This Sunday's Worship Materials can be found in the "Featured Sermon" below. We meet in person at Harper Park Middle School, and the service is also livestreamed on our YouTube channel.

Pastor's Thoughts

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Heart Prep for Good Friday and Easter Sunday

This week we're having multiple services for Holy Week. We'll start with a traditional Good Friday afternoon service that will look at "The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross." It will be a shorter service consisting largely of Scripture readings and prayers. It will be followed by a Good Friday evening service, with further meditations on the "Seven Last Words" from ...

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Pastoral Letter for April 1, 2020

Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church April 1, 2020 Dear friends, The above description of God is a good kick-off to our 30 Days of Prayer for the month of April. The PCA Committees and Agencies, as well as pastors and elders of the General Assembly, want to invite you to join them in 30 Days of Prayer for our churches, our nation, and the world. The last few weeks h...

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Heart Prep for Palm Sunday, April 5th

This week we're back in The Gospel of Mark. As it's Palm Sunday, we're skipping over to the text on The Triumphal Entry, Mark 11:1-11. Every year on Palm Sunday, children enter our worship service with palm branches, delightfully waving to the congregation in celebration of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. Obviously, we won't be able to do that in this year of social distanci...

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Pastoral Letter for March 26, 2020

Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church March 26, 2020 Dear friends, The above watercolor hangs in our church office and it's a good reminder of the promises of God during our troubled times. This is the third pastoral letter of the coronavirus pandemic and I hope it finds you both healthy and safe. Well, we're all starting to get settled into the new routine, which,...

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Heart Prep for Sunday, March 29th

Back when we put together the schedule for Mark, this week was supposed to be a communion Sunday. Since Easter is in a few weeks, the plan for this week was to skip forward to the institution of the Lord's Supper in Mark 14. Then next week, we'll be looking at the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, and then the Resurrection on Easter. After that, we'll return to our regularly...

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Heart Prep for Sunday, March 22nd

This week we're continuing our sermon series on The Gospel of Mark. We'll be in a famous text this Sunday, Mark 9:2-13, where we'll see what's commonly known as the Transfiguration. It would be easy to think that this has nothing to do with our world today. Or that it was just another cool miracle, but one that has little meaning for us now, maybe in the future, but not no...

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Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church

Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church March 18, 2020 Dear friends, I hope this finds you well. With the rising concern over the coronavirus pandemic, we thought it would be important to reach out to you with another communication from your church, both with information and encouragement. My intent is to write a pastoral letter on a weekly basis (we'll see how that go...

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Addressing Coronavirus at PHPC

Addressing the Coronavirus Outbreak at PHPC March 12, 2020 Dear friends, I hope this finds you well. With the rising concern over the coronavirus, we thought it would beimportant to reach out to you with communication from your church, both with information and encouragement. This is intended to be a pastoral letter on how we, as Christians, should respond to the Coro...

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Heart Prep for Sunday, March 15th

This week we're continuing our sermon series on The Gospel of Mark. I'm looking forward to being back in the pulpit after having been on sabbatical. We'll be in Mark 8:31 to 9:1 this Sunday and Jesus will tell the disciples that He's going to die and rise again. Peter reacts, well, poorly. And so Jesus goes on to teach them how to face suffering in a godly manner. It shoul...

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Heart Prep for Sunday, March 8th

Well, that was an amazing send-off last Sunday. Kath and I were floored by the wonderful tributes, memories, letters, song, and hugs we received. I had some great church experiences growing up and as a teenager/college student, but I never dreamed that I would work for a church that is as supportive, loving, caring, and all-around wonderful to me and my family as you all h...

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