Cherokee Presbyterian Church

08/20/2026

Pastoral Letter

Mark 10:14—Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Jesus valued kids and wanted them included among the people of God. The implication is, we should value children and want them part of the life of the church. This doesn’t mean a local congregation ought to become ‘kid centered’—that would be idolatry. Nonetheless, (Ps. 127:3) little ones and older ones are a blessing from the LORD, and as a church, we have an obligation to love and serve them. That service can take many forms—prayer, meals, babysitting, nursery help, teaching, etc.

In addition, it includes welcoming them on Sundays and at ministry opportunities throughout the week. It entails getting down on their level (if your back and knees will allow) and talking with them. It’s giving them ‘high-fives’ or ‘fist bumps.’ It’s taking the time to listen to them. It’s doing what Paul did with the Thessalonians, (1 Thess. 2:8) sharing not only Christ with them but our lives. Here is a helpful article on various ways to welcome kids into the church.

For parents, coming to church with children is not easy. Sometimes it feels like World War III is about to commence. However, there is no better place for children to be than at church. Regardless of whether they are in the nursery the whole time, or parents are having to sit with them in the training room; still, what is most profitable for their souls is to come. In doing so, parents are teaching their kids the importance of going to church, despite the difficulty of doing it.

Moms and dads may think, “I didn’t get much out of that sermon,” because they were dealing with their children the whole time. So, they conclude, “Maybe next week it would be better for me to stay home.” This perspective, while understandable, is problematic, given that it keeps parents from bringing their kids to church. We’ve got to take our kids to Jesus for them to be blessed by Jesus. That’s what the parents did with their children in Mark 10:14ff. For us, Sunday worship is the best place to take our kids to Christ. The church is called to value its children, but families are also called to value the church, even when it’s hard. For more on this here’s another good article. Pray for our children’s ministries to be blessed by Christ and to grow; that we might serve more little ones and their parents.

With Love and Grace,

—Pastor Clif

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tiny-welcome-kids-church/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/megan-hill-church-good-kids/

In her new picture book, Megan Hill helps us to see why the church is good for kids—and why kids are good for the church.

08/06/2026

Join us this Sunday morning for a new Sunday School series!

07/23/2026

Pastoral Letter

The Blessing of Singing the Psalms

Like many children, when my kids were little, they used to love to sing in the bathtub. They would sing their Veggie Tale favorites, “The Hairbrush Song” or “The Belly Button Song.” But some of my most precious memories were when they would sing Ps. 117 “From all that dwell below the skies, O let Jehovah’s praise arise! Alleluia! Alleluia!”

Or Ps. 121, “I to the hills will lift my eye, from whence shall come my aide? My safety cometh from the LORD who heaven and earth has made.” This was a Psalm, I wanted them to remember, especially when in trouble, or lying on their deathbeds. The God who made the world would help and keep them always.

Over the last few years, we have sought to recapture Psalm singing to reinforce truths like this. Col. 3:16 makes it clear that we are to sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” in our worship services. And while there is some debate about whether all three musical designations are just different types of psalms, what is clear is that we are to be singing songs from the book of Psalms in public worship. That does not mean we are to exclusively sing the Psalms. The Jews didn’t in the prophet Habakkuk’s day. Habakkuk 3:17-19 is a song outside the Psalter that was meant to be sung in worship. And Paul’s letters have numerous early Christological hymns and creedal songs—Ph. 2:5-11, Col. 1:5-20. Furthermore, there are tons of songs sung in the books of Luke (1:46-55, 1:68-75, 2:14, 2:29-32) and Revelation (4:8-11, 5:9-14, 7:10-12, 11:15-18, 15:3-4, 19:1-8), where God’s people are encouraged to join in praising the Lord.

The point is, especially over the last 50-100 years, the singing of Psalms has been neglected in Evangelical and even Reformed Worship. We want to encourage this practice for the glory of God and the good of the church. As a result, we have been trying to sing one Psalm per service, or a version of one from the Trinity hymnal. Starting this Sunday, you will notice the pew racks reorganized a little to include blue Psalters entitled, The Book of Psalms For Worship. Moving forward, many of our psalm selections will come from this book. We were able to purchase these Psalters thanks to a large grant from one of the churches in our Presbytery (Midway Presbyterian), who paid for half the cost.

