UCC at Valley Forge - Worship & Celebration

The United Church of Christ at Valley Forge has a strong spirit of celebration that starts with our Sunday worship services. The Sunday worship service includes a time for sharing joys and concerns, children’s sharing time, strong choir and music programs, and other methods to include our full church family in the worship experience. Additional worship and celebration activities include a sunrise Easter morning services at the Milky Way farm, our annual Rally Day picnic and activities, the Strawberry Festival, a picnic at year-end that is typically held offsite, and numerous other events. The links below provide detail regarding our Music of Note program, an assortment of Pastor Thoughts, and text for the sermons.

Welcome from Our Pastor

We welcome you to join us in worship and celebration! I personally feel that worship is an opportunity for all of us to remember that we are loved deeply by God and that Jesus, for us, is the central expression of what love means, personally and for the whole church. In our service you will notice that much of what we do responsively has been written for our time. I enjoy creating Calls to Worship and Shared Prayers for our congregation, the regular weekly flow of worship, and the variations in calls and prayers that are built in weekly. The Children's Sharing Time is a very enjoyable time in worship for me. I like the spontaneity and the statement that children are an important part of our life together in worship. Children depart for Church School right after the Children's Sharing Time. We feel that it is important for families to be together for the first part of worship but that Christian Education needs to address the special development of all of our children, so that our Church School is an important component of our life together, too.

My approach to preaching is that it is not the "final word". I begin each week with Biblical texts and yet make a strong effort to relate the text with the realities and experiences of our daily lives. I make hard copies of my sermons available following worship and they may also be downloaded from our website. For many, my sermons are viewed as the beginning of a "dialogue" that continues, either personally or online, throughout the week. If you are wondering how I chose Bible passages for a particular Sunday, I don't! I enjoy preaching from the Lectionary which is a series of weekly passages produced by ecumenical scholars. Sometimes these passages are as challenging for me as they are for the congregation, but I like the discipline. I attempt to cultivate regular lay participation in worship and value the quality of our music ministry, which includes our Senior Choir, choirs for younger children, as well as Middle and High School youth.

We look forward to seeing you. After visiting, if you have any questions, please contact me. Feel free to also share your impressions of worship at the United Church of Christ at Valley Forge because we value your presence.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Frank Pennington
Senior Pastor