March 13 Today in OPC History

On March 13, 1981, the Rev. William Shishko was received into the Presbytery of New York and New England of the OPC, transferring his credentials from the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, where he was the organizing pastor in a church plant in South Carolina for two years. He was called to serve as the fifth pastor by the Franklin Square (New York) Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and there he would begin a remarkable 35-year ministerial tenure.

"Busy" does not begin to describe Shishko’s labors for the church. Under his leadership the Franklin Square session gave birth to five daughter churches in New York City and Long Island. He has mentored dozens of young men in preparation for the gospel ministry. He served on many presbytery committees and several denominational committees, including Coordination, Ecumenicity and Interchurch Relations, Home Missions, and a long tenure on the Committee on Christian Education. Short-term mission service has taken him to Suriname, Cyprus, Egypt, Uganda, China, Eritrea, and Wales. In addition to his appointment as adjunct professor at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, he has taught homiletics and pastoral theology in the Ministerial Training Institute of the OPC. Shishko has been a frequent contributor both to New Horizons and Ordained Servant, and in 2009 he moderated the 76th General Assembly of the OPC, meeting in Grand Rapids. Currently, he serves as the church planter of the OPC mission work, The Haven, in Deer Park, New York.

A native of Putnam, Connecticut, Bill attended Bob Jones University and Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He and his wife Margaret have one daughter and five sons (one of whom, Jonathan, has followed his father into ministry in the OPC), and five grandchildren.

Picture: Bill Shishko in May 1979 on graduation day at WTS.