New St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church
Worship Location: Dallas Children’s Theater
5938 Skillman
Dallas, TX. 75231
Administrative Offices:
6116 North Central Expressway, Suite 1060
Dallas, TX. 75206
(214) 438-0120
www.newstpeters.org
Looking for a new church is a difficult and often daunting enterprise. Maybe you have had a bad experience at your last church and are wary of getting burned again. Or perhaps you loved your last church but you had to move and are concerned that you’ll never find one as good.
There are several things to consider when looking for a new church home. First, church is not about you. It doesn’t exist to cater to your every need and just make you feel good all the time. It’s about seeking and worshipping God as a part of a community of believers.
That said, you don’t want to go to just any church. You should look for one where you feel you and your family can serve, grow, learn, help and be helped, hear truth, and experience God and his people. Our family had been searching for a church for a few months when we found New St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church.
We attended a couple of other churches prior to that, but they just weren’t a good fit for us for various reasons. We have now been attending New St. Peter’s for six weeks and are really enjoying it. Let me tell you a little about it.
My wife and I have three young boys under the age of eight, and it is important to us that a church be very family oriented. I’ve never found a church that is more packed with young families than New St. Peters. There are young children and parents all over the auditorium.
And for the most part, the children are quite well-behaved, which is important, since all children over the age of five sit through the entire service with their parents. Kids five and under go to Worship Training class (like Sunday School) shortly before the sermon begins.
It’s neat to be around so many people who are at the same stage in life as you and can relate to the things you are going through. There are some singles and older people at New St. Peter’s, but not a lot. So if you’re single and you want to find a church where you can meet that special someone, this probably isn’t the best place for you. We’ve found the people at the church to be very friendly and welcoming.
There is no unofficial dress code there. You can wear what you want. Some people prefer to dress up and others prefer to go casual or semi-casual. It really does not matter. No one will look down on you if you wear shorts and flip-flops or if you come in a three-piece suit.
The worship service at New St. Peter’s begins at 9:30am and goes until 11:00am. You know it has officially begun when a couple of cute children go on the stage and ring a couple of hand bells. New St. Peter’s is a Presbyterian church, sister church of Park Cities Presbyterian.
It is part of the Presbyterian Church in America and has a certain form and structure to its worship. I have several friends who grew up in liturgical churches such as Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopal or even Presbyterian churches. In many cases, they are now turned off by the liturgy at churches where certain prayers, actions, and sacraments are repeated each week.
They long for something more free and less formal, such as extemporaneous prayers and sermons. I, however, am headed in the opposite direction. I grew up in a very charismatic church and have seen the abuses which occur when worship is based more on emotion than on scripture and proper doctrine. I appreciate the fact that many of the prayers we recite together have also been spoken by past believers for hundreds of years.
I like the fact that though many of them are old, they are still as relevant today as when they were first written, because they were composed out of deep thought, prayer, and the study of God’s Word.
Each service begins with a song, as people make their way to their seats. Then there is a call to prayer where the minister and the congregation take turns reading portions of a scripture. Then there is a prayer and we sing two hymns. Growing up, I never dreamed that I would be fond of singing hymns. At the church I grew up in we did not sing many of them and I was grateful for that.
I later discovered that many of the choruses of our worship songs were take directly from hymns. I never knew that they were only a small part of another song which had many other words to it. At some other churches I later attended, we sang hymns but we usually only sang the first and last verse, or some variation, in an effort to speed up the service or squeeze in more songs or something.
At New St. Peter’s we sing the hymns all the way through as they were meant to be sung. Many of the hymns were composed in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. On the surface, singing all the lines of an old hymn sounds dreadfully boring to me. But I find that I really enjoy it and find it very meaningful. The words and the music (played by some wonderful musicians) engages both my heart and my mind.
There is deep theology and powerful sentiment in these old songs. I have nothing against contemporary worship music in general. I like some of it a great deal and enjoy singing it in worship, but I’m glad that these meaningful hymns of the faith that have stood the test of time are being rediscovered and brought back into churches that gave them up a long time ago.
After the hymns, the congregation recites together the confession of sin and plea for pardon. Together we acknowledge how we have done wrong and where we have failed to do what is good and right. Then there is a time of silence when everyone individually recalls their specific sins. After that, we all read the assurance of pardon when we recall what Christ has done for us on the cross and remember his promise of forgiveness.
Following the confession of sin, there is a reading from the Old Testament. Right now we are going through the book of Leviticus. It seems strange that we read some of these passages and rarely offer any explanation of them. This is the part of the worship service that seems the most formulaic and unmeaning to me. As I said, I don’t come from a Presbyterian or liturgical background so I would like to find out more about the reason for this part of the service.
The four and five year old children are dismissed at this point to go to their worship training class. Then we have the sharing of the peace of Christ. The minister says, “May the peace of Christ be with you,” and the congregation responds, “And also with you.” This signals the time for everyone to greet those around them and say hello to friends. It’s a good time to reconnect and meet new people. I’m naturally somewhat shy and introverted, so this isn’t easy for me but I find it rewarding to step out and get to know others in this way.
