A Gospel-Centered Community on Main Street
Pepperell Christian Fellowship gathers on Main Street in the center of Pepperell, a small town in northern Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The church occupies two buildings at 17 Main Street and exists, in its own words, "to be a Jesus-centered community in Pepperell, speaking gospel words and doing gospel works to display the worth of God to the world." Pepperell Christian Fellowship, known locally as PCF, is non-denominational, evangelical, and governed by a board of elders. Its ministry extends from Sunday worship in its own sanctuary to a two-year pastoral residency that prepares future church planters, and from a bedside choir at a nearby nursing home to missionaries it supports in Brazil, the Middle East, Africa, and among the unreached peoples of the world.
From a Living Room to 17 Main Street
Pepperell Christian Fellowship began in the 1980s as a community Bible study and held its first worship services in a living room in 1988. When that space proved too small, the group rented an office building for Sunday mornings before moving in 1992 to its current home at 17 Main Street. A decade of further growth led to construction of the present worship facility on the property in 2002, and in 2020 a major renovation of the front building made it fully functional for PCF's children's and adult education programs as well as for community groups needing meeting space.
Stephen Witmer came to PCF in 2008 from a teaching position at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and now serves as Lead Pastor. In 2015, the church embraced a ten-year vision of gospel growth, and in 2017 it called Jeff Willett as its first full-time Associate Pastor. In 2023, PCF planted its first church, Christ Church Townsend, with Jeff Willett serving as the planting pastor. The two congregations together describe themselves as a "family of churches" sharing a common history, gospel culture, and vision for planting more churches in the small towns of the region.
Sunday Mornings at 8:30 and 11:00
Worship services are held each Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. The 8:30 a.m. service is also livestreamed on Zoom. In each service the congregation praises God by singing a blend of hymns and contemporary songs, is prayed for by one of the elders, and receives teaching from the Bible. On the first Sunday of each month, the church shares in the Lord's Supper. Dress is casual and comfortable, and after the services people typically gather on the deck or outside to continue in fellowship.
Between the two services, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., PCF Kids, Adult Education, and a Sunday morning prayer group meet in the front building. PCF Kids covers nursery-age through high school and uses the Truth78 curriculum. Adult Education is interactive teaching for adults of all ages, led by gifted teachers and designed for biblical discussion. The Sunday morning prayer group prays for the church and the community during the same hour.
The nursery is available for children three and under during both worship services. Children's Church is offered during both services for children ages four through first grade. A dedicated disability ministry runs a Special Needs and Sensory Room, providing a calming space for neurodivergent children during services with the support of trained "buddies" who give each child personalized care.
Children, Teens, and Young Adults
PCF Kids is the umbrella name for children's programming from nursery through twelfth grade. Children meet at 10:00 a.m. on Sundays for Bible study using the Truth78 curriculum, with additional structured nursery and Children's Church care during both worship services.
Teens in grades 7 through 12 are welcomed into the Tuesday night Youth Group, which meets from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The group provides a place for teens to spend time together, build friendships, and grow in their walks with God. The youth leaders are Dan and Taylor Cetnar. Student information and waiver forms are completed online before a teen joins.
A Young Adults Group meets on the first Sunday of each month at 12:30 p.m., offering a continuing community for young adults in the region.
Women's Ministry, Men's Ministry, and Senior Life
Women's Ministry at PCF centers on two Bible studies offered during the fall and winter months. The Tuesday morning study meets weekly from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. beginning September 15, with childcare available for children four and under. The Tuesday evening study meets every other week from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., also beginning September 15, and does not provide childcare. Both studies are led by a team of women including Sandy, Katharine, Trish, Joy, Kristina, Lilian, and Nancy.
The men's ministry offers opportunities throughout the year to connect over breakfasts, hikes, and canoe trips. Christopher White coordinates men's ministry, and men of the church also gather periodically for events such as a Men's Game Night and a Men's Dinner.
