Gatherings
Corporate Gatherings
To help visitors understand how we gather as a church, we have provided descriptions of each of our weekly services. Generally, our services are characterized by solemn contemplation of the Bible and its doctrines, passionate corporate singing, and friendly interaction with one another and our guests. After you get a taste for our church by our words, please come see us live them out as we gather together to praise our God.
Sunday Morning
Profile
Age-wise, we are mixed. We have young families, widows, college students and empty-nesters. Sunday morning attendance is between 100 and 150 people. Dress trends toward business-casual, though you can find anything from jeans to suits. People are friendly and want to make sure visitors feel welcomed.
Beginning
On Sunday morning at 9:45am we come together for an hour of Sunday School classes, in which we learn about God’s Word and its application to all areas of life. Following that, we begin our Sunday morning service at 11am.
Music
The music we sing at Park is a blend of old and new. We love the doctrinally rich hymns of the sixteenth century and we find blessing in the choruses of the twenty-first. Most of us who are comfortable with music from one particular era have discovered, while at Park, that we have come to enjoy other songs we had not previously encountered. We strongly prefer congregational singing, which emphasizes the gathered body singing praise to God with one voice. We do also have special songs giving the congregation an opportunity to praise God through reflecting on the songs sung by various members of the congregation and choir.
Body of Service
Our service formally begins at 11am, we were sing congregational songs, hear God’s Word read and preached, give and spend time in corporate prayer lead by one of our deacons and pastors.
Sermons
Preaching at Park is generally expositional, meaning that it seeks to declare the point of a particular Biblical passage. Sermons usually last around 35-40 minutes and are packed with material for reflection. On a regular basis, our sermon series alternate between the Old and New Testaments. All preaching is driven by the Gospel, the Bible’s main message of God saving sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Sunday Night Service
Our evening service is more informal and has more of a family-atmosphere. We begin at 6pm with congregational singing, followed by announcements and a time of meditation on the Word. Sermons may be through a book of the Bible from the opposite Testament preached in the morning, a topical series or a passage related to the morning message. There also is a time of testimony and sharing from the members of the church. We have a children’s choir for ages 3-6 and a time of Bible Memory, Catechism and Bible Knowledge for ages 7-12.
Wednesday Night
We meet at 6:30 for a time of corporate prayer where we lift of up the physical and spiritual needs of the church family. After a time of prayer, there is a 20 minute message from the Bible. We have children’s programs for children birth through 12 years old. There is an organized choir practice following the prayer and Bible time. There are several families that meet earlier for dinner at 5 pm in the Christian Activities Building. All are welcome.
Children's Philosophy and Programs
We believe that parents should lead in discipling their children to grow into maturity into the head of the Church and the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. God has entrusted children to parents as their primary disciple-makers and the church as co-laborers. The church desires to come alongside parents by helping to grow our children in Christ-likeness through in-depth Christ-centered Bible study, comprehensive Biblical theology and expressive, theologically rich music.
We desire that through teaching the Bible, the basics of the Christian faith, and historic, orthodox Christian forms of worship, we will help develop patterns and practices in children and families lives to give the Holy Spirit kindling to ignite the flame of godliness for the glory of God.
Sunday Mornings
Sunday School
The children are using a wonderful curriculum called The Gospel Project, which takes them on a 3-year-cycle journey through the Bible chronologically. The emphasis is placed upon God’s plan of redemption through His Son, Jesus Christ, and how that plan can be seen in every book of the Bible. Classes are available for children ages 3 years old to 6th grade. There is a nursery available for those younger than three.
Children’s Church
Each Sunday, children ages 3 to 6 are dismissed from the main service before the sermon to attend Children's Church, where they are introduced to the core beliefs of the Christian faith in an age-appropriate setting. The curriculum, Big Questions and Answers, seeks to answer questions like "Can anybody tell me what God is like?", "How can we be saved?", and "Why do God's people go to church?"
Sunday Evenings
Younger Kids Choir
The younger kids choir is for children age 3 years old to 6 years old. The teachers aim to teach these precious kids more about who God is through hands-on lessons, activities, and music! They sing in the church several times a year
Older Kids Choir
The older kids choir is for children age 7 years old to 12 years old. This choir is designed to teach the youngsters how to find their way around a hymnal and to become familiar with great texts and tunes of our holy faith. The students memorize a hymn each month, prepare music to sing in worship, and cover basic skills on how to use their unique God-crafted instrument called their voice to glorify God. "I will sing unto the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me." (Psalm 13)
Wednesday Evenings
Preschool Class (Ages 3-5)
The goal of this fun class is to hide God's word in our hearts by memorizing Scripture, teaching Bible songs, & learning stories from the Bible in a visual & "hands on" way. This includes memorizing Ephesians 6 and the 12 disciples, and learning about the life of Jesus.
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade Class
Using the curriculum “Jesus, What a Savior!”, the children study how the Bible proclaims the need of a Savior, and that the free gift of salvation is offered to even them!
3rd-6th Grade Girls
The girls are discipled on how to read their Bible through personal devotions, prayer journal, Scripture memory and how to do them daily and apply to their lives.
3rd-6th Grade Boys
The boys are discipled through the book of Proverbs, learning wisdom. They learn the benefits of wisdom, its applications, and how wisdom relates to salvation.
Ministries
1-on-1 Discipleship
God in His grace has not made us to walk alone in the Christian life. In one-on- one discipling relationships, two Christians of the same sex meet to study Scripture, hold one another accountable, and pray. Within this basic framework, discipling relationships may take a number of different shapes: an elder member may disciple a younger member, a more mature Christian might disciple a younger Christian, or peers in the faith might effectively disciple one another.
The discipling meetings center on discussion and application of a spiritually rich book or Bible passage and are appended by prayer. One-on-one discipling acts as a catalyst to Christian growth, helping us bear one another’s sorrows and joys.
Hospitality
Hospitality in the New Testament seems to be less of a specific activity (e.g. "invite someone to your house for dinner") and more of a mindset of folding strangers into your life. That Biblical idea of hospitality is what undergirds much of the relational fabric at Park Baptist Church. If this congregation becomes your church home, you'll likely discover that much of the ministry here falls into this simple category of hospitality. So what does that look like?
SHARE A MEAL TOGETHER
Admittedly some folks may feel awkward about being the one to invite people over, or out, when you're new. But we’ve tried to build a culture at Park where hospitality is normal. So we hope that members will reach out to newcomers, but we also hope that newcomers will step up and invite longer-term members and other new people over for a meal or out for an activity from the very early days of their time at Park. Living these kinds of open lives together is a big part of how we create and sustain the hospitable culture of a gospel community.
STAY AROUND AFTER SERVICES
One very simple way to express hospitality is to simply stay around after the conclusion of our morning and evening services. We want to encourage you to stay around and talk, to speak to visitors and to people you don’t know, and to make initial connections with others in the church. It's part of how we're building a church that feels like the family of God.
Outpost Ministry
Every Sunday evening at 5:30 pm, a group of college students gathered for missionary training and planning to reach our community. We currently have over 20 student missionaries who are intentionally reaching out to unbelieving high school and college students in the hopes of forming discipleship relationships and offering a bridge to the local church. These student missionaries offer their time, talent, and treasure in service to the world to make disciples who will make disciples.