Where do I go?  We have a large parking lot, which includes four reserved spaces for handicapped persons near the front door.  Enter the main door under the steeple (the tall tower with the cross on top).  We have friendly greeters to welcome you and direct you and answer any questions you may have.  Our new sanctuary (the big room where we meet to worship) is up the stairs to the right as you enter the front door.  We have chair lifts that go up to the sanctuary and downstairs to our Fellowship Hall for those who have trouble with stairs.  (Unfortunately, we do not have an elevator for those who are wheelchair-bound).  An accessible restroom is on the same level as the sanctuary; additional restrooms are located downstairs near Fellowship Hall.

On some summer mornings when it is hot, we will meet downstairs in our Fellowship Hall (where it is cooler) rather than in the sanctuary (which is not air conditioned).

Be aware that another church also meets in our building on Sunday mornings.  The Westminster Orthodox Presbyterian Church does not have their own church building, so they meet in our historic original sanctuary (the white, wooden frame part of the building).  Their members usually park in the east end of the parking lot (farthest away from Wolf Rd.) and enter through the east building entrance.

What should I wear?  We don’t have a dress code.  Some people dress up for Sunday worship (women wear dresses or skirts or suits, men wear a suit or sport coat), while others dress more casually.  Our sanctuary is not air conditioned, so on warm days during the summer some people wear shorts.  Come as you are… as long as you come!

What do we believe?  We are a Christian church.  But surprisingly enough, it can be difficult to define exactly what a Christian church is (many people try, but there are different definitions upon which not every person will agree!).  Most Christians believe in a God that is called a “Trinity” — one God who has appeared in three “persons”: God the Creator (traditionally called the Father); Jesus Christ our Savior (traditionally called the Son); and the Holy Spirit our Sustainer (sometimes also called the Holy Ghost).

We are a Protestant church — a term used for many different church traditions that broke away from the Roman Catholic church in Europe beginning about 5 centuries ago because they “protested” some of the practices of the Roman Catholic church of that time.  Although we recognize the Roman Catholic Pope as a person of sincere Christian faith, he has no authority over our church or our church members.

In fact, we are a pretty independent bunch of folks.  In the United Church of Christ, we have no Pope or bishops or other authorities that dictate what we must believe or do.  Instead, each congregation is “autonomous.”  That means that each congregation owns its own property, decides who to call as Pastor — and when it is time for that Pastor to go, decides how to worship, how to raise money, and how to spend it.  As a result, congregations in the United Church of Christ can be very different from one another.

We are a non-creedal church.  That means that there is no statement of faith or beliefs or creed that church members must agree to in order to be a member.  We occasionally read various statements of faith in our worship services, but we call them “testimonies” of the faith of the church — they are never used as “tests” of faith.  One of them is our own United Church of Christ Statement of Faith.  More information about the beliefs of the United Church of Christ can be found on the United Church of Christ website.

What do we believe about the Bible?  Some Christians believe the Bible is the literal word of God — dictated from God’s own mouth, without error.  We do not.  We read the Bible in worship and preach from it.  We try to understand the biblical texts in their historical context, but also ask what they might have to say to us today.  We believe the various books of the Bible were written by faithful people, in particular historical situations, and often for particular communities of faith.  We would agree with a statement that many other United Church of Christ churches affirm about the Bible: We take the Bible seriously, but not literally.  Our pastor was a scientist before he became a minister, and he believes the universe was created over a period of billions of years, not six days.  He believes that human beings evolved from simpler forms of life over millions of years.

What matters as much as what we believe is the way we act and what we do.  We are a church that is involved in mission that lives out and proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ to people in need in our world.  You can read our mission statement and some of the ways we live out that mission statement on the “Ministries” page of this website.  We are all ministers of the gospel, and all are welcome to join us in our mission work.

We welcome questions!  We don’t all believe the same thing.  We are all trying to learn more and to grow in our faith — which is not having “all the answers” — it is about learning to trust the God made known in Jesus Christ with our lives.

A lot of people have tough questions — about God, about the Bible, about the nature of our world and ourselves, about the meaning of life.  Sometimes they have been discouraged from asking people in the church about those questions.  We welcome questions!

We believe we are all on a spiritual journey.  Our vision is that we want to be a home for the spiritual journey — for YOUR spiritual journey.  Come visit us, and see if you would like to journey with us.