PCF's Senior Life Matters ministry meets on the first and third Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. for a time of devotion, prayer, and encouragement. A companion prayer group called Let's Pray gathers on the second and fourth Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. The Serenity Choir, a bedside choir directed by Wendy Cummings, sings at Ayer Valley Nursing and Rehab on the second Wednesday of each month at 2:00 p.m. Small groups of two or three singers visit homebound and hospitalized people, singing softly at the bedside and praying briefly before leaving.
Life Groups, Adult Education, and Membership
Life Groups are mixed-gender small groups for both married couples and singles that meet in homes in Pepperell and surrounding towns, including some groups in nearby New Hampshire. They meet on various nights of the week and gather to study the Bible, deepen friendships, and serve on mission together, reaching out to their local communities.
Membership at PCF is taken seriously and is described in the church's constitution as a way of pursuing "both the joy and the sacrifice of being involved in each other's lives." Adults who have attended PCF regularly for at least six months may request admission, complete the Membership Class, and meet with the elders to share their testimony. Members affirm the church's Statement of Faith and commit to its mission of displaying the worth of God to the world.
PCF also hosts Christianity Explored, a seven-week course for anyone interested in learning more about Christianity. Inquiries about the next course can be directed to Pastor Stephen Witmer.
A Two-Year Bible Reading Plan
PCF has developed its own Two-Year Bible Reading Plan, with weekly readings published on the church site and an introduction letter from Pastor Stephen that frames the project. A large-print version is also available, and the pastoral team recommends a companion book, "How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour," to help readers walk through the Bible in canonical order.
The Pastoral Residency and Church Planting Vision
PCF operates a two-year, full-time Pastoral Residency designed to prepare men for ministry in New England, whether pastoring an existing church or planting a new one. Residents earn a full-time salary with health insurance from PCF and pursue growth in three areas of pastoral ministry: the personal (devotional life, prayer, marriage, family), the private (discipleship, counseling, visitation, evangelism), and the public (preaching, teaching, leadership, community involvement).
Over 24 months, residents follow a curated reading plan with twelve inter-related two-month components, including personal spiritual formation, marriage and family, ecclesiology, global mission and church planting, preaching and worship, biblical and systematic theology, the pastoral role, counseling and shepherding, cultural exegesis, the classics of Christian literature, and weddings, funerals, and dedications. PCF partners with the Village Green Collective, Small Town Summits, and The Gospel Coalition New England to connect residents with regional networks of pastors and churches. Andy Sweet directs the residency.
The church's wider vision is to plant gospel-centered, community-engaged churches in the small towns of New England. Together with the other churches of the Village Green Collective, PCF aims to see more churches closer to more people, and its residency program is one of the chief means by which it raises up future planters and pastors.
Outreach in Pepperell and Beyond
PCF's local outreach includes volunteering at the local senior center, supporting Real Options pregnancy center, and supporting Pepperell Aid from Community to Home (PACH), the town's food pantry that provides food, personal care items, and referrals to residents in need. The church's Deacons' Fund provides additional local aid. A community event called Bible Venture, formerly Vacation Bible School, is offered free to families in the area, and PCF periodically hosts free concerts and other gatherings for the wider community.
As a church, PCF devotes more than ten percent of its income to supporting missionaries and ministries both at home and abroad. Missionaries visit the church regularly, and short-term teams have traveled to visit missionaries in Haiti and Uganda.
Missionaries and Global Partners
Among the missionaries PCF supports are Fellype and Karol Torres, who planted a church in the small Brazilian town of Serra Branca in 2017 and continue to serve there with their children. Micah and Jess serve in the United Arab Emirates, where Micah is Director of Mobilization and Professor of Missiology and Biblical Studies at Gulf Theological Seminary, discipling students and supporting church-planting efforts in the Gulf, India, Iran, and the Philippines. Dustin and Kellie serve among Muslim communities in the Middle East. Jacob and Marie-Paul Mathieu serve with SEMBEQ, the Evangelical Baptist Seminary of Quebec, where Jacob teaches and mentors men for ministry.
Josh and Abby Rattin serve with Reaching and Teaching Ministries, teaching Ugandan pastors and equipping lay leaders, with additional ministry among people with disabilities. George and Linda Renner serve at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, where George teaches and mentors pastors throughout Africa. Straight Ahead Ministries is an interdenominational juvenile justice ministry that PCF supports for its work with juvenile offenders around the world. Chris and Elizabeth Tachick serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators as consultants for Bible translation work, and Small Town Summits and the Village Green Collective are regional New England partners that resourcing small-town pastors and lay leaders.
