| Peachtree Presbyterian Church | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Denomination | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) |
| Website | http://www.peachtreepres.org/ |
| Clergy | |
| Senior pastor(s) | Victor D. Pentz |
Peachtree Presbyterian Church is a megachurch in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The largest congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), its membership in 2010 was approximately 9,000.
Peachtree began as a Sunday school for children in Atlanta founded in 1910. The church itself was chartered on 3 November 1919.[1] The original Church was a gray granite building built in 1926 at the corner of Peachtree Road and Mathieson Drive.[2] The church grew steadily, and moved to its present location at 3434 Roswell Road in the Buckhead area of Atlanta in May 1960, where the church campus now covers 26 acres (110,000 m2).[1] In September 1999 the church opened a large, modern recreation center include two basketball courts.[3] The Gym at Peachtree offers a range of fitness and recreational programs, which the church sees as an integral part of the ministry.[4]
By 1992 the church had the largest Presbyterian congregation in the USA. The senior pastor, Rev. W. Frank Harrington, was runner-up in the election for moderator of the then-2.9-million member denomination.[5] The Senior Pastor since 2000 has been Dr. Vic Pentz.[1] Pentz, who comes from Southern California, has had varied experience before joining Peachtree including a chaplaincy to the crew of three Space Shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral, running an evangelistic beach ministry to Southern California surfers and speaking at conferences around the world.[6]
Pentz and Peachtree are considered conservatives in the theological spectrum of the PC(USA); Pentz and several other leaders of evangelical PC(USA) churches have proposed setting up alternate structures for conservative congregations if a proposed amendment to the denomination's Book of Order passes permitting homosexual ordination.[7] It is unclear whether the congregation would consider leaving the PC(USA), as other evangelical congregations have done in the late 2000s in opposition to denominational leaders' attitudes supporting gays and lesbians.
In September 2010 members raised more than $60,000 to buy the ingredients for 325,000 meals for starving children, at 19 cents a meal, which they prepared and packed for delivery to Haiti.[8]