The singing of psalms will bless our souls because it will entrench the truths found in the Psalms into our minds, and it will comfort our hearts as we declare, “The LORD’s my Shepherd, leading me; I will not be in need. He’ll make me lie in pastures green; By quiet waters lead. What love and goodness all my life will follow after me; And in the LORD’s house evermore my dwelling place will be.” (Selection Ps. 23A)

—Pastor Clif

03/20/2026

Please plan to join us for worship this Easter!
Good Friday Service 4/3/26 at 6PM
Easter Sunday 4/5/26
Morning Worship at 10:30am, Evening at 5:30pm

02/26/2026

Join us as we celebrate our risen King!

01/30/2026

Pastoral Letter- Counting Our Blessings

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in an evening sermon about counting our blessings. The Lord has been good to us in many ways. Surely, we can’t number them all. However, it is a good thing to name some of the blessings we have kindly received from God. We have been blessed with family members and friends and jobs and provision. And our chief blessings are found in Christ through his life, death, resurrection, and intercession (Eph. 1:3-14). The Lord is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17)—the greatest being Jesus our Savior.

As it pertains to our church, in 2025, we experienced many blessings. CPC continued to grow. We saw conversions and a baptism by profession of faith. We had numerous children born into our visible church, along with covenant baptisms. We started a fuller Wednesday night ministry with a meal for fellowship, instruction for kids and youth, and we continued our weekly prayer meeting. We made our way through almost 40 sections of the Gospel of Luke in the morning service, along with a brief Old Testament series in the summer and an advent series during Christmas.

In the evening service, we heard sermons through 1 Samuel and started 2 Samuel. Our Sunday School activities included lots of teaching for our children, and instruction for our youth and adults on the book of Exodus, the Westminster Confession, Martin Luther, and the Nicene Creed. Our small groups and men’s and women’s studies met for fellowship, time in the Word, prayer, and instruction in theology. Our corporate witness was blessed through the ministry at the Phoenix Senior Living. Our individual witness saw many visitors to the church. CPC had several folks join the church in 2025. Our congregation is expanding downwardly in the Word, inwardly in love and service for each other, outwardly in evangelism, and upwardly in worship and communion with God. May we excel even more in these areas as we continue in 2026.

In addition, we were also blessed through our giving. Our tithes and offerings substantially exceeded our expenditure, leaving us with a large excess for the year. The session dispersed some of that to our existing missionaries that you see on the back of your bulletin, and we gave to other works as well. The reminder will be placed in the building fund.

Another area of blessing has been with our intern Trey Weaver and his family. Trey continues to work hard at seminary and with his presbytery responsibilities moving towards ordination. Lord willing, we will have a congregational meeting this Sunday for the purpose of electing the session to be the search committee, which in the weeks ahead will recommend that the congregation elect Trey to be an associate pastor at CPC. God has blessed us in many ways. Naming some of them one by one gives us perspective on the goodness of God. Counting these blessings makes us thankful and spurs us on in love and good deeds. Considering God’s blessings in Christ and in providence encourages us to keep growing in unity, maturity, ministry, and purity, all with our eyes on Christ.

—Pastor Clif

01/24/2026

Schedule Change- Sunday, January 25th

Due to declining weather conditions, the Session has decided to cancel all services at CPC tomorrow, January 25th. Please stay safe in your home. In lieu of our usual in-person worship services, here is a list of churches, with their livestream links, that you can watch online for morning & evening services.

~Christ Church- Charleston SC
(Morning Service 10:30am, Evening Service 5:30pm)
Access livestream via any of their media platforms. Click link below.
https://www.youtube.com/

~Westminster Presbyterian Church- Jacksonville FL
(Morning Worship 10:30am, Evening 5:30pm)
Access livestream via the link below.
https://www.youtube.com//streams

~Westminster Presbyterian Church- Fort Walton FL
(Morning Worship 10:15am, Evening 5:30pm)
Access livestream via the link below.
https://www.wpc-pca.com/live-webcast

~First Presbyterian Church (Jackson, MS)
(Morning Worship 11am, Evening 6:00pm -ALL CENTRAL TIME)
Access the livestream via the link below.
https://fpcjackson.org/livestream/

~Second Presbyterian Church (Pre-recorded the Service)
https://spcgreenville.org/weather/

Updated 1/23/2006 11:45 PM Due to the forecasted winter storm, all services and activities for Sunday, January 25 are cancelled. Thanks to our pastors, choir members, and many church members staying late this past Wednesday evening, the morning worship service has been pre-recorded and will be broad...

12/22/2025

Our annual Christmas Eve service is Wednesday at 5:30pm. Join us for a service of lessons and carols as we celebrate the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. All are welcome!