What PCF Believes
PCF describes itself as a "Bible-believing church in the evangelical Protestant tradition." The church holds certain beliefs with an "open hand," allowing a range of views among its members on questions such as the continuation of supernatural sign gifts and the details of the last things. With a "closed hand," it holds firmly to the core beliefs of historic, orthodox Christianity: the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, the Trinity, the deity of Jesus, justification by faith, and the personal and visible return of Jesus at the end of time.
The full Statement of Faith affirms the full inspiration and inerrancy of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as the only inspired Word of God and the supreme and final authority for faith and life. PCF believes in one God eternally existing in three equal persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in Jesus Christ as true God and true man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, living a sinless life, dying as a substitutionary atonement on the cross, rising bodily from the dead, ascending into heaven, interceding for his people, and returning personally, visibly, and bodily at the end of the age.
The Holy Spirit is confessed as a divine person equal with the Father and the Son, who convicts of sin, regenerates sinners, indwells believers, and empowers them for holy living. Humankind was created in the image of God; through Adam's fall, all people are now of a sinful nature and under just condemnation, but those who repent of sin and trust in Jesus Christ are reconciled to God and restored to true fellowship with him.
Salvation is described as by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, received by repentance and trust, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual. The church is the spiritual body of Christ, expressed in local assemblies of believers who gather for worship, Bible instruction, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, evangelism, Christian service, and mutual edification. Baptism is reserved for believers as an outward sign of inward conversion, and the Lord's Supper is observed as a remembrance and proclamation of Christ's death.
Christian conduct is marked by the pursuit of increasing holiness through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, in a life of progressive conformity to Jesus Christ. PCF looks for the personal, visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ, the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost, eternal life for the redeemed in the new creation, and eternal conscious punishment in hell for the lost.
The church's constitution also adopts The Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement as the standard to which its elders subscribe, anchoring PCF in the broader network of Reformed evangelical churches associated with The Gospel Coalition.
Governance and Leadership
PCF is governed according to an elder-led congregational model. The Board of Elders shepherds the church, devotes itself to prayer and the ministry of the Word, and serves as the Board of Directors of the corporation. The current elders are Stephen Witmer, Andy Sweet, David Fenton, Paul Strout, and Jay Clark.
The Board of Deacons serves under the oversight of the elders, with responsibility for the physical and material needs of the church, the maintenance of facilities, the disbursement of finances, and the Deacons' Fund. Serving as deacons are Beverly Wood, Jake Bronkema, George Bearer, Sheryl Wood, Lisa Manley, Mary Ann Schunemann, Matthew Leger, Megan Clemons, Rod Cummings, and Sandy Wright.
The pastoral staff includes Lead Pastor Stephen Witmer and Pastoral Resident Brett Westervelt. Taylor Cetnar serves as Ministry and Program Coordinator, Wendy Cummings as the Serenity Choir Ministry Coordinator, Elizabeth Grosso as Church Business Administrator, and Teresa Bradbury as Bookkeeper. Andy Sweet, in addition to his role as an elder, serves as the director of the Pastoral Residency program.
Building, Accessibility, and Planning a Visit
The church property at 17 Main Street includes a rear building, where worship takes place on the second floor, and a renovated front building that houses PCF Kids, Adult Education, and community meetings. Parking is available behind the rear building, with overflow parking at the Lawrence Library next door. Signs guide visitors to a wheelchair-accessible sidewalk on the left side of the building, leading up to the deck entrance, where a lift is available for those unable to use the stairs.
Visitors are welcomed in casual dress. Once a quarter PCF hosts a PCF Connection lunch, an informal gathering for newcomers after Sunday services, where visitors can enjoy a free meal and hear more about the church from its leaders. Giving is available online through the church's Realm platform, and offerings may also be mailed to the Pepperell Christian Fellowship mailing address. Worship services and a wide archive of past sermons are available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify.