We are a small church in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with a big heart for serving others and loving as Christ taught. We look forward to the direction God is calling our church and our work in our community and beyond. If you don’t have a church home, we invite you to visit us! Sunday school for all ages begins at 9:30am with worship following at 10:30am. We celebrate communion on the first Sunday of every month. You can also worship with us online.
Our Mission
“Follow, Love, Go”
- Follow Jesus (Mark 1:17)
- Love one another (John 13:34)
- Go into the world (Matthew 28:19).
Our Vision
All are welcome. All means all.
Our Statement of LGBTQIA+ Inclusion
At Powell Presbyterian Church, we rejoice in the fact that each and every one of us was wonderfully made in God’s own image, and we celebrate the rich diversity which makes God’s Creation so beautiful. We recognize that the Church has done great harm to the LGBTQ+ community through its exclusive interpretations of scripture regarding salvation and community. We have the highest respect for scripture’s authority and take it very seriously, but we reject interpretations of the Bible which leave any of God’s people outside of the realm of Christian community. We strive to reclaim the radical good news of the gospel through proclaiming God’s unapologetic love for all. We recognize that there is a great distinction between merely tolerating and truly affirming, and we choose to fully embrace all members of the LGBTQ+ community by affirming their value, dignity, and full inclusion into the Church. We are better together, and we celebrate the goodness, the sacredness, and the equality of every individual and every loving relationship.
Our Statement of Anti-Racism
oil painting by Nicole Roggeman
In light of recent world events, most notably the recent murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, which sparked national outrage and ignited protests around the globe, the Session of Powell Presbyterian Church affirms the following:
All human beings are created in God’s image. God created with rich diversity and called every living thing good. Any attempt at racial hierarchy is human-made, not of God, and is contrary to God’s vision of unity.
The Church is called to do the work of Jesus Christ on earth. This includes reconciling every living creature to one another and to God, restoring the unity God initially intended for us to live within, and rejoicing in the rich diversity of Creation. The unjust treatment of Black Indigenous Peoples of Color which occurs every day in our nation and our community make it clear that we have a long way to go in this work. Powell Presbyterian Church is committed to doing the hard work of unmasking hidden racism in our community and in our own lives and taking steps to correct these abuses of God’s vision for unity. We will reject any teaching or creed which justifies racism in any form; we will continuously seek education to reveal racist behavior and beliefs in our church, homes, schools, and places of work; we will take action to correct any racism we uncover in our education and self-exploration; we will stand up for the rights, liberties, and dignity of all siblings in Christ; and we will seek God’s guidance, in prayer and in scripture, on how to bring about peace and unity in our world.
Racism is sin. This obviously includes grandiose acts of racism, as demonstrated by the KKK and other radical hate groups, but it also includes microaggressions and casually treating people differently because of their race. Many times, racism is unintentional, the product of a lifetime of immersion in a racist culture, and it must be unlearned. Powell Presbyterian Church will make it a priority not only to avoid acts of racism, but to actively become anti-racist through education, preaching, intentional practice, and acts of social justice.
The use of scripture to justify racist behavior or beliefs is sin. We recognize that, for centuries, the Bible has been used to justify treating some people as less-than. This is a misuse of God’s Word and is the epitome of taking God’s name in vain. The message of the entirety of scripture is love: God’s unending love for all that God created and our call as human beings to love as God first loved us. Any reading of the Bible which does not yield an understanding of love for all Creation is an abusive reading and must be rejected as such.
As Christians committed to loving as we have been loved, empowered by the worshiping body of Powell Presbyterian Church, we, the Session of Powell Presbyterian, make this promise on this 21st day of June, in the year 2020.