WHY ARE WE HERE?

Hanover Valley exists to assist people in knowing Jesus Christ, until there is a visible difference in their quality of life and in the community. We believe that the Gospel of Christ has a tremendous power to produce positive transformation spiritually, psychologically, socially, and culturally – first through ourselves and then through the community by word, deed, and community.

What kind of church do we need to be to make a difference in Hanover? To help people know, love, and serve God through Jesus Christ? We are striving to be a church with an open door to those who seek Christ and a clear path for those who are journeying toward Him.

AN OPEN DOOR

Hanover Valley is committed to maintaining an open door to anyone interested in knowing more about Jesus Christ. We welcome the questions, objections, and problems of people searching for truth, and we are committed to responding with honesty and compassion, not hostility or condescension. While some churches are almost completely for those skeptical of Christianity and others are only for those who are confident believers, we hope you’ll find people here all along the spectrum of discovery – those who are convinced, those who are perplexed, and those who are skeptical of the Christian faith. We revel in this diversity.

OUR CONNECTIONS

Hanover Valley is a congregation of the Susquehanna Valley Presbytery and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

OUR VALUES

Joyous, Biblical Worship

We must focus on both private and public worship for the former drives the latter. We expect to experience joy in our worship since the message of the gospel tells us that we are accepted and forgiven through the work of a Savior and not our own frail efforts. The worship service will be Biblically based, God-centered, & Grace-focused. It will reflect God’s desire to reveal Himself by being understandable to those present and marked by excellence.

Outward Focus

We must focus on both private and public worship for the former drives the latter. We expect to experience joy in our worship since the message of the gospel tells us that we are accepted and forgiven through the work of a Savior and not our own frail efforts. The worship service will be Biblically based, God-centered, & Grace-focused. It will reflect God’s desire to reveal Himself by being understandable to those present and marked by excellence.

Incarnational Ministry

God is at every moment building and spreading his healing presence in our world. We want to honestly assess the community’s needs and meet them Biblically and holistically as the Lord provides leadership and resources. Our commitment is to incarnate the gospel in Hanover in such a way that people are drawn to trust the church and to lower their sense of the church’s hypocrisy. We desire to meet spiritual and physical needs at the same time so that there is real change socially, culturally, spiritually and physically.

Gospel Orientation

The gospel is the good news about what God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ. It is not a law that we must do or achieve. Because of this, we seek to motivate one another with grace, not with guilt and shame. Religion makes nice people; the gospel makes new people. Religion reforms you on the outside; the gospel transforms you from inside out. For this reason, we tend to focus on the heart and motivation rather than a concrete set of outward behaviors. To be a Christian means that you have been given a new identity, a new Father, and a new family.

Discipleship Through Small Groups

We hope to see folks exploring the work of Christ in all of life. The best and most authentic means to this is through ongoing small group interaction and through mentoring rather than simply through a smorgasbord of programs. We value relationships over structures and believe that needs can be met more affectively within the context of committed relationships.

Every Member Ministry

Every member of Christ’s kingdom is gifted in some way to care for and serve others. We want to unleash people for ministry so that more and more are involved in the work that Christ is doing in his church and world. We want people to discover what they really love to do in the kingdom and then help them do it.

Prayer

We want to be a church saturated by prayer in every aspect. Prayer changes our hearts so that we can be used to change our world. Prayer is one of the main ingredients needed for healing our broken world. We want to be so built upon prayer that it could said that if we haven’t prayed about it we can’t do it yet.

Excellence

Excellence is one of God’s characteristics. We believe the church ought to reflect this character in all it does. What can we expect others to think if God’s children give Him the leftovers in their lives? We desire to be purpose driven rather than slaves to preference or tyrannized by the urgent. We are committed to doing a few things well rather than many things with mediocrity. This doesn’t mean we go beyond our means but that we truly strive to present Him with the best He has given us and not simply settle for the best we can do.

