St. Peter's United Church of Christ

06/07/2026

Happy Sunday, everyone! Worship begins at 10 AM CDT at St. Peter's in Ferguson, and we would love for you to join us either in person or via our live stream link below!

Today, we begin a 4-week sermon series based on the story of Abraham and Sarah and the journey of faith they take as a family. The series is entitled, "Leaving Home, Finding God:
A Journey Through Faith, Doubt, and Unexpected Grace."

The series begins this morning with the call of Abram as told in Genesis 12:1-9. Pastor Chandler's sermon title is "The God Who Calls You Out."

What happens when life calls you to leave behind everything familiar — not because things have fallen apart, but because something new is being born? When God speaks two words to Abram — L**h L**ha, "Go for yourself" — there is no map, no destination named, no guarantee of arrival. Only a relationship and a direction.

But this is no simple hero's journey. We will ask the harder questions: Who travels with us when we answer a call? Whose lives are disrupted by our departures? And what do we owe the people already living in the land we call promised?

If you have ever stood at a threshold — spiritual, relational, or vocational — wondering whether to step through, this series is for you. Join us as we rediscover a faith not as a destination, but as a courageous, ongoing departure.

Join us today at St. Peter's beginning at 10 AM CDT.

Thank you for joining us this morning for worship. St. Peter's UC...

06/02/2026

This applies to the entire staff of St. Peter’s! A happy and blessed Pride Month to our LGBTQIA+ siblings!!’

05/31/2026

Happy Sunday morning to our St. Peter's family and friends! Worship begins at 10 AM CDT, and we would love for you to join us! Today, we start at the very beginning of our faith story, Genesis 1:1-2:4a, the first of two creation stories found in Genesis. Pastor Chandler's sermon today, based on that text, is titled "Let There Be," inspired by the Divine's very words that brought forth all there is.

What if the words you speak every day are more powerful than you realize? This Sunday, we'll explore one of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture — Genesis 1 — and discover that it's far stranger and more radical than we've been led to believe.

Genesis 1 isn't a science textbook or a history report. It's - in the words of the late Walter Brueggeman - a liturgy of defiance, written by exiles who dared to sing a different story from the one the world around them was telling. And at the heart of that story is a God who creates not through violence or struggle, but through blessing — who looks at what exists and calls it good.

If we are made in the image of that God, then our words carry that same creative weight. What are we calling into being with the things we say to our children, our neighbors, our enemies?

Join us this morning as we ask together: what would it look like to speak the way God speaks — with blessing, with abundance, and with the stubborn insistence that goodness is the foundation of all things?

Worship begins at 10 AM CDT in person or via the livestream!

Thank you for joining us this morning for worship. St. Peter's UCC does not own the rights to the videos shown in worship.CCLI Streaming License: 20646201 ...

05/26/2026

Dear Church family ...

Dear Friends,

It has just been brought to my attention that quite a few of you are receiving text messages from someone purporting to be me asking you to "urgently" get in touch with me because I need a favor. Apparently, it is a request for gift cards. This is a phishing scam. Please do not reply or send any gift cards!

It is obvious that my phone or something has been hacked.

Here are some clues anyone who knows me well should be able to pick up on:

1) The number sending the text is not my number. I still have the same cell phone number I have had for over 35 years.

2) Anyone who knows me knows well that I would NEVER send out a text asking ANYONE to contact me. I am too introverted.

3) Never in the history of any text message I have ever sent have I ended it with "God bless," nor do I ever refer to myself as "Pastor Patrick Chandler" ... as someone said, "bless your heart" - yes ... "God bless" - NEVER. 😉

So, if you have received a message like this, please report it as SPAM ... My apologies for the inconvenience.

With love,

Patrick

05/25/2026

It’s official!! Pastor Sonya is now and forever Rev. Sonya Vann! Yesterday afternoon, at Kindred UCC, we gathered to celebrate and affirm God’s call on Sonya’s life! What a beautiful day of celebration.

Special thanks to the St. Peter’s family who showed up in support (Fran, Tom, Terry, Amelia, and Jeannie). We are so fortunate to have Sonya’s gifts and witness among us! (Photo credits: Traci Blackmon)

05/24/2026

Happy Pentecost Sunday to our St. Peter's friends and family! It is a special day in the life of the Church, as we celebrate the Festival of Pentecost, the day on which God's Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus' followers gathered together!

Today, Pastor Patrick's sermon is titled, "The Spirit Has No Accent" and is based in Acts 2:1-21.

What does your accent say about you — and about God?

This Pentecost Sunday, we're exploring one of Scripture's most explosive moments: the day the Holy Spirit arrived not as a gentle breeze, but as a violent wind, with tongues of fire resting on everyone in the room. What happened next upended every assumption about who belongs and how God speaks.

