Nancy Shaytar: Forty Years of Faithful Service

This summer, the Finance Office of Shadyside Presbyterian Church begins a major transition as Nancy Shaytar concludes her forty years of service as the Director of Finance. For months, the Human Resources Committee has worked diligently through a search sub-committee to identify the candidate who is most qualified and best suited to follow Nancy, and we anticipate being able to make a hiring announcement in the near future. To ensure a smooth transition, Nancy will help to train her successor during an orientation period.

We offer our heartfelt thanks to the Lord for Nancy’s faithful service among us, and we rejoice with her in the new opportunities that lie ahead. Please join us in praying for God’s blessings upon her, and plan to join us on Sunday, September 10, as we recognize Nancy’s ministry during the service of worship, with an opportunity for individual congregation members to express their appreciation to her during the potluck picnic following worship.

In a historical document prepared for the occasion of the church’s 125th anniversary, the Reverend Dr. F. Morgan Roberts mentioned “the organization and stability which our church operation has enjoyed because of the thoroughness and integrity of the many services rendered by Nancy Shaytar.” As true as those words were when they were written in 1991, they are even more so now, with the passage of more than twenty-five years in the life of this church.

Joining the church staff in 1977, as Assistant Treasurer under the Reverend Dr. Robert Cleveland Holland, Nancy became known to almost every member of the church as a friend and trusted guardian of the church’s finances. Following the departure of the church’s previous business administrator in 1986, without change of title, she became Dr. Roberts’ closest colleague in giving administrative attention and advice in almost every department of the church’s life. Because of her personal acquaintance with so many members, she was virtually a pastoral associate in matters of management and finance. Recognizing the breadth of her talents and services, she received the title of Financial Administrator in January 1989, and later assumed the role of Director of Finance, a position which she has held for more than two decades.

Nancy is quick to credit her professional longevity to the Lord. Through five senior pastorates and multiple capital campaigns, she has remained wholeheartedly motivated by God and a love of the church. Her prudent guidance in the church’s finances has been not only informed by sound fiscal principles, but also inspired by a strong spiritual sense. “Members of the various boards have always been helpful and supportive,” she adds, “and the congregation has always been responsible in their giving.”

Nancy also remembers with gratitude the kindness and support of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church family, particularly during her husband’s recovery from a serious automobile accident in the early years of her tenure. “I will always cherish the relationships and friendships I have enjoyed with both the staff and the congregation throughout the time of my employment,” she says.

Over the past four decades, Nancy has been numbered among the church’s most trusted staff members. God has blessed us incalculably through her careful stewardship, which has served the church well in innumerable ways, both known and unknown.

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Colossians 3:17

“Nancy Shaytar has been the embodiment of this Scripture,” says the Reverend Dr. Conrad C. Sharps. “From the moment of my arrival, it became apparent that Nancy was far more than our Director of Finance; she was part of the heartbeat of Shadyside Presbyterian Church,” he observes.

“Her years of dedication have demonstrated not only the highest degree of professionalism, but also have extended into the realm of personal relationships and care. The members of this church have entrusted Nancy with their personal commitments to our Lord and to our beloved church as well as their personal stories,” continues Dr. Sharps. “We offer Nancy our deepest gratitude and devotion for her ministry among us these many years!”