The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) announced in December 2025 the appointment of Rev. Pat Stark as Director of Church Planting within its Serve Locally team. Stark assumes the denominational role with responsibility for overseeing and developing the ECC's church multiplication initiatives across the United States.
The appointment came alongside the naming of Rev. Fil Nesta as Director of Bilingual Churches — together signalling the ECC's intention to strengthen both its church planting engine and its support for the denomination's growing Spanish-speaking and bilingual congregational base.
Church planting sits at the heart of the Evangelical Covenant Church's identity. The ECC traces its roots to the nineteenth-century Swedish Mission Friends, a pietist movement shaped by the conviction that personal faith, voluntary membership, and active mission are the marks of authentic church life. That DNA has expressed itself in ongoing church multiplication: the ECC regularly welcomes new congregations into its fellowship and invests significantly in training and supporting church planters.
The Serve Locally team sits within the ECC's broader ministry structure and provides resources, coaching, and coordination for congregational development and new church starts across the country.
Source: Evangelical Covenant Church