MEET OUR STAFF

REVEREND NOAH TRASK

ASSOCIATE PASTOR OF YOUTH & FAMILY MINISTRIES

Noah Trask grew up in Hanover and is a graduate of Lancaster Bible College (B.A., Worship Arts & Biblical Studies) and Covenant Theological Seminary (M.A., Biblical & Theological Studies).Before coming to Hanover Valley, he served as the director of youth and young adults at a church in York, PA. His wife, Sarah, is also from Hanover and is a graduate of Millersville University (B.A., Social Work). They are high school sweethearts and have been married since 2016. They have three children, Norah, Paul, and Phoebe.

SARAH TRASK

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT & MERCY COORDINATOR

Sarah grew up in Hanover and works part-time as our administrative assistant while also volunteering as our mercy team coordinator. Her mercy work is greatly aided by her B.S. in Social Work which she earned from Millersville University. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, and reading.

OUR ELDERS

COLBY BREWER

GARY HARRITY

(Emeritus)

BRUCE SCHWARZ

ALSTON SCHWARZ

Thomas Wedeking

MINISTRY LEADERS

JESSICA STAUFFER

Music Director

ANGELA BREWER

Kid’s Group

FRED MARKLE

Website Administrator

STEVE KIRKPATRICK

Social Media

DOTTIE WICKE

Sunday Operations

Liz Wedeking

Nursery Coordinator

Cecilia Lankford

Youth Assistant

a brief history of hvpc

In the spring of 1995 a small group of believers in Hanover began to meet for Bible study. They were in search of a church built upon the scriptures, committed to reaching unbelievers and dedicated to a reformed view of theology. Desiring to connect themselves with a denomination with historic roots, they petitioned a church within the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Valley Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, to plant a daughter church in Hanover, committing themselves as the initial core group. They continued meeting weekly for prayer, Bible study, fellowship and outreach. As growth occurred, the meeting moved to a rental facility at the Seventh Day Adventist building on Grandview Rd. in the spring of 1996.

With Valley Church providing the training and oversight, a search began for a church planter suitable for the work. After looking for nearly fifteen months, Drew Derreth became the church planter / pastor of this potential work in Hanover. He moved to the area in January 1998 and this small group of 40, now, began the arduous task of preparing to begin services for the Hanover community. For the first nine months after Pastor Derreth’s arrival they focused on only two things: prayer and evangelism. They were seeking to be a church that went to the community before asking the community to come to it. They prayed that God would build His church and that this church would be for those who weren’t a part of any church yet. They also began to share the news of Christ and His work of salvation to their network of family and friends. God blessed and confirmed their work by saving several folks within that first nine months.

  • On September 13, 1998, Hanover Valley Presbyterian Church began with its first public worship service held at the Seventh Day Adventist building.
  • In late 2002 the church moved to a building on Spring Avenue in Hanover.
  • On October 1, 2003, Jeff McMullen was hired as the first pastoral intern and would later be ordained as a pastor in the PCA on January 13th, 2008.
  • On November 23, 2003 Hanover Valley Presbyterian Church became a particular congregation of the Susquehanna Valley Presbytery of the PCA with Dave Kieffer, Paul Trask, and Bruce Schwarz elected and ordained as the church’s first ruling elders.
  • On April 4, 2004, the church relocated to the Hanover YWCA.
  • On May 20, 2007, our current building at 133 Carlisle Street was dedicated.
  • Over more recent years, God has seen fit to grant Hanover Valley growth in connection to our annual week long children’s camp named “Kids Fest” where hundreds of children from the Hanover community have heard the gospel. God established this ministry prior to our first worship service in 1998 and continues to work through it to this day.
  • On March 1, 2020, Noah Trask was hired as the youth and family ministries director and was subsequently ordained and installed as an associate pastor on June 8, 2025.
  • On June 9, 2026, our beloved pastor, Drew Derreth, sustained significant injuries following a sudden accident at his home. After several days in the hospital, on June 14th, 2026, Drew was called home to the presence of Jesus. We thank God for Drew’s love and labour on behalf of our congregation and his faithfulness in preaching the gospel and pointing us to Jesus.

Throughout the last thirty years, God took a core group and grew it into a congregation with a growing desire to know Christ and to make Him known throughout Hanover and the world. We are expectant and hopeful to see how God will continue to work in Hanover in the years to come.