Dean Weaver

D. Dean Weaver, Teaching Elder in the Presbytery of the Alleghenies, is the Stated Clerk Search Committee’s nominee to succeed Jeff Jeremiah as EPC Stated Clerk. Weaver is Lead Pastor of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church in Allison Park, Pa., and was Moderator of the EPC’s 37th General Assembly. He currently serves as co-chairman of the EPC’s Revelation 7:9 Task Force.

Weaver will be presented at the EPC’s 40th General Assembly for confirmation. The Assembly currently is scheduled for June 23-26 at Hope Church in Cordova, Tenn.

Bill Dudley, Teaching Elder in the Presbytery of the Southeast, is chairman of the search committee.

“Our committee is pleased to present a nominee who has extraordinary gifts to lead the EPC in this decade,” Dudley said. “Dean’s gifts have been evidenced in the church during his year as Moderator and the subsequent year as chairman of the National Leadership Team. He is deeply devoted to the Church and to serving in the spirit of our Lord.”

In addition to serving Memorial Park, Weaver currently is the Interim Chaplain and member of the Leadership Team for Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. He previously served as Moderator for the Presbytery of the Alleghenies. Weaver was one of the founders and former co-Moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches and served as co-chairman of the New Wineskins/EPC Joint Commission.

He also is a co-founder and former president of EduNations, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that builds and operates schools in Sierra Leone. EduNations currently operates 15 schools, educating more than 3,000 children in one of the most under-resourced countries in the world. He also was instrumental in the founding of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sierra Leone, which has six congregations and 18 preaching stations in the largely rural, Muslim-majority northern region of the country in western Africa.

Weaver holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Religion from Grove City College; a Master of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary; and Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

He and his wife, Beth, have been married for 31 years and have seven children (three natural born and four adopted—two from Sierra Leone, one from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and one in the U.S.) and two grandchildren.

Weaver will relocate to Florida and transfer his ordination to the Presbytery of Florida and the Caribbean.

Dudley noted that the search committee spent seven months engaging with candidates for the role.

“We all have been blessed by the testimonies shared with us and the evident gifts and skills each candidate portrayed,” he said. “The EPC is rich with leaders called and equipped by the Lord to serve His Church.”

The Search Committee was appointed by the 39th General Assembly, held at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in suburban Denver in June 2019, with the goal of presenting a nominee to the 40th General Assembly. The committee consists of fifteen members representing each of the EPC’s 14 presbyteries, plus one member of the National Leadership Team.

Jeremiah has served as the denomination’s Stated Clerk since 2006. When re-elected to a fifth three-year term in 2018, he announced that it would be his final term and he would step down in June 2021.