Following the sharing of peace we read the doxology together. A doxology is a recognition of God’s glory and awesomeness. In it we express our awe at the majesty and mystery of who God is and what He has done. Sometimes following this there will be an infant baptism. This may be a problem for some people who come from a Baptist background or some other tradition which does not believe in infant baptism.
For Presbyterians, (as I understand it, anyway) infant baptism does not mean that the child has become a Christian necessarily. But it is a sign that they are part of a covenant family of believers. And when they come to understand and embrace Christ they may look back to their baptism as a means of God’s grace in their lives.
Next we sing another song. Then everyone stands while the pastor reads the text from which he will preach. After that he delivers his sermon. Rich Lambert is the head pastor at New St. Peter’s and is a fine preacher. You can tell that he has put a lot of thought and preparation into his sermons and that he deeply cares about what he is saying, as well as about God and his people.
Colin Peters and Aaron Morris are the associate pastors and they are also very sincere, thoughtful, and well-spoken. As a Presbyterian church, the theology of the church is of course Calvinist and is perhaps best laid out in the Westminster Confession. This is a theology which I hold too, but I understand that not everyone does and that it may cause discomfort for some people to hear about things like election and predestination.
But as far as I can tell, the church simply believes and teaches its doctrine without trying to bash you over the head with it. We recognize that the church is made up of all kinds of different people and our primary goal is to love one another and to glorify God together. That doesn’t mean that the truth gets watered down at St. Peter’s (quite the contrary) but there is also a spirit of grace and love that accompanies it because New St. Peter’s recognizes that the church is full of flawed, wounded, sinful people who need grace.
Following the sermon we give our offerings and alms. Offerings are the gifts which we give to the Lord for the work of the church, and alms are given to the needy such as ministries or families and individuals who really need help. Last Sunday the alms went to a Presbyterian church in Denton which is going through severe financial difficulties. The offerings and almsgiving are seen as an act of worship, and are given while we sing.
Instead of passing an offering plate around, we get up and go down to the offering box or to the deacons holding the bowl for the alms and give our gift.
This is not to show off how generous we are but to exemplify that we are actively worshipping God and not just passively sitting in our seats receiving.
Finally we sing a couple more hymns and then read the parting liturgy and receive the benediction (words of blessing) from the pastor. Then everyone is dismissed to leave and pick up their children, if need be.
At least once a month we celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Table (Communion or Eucharist). At many churches I’ve been to, the sacrament of communion has felt next to meaningless. At St. Peter’s, it is the most meaningful experience of this sacrament I’ve ever had.
It is not just some ceremony when we vaguely remember what Christ did for us on the cross, try to feel bad for our sins, and then pass around some crackers and grape juice. There is a definite feeling of sinners being called to receive the love and forgiveness of Christ and to experience Him together as his body. There are three tables set up in front, and we all go forward to receive the body and blood of Christ.
The minister explains how this sacrament is for us and for our forgiveness. He prays a blessing over each child, which always touches me. Like many parts of the service, it is something which needs to be experienced more than described to get a real picture of it.
In order to allow people to get to know each other better, connect more deeply, and grow together in the Lord, New St. Peter’s has several home groups who meet together who meet at different times. Some groups meet once a month. Others meet more often.
Some meet to share a meal together, while others get together for a Bible study. You can find out more about these groups at www.newstpeters.org or by calling (214) 438-0120. The church also has a School of Life and Doctrine available during the academic school year. It offers classes dealing with theology and practical ministry for all ages.
There is also a Reformed Youth Fellowship which focuses on teenagers and has gatherings in order to disciple these young men and women and to spend time with them. You can also find out more about the School of Life and Doctrine and the Reformed Youth Fellowship at the website or phone number listed above.
New St. Peter’s is currently meeting in the main theater at the Dallas Children’s Theater on Skillman. It is hoping to one day get its own property east of the I-75 corridor, but that may be a long way down the road. Meeting in the Dallas Children’s Theater can be a little distracting sometimes.
For instance, right now there are several props from one of the children’s plays right behind where the pastor speaks. Still, the distraction is not overwhelming and my wife and I have enjoyed our time at New St. Peter’s very much.
One of the most interesting things about the church is its name and logo. New St. Peters seems to suggest that there was an Old St. Peter’s church. There wasn’t. The logo of the church features a rooster clutching on to a cross. The rooster represents the apostle Peter and how he denied Christ.
That is the old St. Peter. But as he turns back to Christ, clutches on to the cross and receives forgiveness, he is transformed into the new St. Peter. It is a good symbol of how we have all sinned and betrayed Christ but can still become new creatures through his forgiveness and work on the cross.
If you’re currently looking for a church in the Dallas area and any of this sounds appealing to you I would encourage you to stop by New St. Peter’s and check things out for yourself.
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