutral site in Brockway as part of the transfer process.

During his third visit, Wiest preached to the St. Marys congregation, after which they voted along with the search committee. As part of the process Pikeville was required to vote as the whether to allow Wiest to depart their church.

“It’s not easy to switch churches in the Presbyterian faith,” Wiest said. “We were looking at moving closer to the family, somewhere in Pennsylvania. In Kentucky, we were nine hours away from them.”

Wiest began his pastoral journey at Lancaster Bible College where he obtained a bachelor of science degree in Bible. He then went on to attend Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield for three years.

As a full-time student, Wiest also managed to dedicate 10 hours per week at both the Upper Octorara and Brandywine churches.

He also worked 20 hours per week as a regional sales director for a computer software company. Through this job Wiest became familiar with the region by visiting clients in Brockway and DuBois.

“There was never a time that I didn’t believe in God,” Wiest said, referring to his experience with various religions during his upbringing.

Growing up Wiest was raised in a Protestant home with a best friend who was Catholic.

“At a early age I had an understanding, respect and reverence of the holiness of God from my friend,” Wiest said.

He admits that as a youth he was often bored in church and felt something was missing.

“I always wanted to want to be in church,” he said.

It was only after he and Sharon separated for one month while engaged that Wiest came to realize the importance of having a relationship with God.

“Everything in this life can leave you, but God will never leave you,” Wiest said.

Joining Wiest and his wife Sharon in moving to St. Marys are the couple’s eight children, Courtney, 22, Scott Jr., 19, Emily, 17, Megan, 14, Benjamin, 11, Madison, 10, Lydia, 8 and Morgan, 5.

Scott and Sharon are former high school sweethearts from Downingtown, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, who have been married for 25 years.

“She has a call herself, being a pastor’s wife,” Wiest said. “The Lord has blessed us with eight amazing children, each with a completely different personality.”

As former members of their high school band, Sharon and Scott are working together to teach their children how to play various instruments as part of their own praise band.

Individually some of the children perform in various ways during church services, whether they are singing or playing an instrument.

“They have yet to make their debut performance as a praise band in church,” Weist said.