Chartiers Valley United Presbyteran Church

Today we worshiped at Chartiers Valley United Presbyterian Church, 320 Washington Pike, Scott Township, PA 15106.


Bob’s thoughts:

The Sanctuary is small with a lot of dark wood which made it seem smaller, but the church had a very “family” feel. The marbled glass windows and prominent cross tied it all together for me.

Before leaving the house some Sundays I get a sense of God’s message for me, and this morning I felt compelled to change my T-shirt to one reflecting a message speaking of Christ’s “coming to save all of mankind but that He would have come just for you.” That was the message of today’s sermon – the very personal basis of Christ’s atoning death for us. It was good to hear a sermon that challenged me to think about my personal relationship with Christ.

I must admit that I welcomed the opportunity to help attend to my grandchildren outside as the Sanctuary was very warm. Bill makes Communion personal, and I missed not partaking. I was pleased to see that the offering was taken in response to the Word. I was also very impressed with the bulletin.

There was not a need for a lot of signage, and what was there was adequate. The passing of the Peace of Christ was the longest and friendliest I’ve ever experienced. The choir came down out of the loft and everyone said hello.

Bill and I agree on almost everything theologically, and it’s always refreshing to hear him preach.

Jan’s thoughts:

With some family in from out of state, we visited this church to see our friends, Jean & Bill Roemer. Bill is now serving as pastor to this congregation in the wake of the sudden and tragic accidental death of the previous pastor.

Unfortunately we arrived during the Introit and didn’t have much opportunity to tour the building. The Sanctuary is small and cozy; the wood in the Chancel matches the pews, and if the wood panel accents on the walls don’t match, they’re certainly close enough. A very large wooden cross decorates the back wall of the Chancel along with a wooden dove, which was a unique touch. The choir all faced the congregation on the left (from our point of view).

The bulletin was amazing, the most distinctive I’ve ever seen. The cover was purchased (donated, actually, according to a note in the bulletin) especially for Palm Sunday. The Order of Worship was full of color and clip art, with the major headings (“Palm/Passion Sunday,” the sermon title, and “Concerns of Our Church”) in large purple 3-dimensional letters, secondary headings (“The Church in Preparation,” “The Church in Adoration,” etc.) in brown lettering, and all music in blue. There was almost no white space on the page, with all sorts of background pictures and even a cartoon. It’s truly a work of art, and by the looks of it a labor of love.

The people were quite friendly, and the greeting time during the service extended much longer than usual, probably lasting a good five minutes.

We celebrated the Sacrament of Holy Communion, but with a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old with us, I was the only one of our party present at that point to participate.

Bill’s sermon was, as always, Christ-focused and thought-provoking. The scenario with which I especially identified was how when someone treats us with kindness and generosity in a time of need and how often the recipient of this generosity develops a hostile attitude toward the one who treated them with such kindness. The point was that oftentimes we develop that sort of hostility toward God even when we know and believe in our hearts that in Jesus God has treated us with much more kindness and grace than we ever could deserve. But we’d rather deserve it – we’d prefer to earn our salvation because then we wouldn’t be the helpless, needy, dependent people we are.