First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown

Today we worshiped at First Presbyterian Church of Bakerstown, 5825 Heckert Road, Bakerstown, PA 15007, 724.443.1555, www.fpcb.org, Rev. Dan Muttart, Senior Pastor.


Bob’s thoughts:

God has changed our plans to His plans on church visits so often I am no longer amazed by it. We frequently have a day like today, where the orchestration is so overwhelming that we just have to rejoice knowing we are where He wants us to be.

We “got lost” on our way to the church we chose and He led us to Bakerstown. I wasn’t so sure when the organ started with a terrible bass reverbing through the Sanctuary, but it was soon under control.

The church is spread out and could really benefit from signage. We received friendly greetings from many people. We were blessed that it was Scout Sunday and also blessed with an exceptionally harmonious choir. The prelude with the organ and piano was very well done.

On the rear wall of the Chancel is a large cross framed and offset to the right side (and a large screen on the left). The cross has wooden panels behind that look like rays projecting outward.

Some people mentioned that the earlier service is in a contemporary format, but I saw no reference in any printed material to that effect.

I thought the early prayer was well thought out and presented. The sermon was based on Ephesians 4:1-16 and the bulletin included a note-taking/outline sheet. The sermon title, “God’s Vision for Christian Living,” was well chosen and addressed the questions of how we can strive to be what God directs us to be, how the world sees how we live, how we build up the church by using the spiritual gifts we are blessed with. I have been struggling over using a particular spiritual gift and God has bombarded me with encouragement to go and do, so this message was one more red brick to my head to get me to pay attention. (Usually it takes at least three…) We are called to speak the truth of Christ in what we know, say, and what we do.

The message included an interesting anecdote of someone working as a customer service rep that was regularly faced with outrage, and when they placed a mirror behind them and people saw how they looked when they carried on, they became more civil.

I had remembered this minister when he pastored a church where our late son worshiped several times. Dan, our son, had saved the bulletin so I sent the pastor a note when Dan was killed. Knowing how easily Dan made friends and how recently he had worshiped in that congregation, we wanted to inform them of Dan’s death. The pastor remembered my note, just as I remembered his response. We left this morning with the possibility of a future visit with the Stephen Ministers on ministering to people in grief.

Jan’s thoughts:

This morning we intentionally set out for a church in Beaver-Butler Presbytery; however, through a series of circumstances we instead found ourselves at Bakerstown in what I can only believe was a God-ordained error on the part of the navigator (me, of course – the one with NO sense of direction navigates!).

This church has quite a large campus including the Administration office (I think it is) housed in a separate building.

The people were very friendly: many stopped to introduce themselves, asking where we were from and if we were new to the area, as well as providing directions to the restrooms. We were early and took the opportunity to tour the building. I know Bob wasn’t lost, but I sure could have used some directional signage. (It doesn’t take much for me to become disoriented, but I felt vindicated when a long-time member acknowledged without prompting that the arrangement was confusing.)

I’ve often addressed the bulletin layout, but it’s an interesting situation when the church has an early (8:45 a.m.) contemporary service as well as a traditional service at 11:00 and the question becomes, “How do you do a single bulletin covering both services?” Bakerstown has addressed the issue very sensibly, I think. Many churches with a contemporary service feel an Order of Worship is superfluous and choose to forego one altogether. Often this is fine but it can be confusing to a visitor, especially if they are not used to contemporary worship. Bakerstown solved the issue by publishing a regular bulletin for the traditional service and using half of one of the insert pages for the order for the contemporary service. This was ideal for the traditional service, as I could fold the one outside sheet in half and stuff everything else inside to read later, and had we attended the contemporary service I would have simply used the single sheet. Either way it’s perfect.

The Sanctuary was large with a huge Chancel – enough room for a grand piano (I’m pretty sure), drums, a large choir, an organ, as well as the lectern and pulpit. On the rear wall of the Chancel hung a striking piece of woodwork laid out in rays behind a gold-colored cross with lighting that set it off magnificently. In general the aesthetics were quite pleasing, and the padded pews were comfortable.

In the pew rack I found a large laminated card called “Children at Worship.” I only had time to skim it but it seemed to contain instructions for parents about the various aspects of including children in a worship service and even involving them in Communion. What a great assistance for parents and a reminder for other adults of the importance of helping the little ones grow up to know Jesus. After all, that’s the oath members take every time a child is baptized. Bakerstown has worked to make it easier for everyone.

I enjoyed the prelude, “Sanctus,” which was performed as a piano/organ duet by two obviously accomplished musicians.

This being Scout Sunday, throughout the service there were many treats in the form of words and participation from the Scouts.

The sermon was entitled “God’s Vision for Christian Living” and was based on Ephesians 4:1-16. The message focused on (from the sermon outline) “striving to transfer who you are in Christ to how you live day-by-day, uniting as the church of Christ so the watching world can see it, building up the church of Christ by actively using our gifts in it, and speaking the truth of Christ by what you know, what you say, and what you do.” That’s what we struggle for, of course, and it takes our whole lives to figure out what that looks like day-by-day.

I enjoyed this church and the friendliness of the people, and we look forward to attending the 8:45 contemporary service at some point.