At 247 South Market Street in Elizabethtown, Christ Church United Church of Christ is known for a worship life that is both rooted and expansive. The congregation dates to 1743, follows a relaxed Reformed worship tradition, welcomes people through an Open and Affirming covenant, and has put fresh energy into making its multigenerational ministries and building more accessible. Around that identity are choral music, faith formation for children and adults, meals for people in need, a creation-justice emphasis, and the Wittel Farm growing project. This is a church whose welcome is expressed both at the table and through work in the community.
A First Sunday at 247 South Market Street
Sunday worship begins at 9:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Faith Formation classes for all ages meet at 9:00, and Cookie Time is held at 10:00 between services. The church recommends arriving about ten minutes early, giving a first-time guest time to complete a connection card, pick up a bulletin, and meet new people. The same worship is available through live or recorded worship on YouTube, allowing participation from home as well as in the sanctuary.
Parking is available on both sides and behind the church, with handicapped spaces conveniently located near the building. A portico provides a sheltered place for rainy-day drop-offs and access to a ramp leading to an entry door. Dress is deliberately relaxed: the church says to “come as you are,” with some people choosing more formal clothing and others wearing comfortable attire. Members and visitors come from varied occupations, life experiences, and faith backgrounds, united by love for God and neighbor, enjoyment of shared life, and service to others.
Worship loosely follows the Reformed tradition in a relaxed liturgy of hymns, prayers, and a sermon, with choirs, special music, and a children's time. Traditional hymns are commonly accompanied by organ or piano, while contemporary musical offerings appear from time to time. The adult choir often enriches worship, and handbell and children's choirs also perform. The result is a service that values tradition without feeling rigid and leaves room for both formal elements and the participation of children.
From the Blaser Tract to the 1909 Sanctuary
Church history begins in 1743, when supporters of a new congregation received an acre of land now known as the Blaser Tract, about half a mile from South Market Street. The unusual arrangement required the church to give one grain of wheat every September 1 to retain the use of the property. A church building was constructed on the tract, where the congregation preached and taught the gospel for generations. Ruins of that building and old gravestones remain on the property. The annual grain payment eventually ended, but the tract remains connected to the church's origins.
The original building was abandoned in 1815 when additional land became available and a new sanctuary was erected on what is now part of the South Market Street property. The sanctuary still in use was built in 1909 and has been remodeled twice. An educational wing followed in 1957, the same year the United Church of Christ came into being. These layers give the church's South Market Street home a history that stretches from a wheat-rented tract to a sanctuary, classrooms, music rooms, and gathering spaces serving a present-day congregation.
Christ Church summarizes its perspective with the words, “Our faith is more than 2,000 years old, our thinking is not.” Its history is therefore not treated as a return to an unchanged past. The same thread of Christian witness that supported the early congregation continues through worship, teaching, hospitality, service, and a concern for creation and justice. What began as a small community with a modest tract has developed into a multigenerational church with two Sunday services, dedicated music leadership, adult conversations, youth groups, and an extensive network of local ministry.
Communion, Baptism, and the Welcome Table
Communion is one of the clearest expressions of the church's hospitality. Christ Church holds that people of faith are all invited to join Christ at Christ's table. The bread and wine carry familiar Christian imagery of many grains becoming one loaf and many grapes becoming one cup, while the shared meal also recalls Christ's sacrifice and the community of those who have gone before. The meal is not reserved for a narrow group. It is offered as a sign of unity in difference, and Christ Church describes love as its greatest unifying value.
Baptism also carries a strong emphasis on community responsibility. The church baptizes during worship when the community is present, understanding baptism to include a shared promise of love, support, and care for the person being baptized. That promise is not limited to an easier or more familiar season of life. It is intended to remain with the baptized person “no matter where your journey leads you,” including the realities of race, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, class, and creed.
This table-centered theology shapes the church's wider welcome. People are encouraged not only to attend but to participate fully in its life, leadership, ministry, and mission. The congregation describes itself as seeking to become a safe, nurturing community of faith and “a home to visit and share.” That language is reflected in the relaxed worship setting, the range of programs for children and adults, and the physical effort to make more of the building accessible to more of its people.
A Faith Rooted in Love, Justice, and Possibility
Christ Church affirms the triune God: Creator, resurrected Christ, the sole Head of the church, and Holy Spirit, who guides God's creative and redemptive work in the world. It holds that every person is unique and valuable and that everyone belongs in a family of faith where they can feel loved and valued. It also recognizes that people are at different stages on their spiritual journeys. The persistent search for God is understood as producing an authentic relationship with God that brings love, strengthens faith, dissolves guilt, and gives life purpose and direction.
