Our Guiding Mission
As a church community seeking to love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ together in Western New York and beyond, we at Pathways are committed to leading lives that increasingly:
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Reflect our love for God, Scripture, and all peoples.
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Transform our local community, our nation, and beyond into loving, caring, and peaceful communities.
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Invite others into our community of relationships that reflect our love and nurture all who wish to learn to live in God’s grace.
Therefore, our mission is to worship God, faithfully study God’s word, prayerfully care for God’s people, and lead lives that witness to God’s love and mercy.
We worship to honor God and celebrate what God does in our Fellowship.
Local Missions
Sarah's Pantry
Filling the Gaps with Compassion
Sarah’s Pantry is a non-food item pantry offering essential personal care and hygiene products, paper goods, cleaning supplies, and other daily necessities that aen’t covered by SNAP or similar assistance programs. Originally founded by Pathways Church in 2011 in memory of Sarah Oubre, the pantry was created to serve neighbors in need and honor Sarah’s legacy of kindness and community care.
Now housed at the Rural Outreach Center (ROC) at 730 Olean Rd, Sarah’s Pantry continues to support engaged ROC Participants and community members facing hardship. Pathways Church members regularly restock the pantry, ensuring it stays filled with the essentials many take for granted.
Community support keeps Sarah’s Pantry going. Donations of non-food items are always welcome and help meet critical needs where traditional benefits fall short. Together, we can make a lasting impact—one item, one family, one act of care at a time.
Clothing Shed
Pathways Christian Fellowship maintains a clothing shed at the South Wales Community Center, with oversight by Chuck Kopf. Community members are invited to drop off gently used clothing, shoes, belts, purses, linens, blankets, and other fabric items. These donations are then collected by St. Pauly Textile, a family-owned company that specializes in reusing and recycling textiles.
St. Pauly sorts and distributes the clothing for use in communities across the U.S. and developing countries, ensuring that items find new life instead of ending up in landfills. Through this partnership, the clothing shed not only provides a convenient way for people to give back but also supports environmental sustainability and humanitarian aid.
National & Global Missions
Since 2016 Pastor Frank Cerny and Pastor Gariston Saydee have communicated and developed a warm and brotherly relationship. As Pathways has learned of specific need in the Upper Caldwell community the congregation has supported their efforts in many ways. Computers for the school, support for teacher’s salaries, charcoal making support, logging support, and recently a feeding program for the students at the school. The children at the school are now provided a meal at school, sometimes being the only meal they get that day. This financial support has allowed the school to increase their enrollment and further the business plan which includes construction of a permanent building for the school.
We just concluded collections for the construction of the school in Liberia. Each week of the NFL football season people have put extra change in a jar that is collected by Shawn Merkle and Darla Weaton. To date they have collected about $1500. This collection is separate from the lunch program we support to the tune of about $15,000 each year.
Upper Caldwell, Liberia
Operation Christmas Child
This ministry helps spread the word of Christianity internationally. Shoeboxes are filled with small toys, school supplies and clothing as well as a Christian message in the local language. The boxes are delivered all around the world. Barb Lowe has led this ministry for over a decade and Pathways has regularly packed and delivered over 150 boxes each year.
For more about the program
Annual February Trip
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The Pathways community makes an annual week long commitment to those in need in another area of the United States. From 2006-2012 a team traveled to the Gulf Coast to help rebuild after several hurricane disasters and since 2013 to assist with an orphanage in Georgia. This trip is scheduled during the February school break so local high school students are able to participate. These students and adults work and grow together in God's purposes.
Georgia Mission Trip
2025
