Rick Harbaugh concedes that there’s still a lot for him to learn about Natrona Heights Presbyterian Church and its parishioners as he fumbles for the correct switches to turn lights on in the nearly 100-year-old stone church on Broadview Boulevard.

“I’m still finding my way around and learning things,” Harbaugh says with a sheepish grin.

But in the six months since being installed as the church’s new pastor, there’s one thing of which he is certain: His decision to take on the role as the spiritual leader for the small but growing parish was the right choice.

“Everyone’s been so welcoming and I regularly keep in touch with the former pastor, Cam Malcolm, who has been incredibly helpful,” Harbaugh said. “I know in my heart that this is the right place for me to be.”

A native of Cecil Township, Harbaugh, 33, is a 2011 graduate of Geneva College, where he had a double major in ministry and music. He earned a master’s of divinity degree from Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge in 2015.

While studying at Geneva, Harbaugh did an internship at the Presbyterian Church of Portersville in Butler County, where he was later hired as a youth minister. He served at the church in various roles for 11 years before coming to Natrona Heights.

Harbaugh believes that despite his young age, his education and the experience he gained ministering in Portersville prepared him well to serve as a pastor.

“I had the opportunity to assist with weddings and funerals and saw people I cared about experience loss,” he said. “And working with the youth group allowed me to experience the kid who’s dealing with depression or the loss of a friend to suicide. Most of my career has been building toward becoming a pastor.”

Harbaugh said fulfilling the requirements of ordination in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church requires serving in an ordained position.

“The position I had as a youth minister in Portersville was great, but I could not complete the ordination process until I found an ordained position, which meant I needed to go somewhere else if I wanted to move onto the next step in my career,” he said.

Pastor Dana Opp, who leads the congregation in Portersville, said it has been a joy to witness Harbaugh’s spiritual formation.

“Rick joined us in the summer of 2010 and I saw him through the end of Geneva and seminary and then as he worked his way toward ordination,” said Opp, who has been with the church since 1997. “He’s a good man. We are all very happy for him.”

Harbaugh said the search for an ordained position came as the coronavirus pandemic hit, which he says changed his perspective and the career path he would follow.

“The pandemic really changed a lot for me,” he said. “We went from having youth group in person to doing it online, and some weeks not even knowing if we would be doing it one way or the other,” he said.

“So during the downtime, I started working more with the church’s administrative areas, such as getting a livestream up and running for the services.

“That’s when I felt God was leading me out of youth ministry and into working more with adults,” Harbaugh said. “I found that the things I was excited about changed. I definitely felt that I was being led to a broader role as a pastor.”

Harbaugh said the death of his fiancee’s grandmother also played a role in his search to become a pastor.

“Family is one of the most important things in both of our lives,” Harbaugh said. “When I started looking at different churches, I considered a position in Cincinnati. But after my fiancee’s grandmother died, we came to the realization that we needed to be here, close to our families.

“My fiancee is from Portersville and my parents live in the house I grew up in, so Natrona Heights is a perfect fit to fulfill our desire to stay close to our families.”

Harbaugh’s father is an electrical engineer, and his mother is an operating room clinician. His sister is studying to be a physician.

In the time since becoming pastor, Harbaugh said he has tried to focus on getting closer to the members of the small parish, which number about 65, and creating opportunities to attract new members.

“One of the first things I did when I got here was just get on the telephone and start calling people to introduce myself,” he said.

Harbaugh said the necessity to livestream services during the coronavirus pandemic has now become an opportunity for outreach to people seeking a place for worship and fellowship.

“You can go on our Facebook or YouTube page so you know exactly what it’s like to attend a service here before you’ve ever walked in the door, he said. “We’ve had people come to church because they liked what they experienced online.”

Community-oriented activities, such as the annual Christmas concert and the various classes offered throughout the year, also can serve as an “outreach opportunity” to invite people to more fully participate in church life.

“It’s not an attempt to bribe people to come to church,” he said.

“Rather it’s a nice, easy way for people, especially those who may have been away for a long time, to walk into a church.”

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