ABOUT CATACOMBS
ROOTED IN THE CHURCH. OPEN TO THE WORLD.
An emerging United Methodist community shaped by the life and teachings of Jesus.
Catacombs: Underground Jesus Fellowship is a community of Christian formation shaped by the life and teachings of Jesus and the Wesleyan conviction that faith becomes visible in love.
We gather around shared meals, Scripture, prayer, honest conversation, and acts of service. Our aim is not simply to know more about Jesus, but to become people who live what he taught.
A NEW EXPRESSION OF AN OLD FAITH.
Catacombs began in Lancaster within the outreach ministry of Community United Methodist Church, where its founder, Pastor Peter J. Wolfgang, serves as Pastor of Outreach. The community now gathers in two places: at Community UMC in Lancaster and at The Well in Downingtown, in partnership with Hopewell United Methodist Church.
In the United Methodist tradition, this kind of emerging Christian community is often called a fresh expression of church: a different way of gathering, rooted in an established church and its traditions, but reaching beyond the familiar patterns of Sunday worship.
Catacombs draws particularly on the Wesleyan understanding that Christian discipleship involves both inward transformation and outward acts of love. Prayer and mercy belong together. So do contemplation and service. Faith is not merely something we profess, but something we practice together.
MEET THE PASTOR
PETER J. WOLFGANG
Licensed Local Pastor in The United Methodist Church / Founder of Catacombs
Peter is a licensed local pastor in The United Methodist Church and the founder of Catacombs: Underground Jesus Fellowship. He serves as Pastor of Outreach at Community UMC in Lancaster and is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Duke Divinity School.
His ministry has included prison reentry, recovery support, and building communities where people can explore faith through worship, honest conversation, and service.
Before entering ministry, Peter worked in strategy and innovation, earning an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from New York University. He is also a visual artist whose work explores spiritual transformation and the relationship between the material and the sacred.
Across these different pursuits, his interests have remained remarkably consistent: how people change, how communities form, and how grace becomes visible in ordinary life.
A SHARED WAY OF LIFE.
Catacombs may have begun with an idea, but a community takes shape through the people who gather.
We begin around a table. We listen to Scripture and to one another. We bring our questions, uncertainties, experiences, and hopes. We practice what we're learning, imperfectly and together.
Our story is still being written by the people who participate in it.
COME AND SEE.
Join us in Lancaster on Saturdays or Downingtown on Thursdays.