Leadership Team

The Rev. Dr. Don Scofield has served as pastor of Rutherfordton Presbyterian Church since January 2001.  Prior to Rutherfordton, he served churches in Newark and Somerville, New Jersey; Mount Airy, North Carolina; and Petersburg, West Virginia.  Don is a graduate of The College of William and Mary, Princeton Theological Seminary, and McCormick Theological Seminary. 

For the Presbytery of Western NC, Don has served on the Committee on Ministry (Chair), the Transition Management Team, the Administrative Board (Chair), the Joint Outdoor Ministry Committee, the Administrative Commission for Churches Concluding their Ministry, the Finance Committee (Co-Chair), numerous Administrative Commissions, as Moderator of Presbytery (2013), and as Commissioner to the 2016 General Assembly of the PCUSA.

Don and his wife, Donna (a high school chemistry and physics teacher), have five grown children -Hope, Jessie, Kate, Will, and Zach - spread across three states and 1 foreign country.   

Lesley Bush

lbushrpc@gmail.com

Lesley M. Bush, a native of Polk County, North Carolina, graduated from Mars Hill College (now Mars Hill University) in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in religion. He continued his education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, and was ordained in 1989. 

He began his formal music education at age six, studying with his first piano teacher, Charlene Means; became a church pianist at age 11, and has been continuously involved in church music since that time. 

Bush is a former member of the North Carolina Baptist Singers and has been the accompanist for the Third Century Singers (Community Chorus of Goldsboro, North Carolina). Bush has been the director of the Community Chorus, in Tryon, North Carolina on twelve occasions. He is an officer of the Rutherford County Historical Society. He has served as photographer and research assistant for 40 historical publications. His landscape and interior photographs have been published in the United States and England. In 2018, he served as one of the principal photographers for the book, “Southern Splendor: Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South” which was published by The University Press of Mississippi. He also participated as a re-enactor in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary “Gold Fever and the Bechtler Mint,” produced by UNC-TV in 2012, and released to national television audiences in 2013. He enjoys family genealogy and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. 

He is a certified piano technician and has been tuning pianos since 2019. He has taught piano for over 40 years and currently is a member of the teaching faculty at The Wild Roots Fine Arts Center in Forest City, NC.