Chippewa United Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Chippewa United Presbyterian Church, 530 Blackhawk Road, Beaver Falls, PA 15010, http://www.cupchurch.net/.

Jan's thoughts:

Nicely kept outside and inside. The people were some of the friendliest of all the churches we've visited...they even invited us to join a group of them for lunch after the service. (Although we appreciated the invitation, we had other plans and had to decline.)

The sanctuary was interestingly arranged - the praise team sat on the right side of the chancel and on the left was the organ and pulpit and in front of them was seating for the choir. Very efficient, I thought.

The praise team was strong, but the choir was less so.

The pastor used some (I felt) unnecessary visual aids during the sermon.

Some of the type in the bulletin was small and hard to read, and the Friendship Register never did make its way to us. I appreciated the list of church officers in the bulletin, as well as the streamlined announcements page.

When we entered and headed toward the sanctuary prior to the service we noticed the praise team (I think) in a prayer circle. That's always encouraging. We also noticed a sign for a Prayer Room, which I guessed was a quiet room for either private prayer or two (or more) to pray together. This indicated to me a congregation desiring to support each other by leaning on God - an excellent plan, I think.


Bob's thoughts:

The people were very welcoming.

There was one small sign indicating the direction of the restrooms, so we had to ask about their location.

It would be worth a visit to this church just to see the tapestry in the narthex - a real work of art. And it's a great sanctuary with interesting stained glass.

I wondered if the blended service was new - some members of the choir obviously didn't welcome the contemporary music. However, since there was a high bass reverb from the organ that bothered my ears tremendously, it was a relief that it wasn't used that much. The violin was an excellent addition to the praise team, and the flute accompanying the choir was very enjoyable.

The pastor moved from the pulpit to lead guitar for the praise team to singing with the choir and back to the pulpit to preach. I wondered if he could've used a phone booth to change between roles... I thought the visual aids during the sermon were unnecessary and that the sermon lacked passion.

We celebrated Communion, but I thought the elders could've used some rehearsal. It's always so powerful and personal to serve the elements with the verbal statement that "Christ did this for you," and I always wish people would say that, or something similar. The pastor instructed the people to say that, but the elder who served us didn't and it lost something for me.

It's unfortunate there were so many empty seats. It's a great facility, and very accessible. Wonder if maybe it's under-used? We had no opportunity to tour the building, so we're left to guess.