Staff

Raised in Chicago Illinois, John first came to Troy in the Fall of 1981 as a graduate student in Applied Mathematics at RPI. It was while he was studying in Troy that he realized that he needed to refocus, and put God at the center of his life. Shortly after this, John dove into reading the Bible, attending worship, and volunteering with Youth For Christ. It was during this time he met his wife Jennifer.

Sensing that God was calling them to full time vocational ministry, they spent two years on staff with Youth For Christ, then moved to Boston, to study at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. John received his Masters of Divinity in 1992. Since then John and Jen have served churches in Lake City, Florida, and Aurora, Illinois. John and Jen returned to Troy in 2002 to serve at Trinity Presbyterian Church, and are grateful to be part of the church family here.

Besides serving the Lord, their joy is their 3 young adult children, James, Daniel, and Abigail.

Sal Scecchitano, our Director of Music and Audio-Visual Ministries has been serving with us since November, 2014. He is also one of the staff organists for Holy Trinity RC Church in Cohoes. He was born and raised in Jersey City NJ and attended The Juilliard School in New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in organ and a Master’s degree in orchestral conducting. Sal was Music Director for the Youth Symphony Orchestra of NY, where he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1981 and subsequently conducted several concerts. He has been on the Pre-College Faculty and Staff at Juilliard as well as the faculty of Schenectady County Community College.

Involved in church music since 1969, Sal has worked with many different denominations and has also held positions in youth ministry and in AV. Ordained an elder in the Presbyterian Church USA in 1998, he has served both the local church and the Albany Presbytery as its Vice Moderator, Moderator, Treasurer and delegate to the General Assembly, in addition to several committees. He is now a member of the Permanent Judicial Commission of the local ECO Presbytery (A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians) to which our congregation now belongs.

Sal retired from the Rensselaer County Health Dept. in September of 2023 where he served as the county’s MRC (Medical Reserve Corps) Coordinator for five years. He was charged with training and mobilizing hundreds of volunteers for emergency preparedness including the massive response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sal has officially “flunked” retirement by taking on the role of school bus driver for the Wynantskill Union Free School District! He also remains active in his community as a firefighter/EMT for the Center Brunswick Volunteer Fire Dept. where he also serves as EMS Lieutenant, a member of the Board of Directors and company chaplain. He enjoys amateur woodworking in his “spare” time. He lives in Brunswick and is the proud father of twin daughters–Natalie, who lives in Troy and is currently serving as Director of the TLC Christian Daycare in Brunswick and Alida, who resides in Boston and works for New Profit, a firm researching philanthropic investment opportunities for other corporations.