The miracle wasn't that everyone suddenly sounded the same. It was that God chose to speak every language at once — honoring the sound of every home, every story, every community gathered in Jerusalem that day.

Two thousand years later, that same Spirit is still speaking. And in a world where language is increasingly used to divide, exclude, and determine who belongs, the church has a Pentecost word to offer.

Join us this Sunday as we ask: What does it look like to be a Pentecost people today — a community where no one is asked to sand down the sound of home before they're welcomed in?

All are invited. All means all.

Worship begins at 10 AM CDT. Join us either in person or via our live stream link.

Thank you for joining us this morning for worship. St. Peter's UCC does not own the rights to the videos shown in worship.CCLI Streaming License: 20646201 ...

05/20/2026

Join Us This Sunday Following Worship for a Welcome Reception and Luncheon for Pastor Sonya

Immediately following worship this Sunday, May 24, 2026, everyone is invited to join us in the Fellowship Hall for a luncheon and reception to welcome Pastor Sonya to St. Peter's!

The meal is being provided by the church! All you need to bring is yourself and your welcoming spirit. We are so excited to have Pastor Sonya among us, and we want to show that excitement and our hospitality, especially this Sunday.

It is a big day both in the life of the church and for Sonya. Sunday is not only the day of Pentecost but also the day of her ordination service, beginning at 3 PM at Kindred UCC.

If you have any questions about the luncheon, please contact Church Council member Chanda Mills.

05/17/2026

Good morning, St. Peter's friends and family. It is a wonderful Sunday, and at 10 AM CDT we will gather for worship to give thanks for the Divine presence around and within us all!

Today, Pastor Chandler wraps up his Easter season series under the theme, "Waking Up to the Possible," with a sermon based on John 17:1-11 entitled, "The Possible 'Us.'"

What does it really mean to belong to one another? This Sunday, we explore one of the most intimate moments in all of Scripture — Jesus, on the eve of his death, not preaching or performing miracles, but praying. And remarkably, he's praying for us.

In John 17, Jesus envisions what we might call the "Possible Us" — a community bound together not by agreement or uniformity, but by the same self-giving love that defines God. It's a vision far more radical than simply getting along. It's the kind of oneness that refuses to leave anyone isolated, that bridges the gap between past and future, insider and outsider.

We live in a world expertly designed to keep us in "I" mode — divided by grief, screens, and certainty. But Jesus dares to imagine something different.

As we wait in the quiet space between Ascension and Pentecost, come and listen to the prayer still being whispered over us. Come discover what becomes possible when we truly belong to one another.

Join us, beginning at 10 AM CDT at St. Peter's United Church of Christ in Ferguson, either in person or via our live stream (link below).

Thank you for joining us this morning for worship. St. Peter's UCC does not own the rights to the videos shown in worship.CCLI Streaming License: 20646201 ...

05/10/2026

Happy Sunday, St. Peter's friends and family! Also, a happy Mother's Day to all those who serve in some kind of mothering role within the community and in the lives of God's people!

Worship begins at 10 AM CDT this morning, and we would love for you to join us, either in person or via our live stream link below!

Pastor Patrick's sermon today is entitled, "The Un-Orphaned Community" and is based on John 14:15-21.

Have you ever felt the heavy silence of a room once guests have gone—that hollow loneliness? This Sunday, we dive into John 14 to explore Jesus’ startling promise: “I will not leave you orphaned”.

While the world measures vitality by spreadsheets and "bigger is better" metrics, we are waking up to a disruptive possibility. Join us as we reflect on the "Paraclete," the Advocate, called alongside us to continue the work of love. Discover how resilience isn't about grit, but about "abiding" in a presence that refuses to put in a thirty-day notice.

We are the "Un-Orphaned Community," defined not by who is missing, but by the Spirit that stayed. Come experience worship that moves beyond "doing for" others to "being alongside" them. There is a room for you in this permanent residence of love.

Again, join us this morning, beginning at 10 AM at St. Peter's UCC in Ferguson!

Thank you for joining us this morning for worship. St. Peter's UCC does not own the rights to the videos shown in worship.CCLI Streaming License: 20646201 ...

05/06/2026

We celebrate Pastor Sonya’s upcoming ordination service on May 24th!!!

Join Sonya Vann in Celebration!

Ordination to Christian Ministry

Pentecost Sunday | May 24, 2026
3:00 PM

Kindred UCC
2200 Bellevue Ave, Maplewood, MO

Preacher: Rev. Traci Blackmon
Presiding: Rev. Monty Jackson

A light reception to follow

This isn’t just my story…
It’s a testimony of what happens when you keep saying YES to God—even when the road is long.
Come celebrate what God has done—and is still doing.