The congregation's United Church of Christ identity shapes both its unity and its freedom. Christ Church states that the UCC has no rigid doctrinal formulation or attachment to a single creed, with love serving as its overarching creed. Its motto, “In essentials, unity, in nonessentials, diversity, in all things, charity,” expresses a conviction that different experiences can share one community without requiring sameness. At the same time, the church believes it is called to serve others, steward the earth's resources, speak truth to power, liberate the oppressed, care for the poor, comfort the afflicted, and pursue nonviolent solutions to local, national, and international problems.
Those convictions are joined by a strong Creation Justice Covenant. The church understands a common connection among God, each other, all creation, and the world in which people live, work, and play. It believes individuals and congregations have a responsibility not only to care for creation but also to help heal and restore it. The covenant gives particular attention to the way environmental exploitation, degradation, and global climate change disproportionately affect historically marginalized communities, especially people of color.
Faith is thus understood as something that must be practiced. To believe is to care, and to care is to do. The church connects worship with the condition of the world, the treatment of people who experience injustice, and the daily work of building relationships marked by hospitality, peace, and mutual care. Its theology leaves room for exploration, with an emphasis on possibility and the conviction that God is still speaking.
Faith Formation Across the Generations
Faith Formation, the church's name for Sunday school, begins at 9:00 a.m. and welcomes people from preschool through adulthood. Preschoolers have space to explore, make friends, and learn about God's love. Children in grades K through 5 use the Spark curriculum, which follows the lectionary and divides the groups by grade, with classes for K through 2 and 3 through 5. Adults meet downstairs for conversation and prayer, while the church's 10:30 worship remains centered on Scripture, song, and the life of the congregation.
Children are always welcome in the sanctuary. Children's bulletins and crayons are available from the front, and children are invited to come forward for a Children's Moment, a short story or lesson connected with the morning's lectionary. This approach treats children as participants in worship rather than as an audience separate from it. The children's choirs and youth music leadership further extend that sense of belonging across generations, while the adults in the congregation continue to make room for younger voices in the life of the church.
Youth groups divide into a 6-7-8 group for middle-school students and a high-school group that explores faith through topics related to contemporary Christian life. The 6-7-8 group has its own space on the upper level, where teachers focus on middle-school concerns. High-school students gather on the lower level. Across both groups, social and faith-based events, trips, and community outreach are part of the rhythm, giving young people opportunities to build friendships, ask questions, and put their faith into action through service.
Adult Faith Formation offers a similar mix of support, reflection, and conversation. One class is organized around the acronym SHARE: See and Be Seen, Hear and Be Heard, Accept and Acknowledge without judgment, Renew Your Relationships, and Empathize and Energize for the week ahead. Another uses current events and popular culture as the backdrop for discussion. It meets downstairs at 9:00 a.m. Sunday, while the Contemporary Christian Conversation meets online on Monday evenings at 8:00 p.m. These gatherings show a church treating formation not simply as information transfer but as a place for honest stories, questions, prayer, and renewed relationships.
Open and Affirming at the Table and Beyond
Christ Church is an Open and Affirming church, and its welcome is expressed in unusually concrete terms. It embraces and affirms people who are widowed, single, married, separated, partnered, young, or young at heart. It welcomes people of every ethnicity or race, culture, family configuration, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. Economic circumstances, life experiences, physical abilities, and cognitive or emotional abilities do not define a person's place in the community. Everyone is invited to participate fully in the life, leadership, ministry, and mission of the church.
The congregation summarizes its stance with the words, “No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.” Open and Affirming is understood as the practice of radical love shown by Jesus. It is not a statement detached from community life. It shapes who may gather at the table, who may lead, who may teach, and how the church responds to people whose experiences have been excluded or diminished elsewhere. The result is a theology of welcome joined to a practical desire to create a safe, nurturing place where people can be seen and supported.
The Social Justice Team helps extend that welcome into the congregation's public engagement. Formed in 2020, the team concentrates on education and tools for advocacy, addressing discrimination, fear, misinformation, and injustice. It meets to learn, listen, and share information about current issues, provides readings and educational opportunities, and encourages informed action. The team meets online on the third Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Its work complements the church's Creation Justice Covenant by connecting care for creation with care for communities disproportionately affected by environmental harm and social oppression.
Making the Whole Building Accessible
Accessibility is one of the clearest ways the church connects its Open and Affirming identity with its building. A portico offers covered drop-off space, a ramp leads to an entry door, and accessible parking spaces are close to the building. These features help people enter more easily, while the church's long-range accessibility plan identifies an elevator connecting all levels and accessible, family-friendly restrooms as central goals. The physical work is understood as part of the mission to prevent exclusion and keep the faith community whole.
The effort to make that vision possible began with seed funding in 2013, when two church leaders recognized how difficult it was for some people to reach parts of the building. A later sizeable seed gift continued that work. The church's approach links physical access with its wider theology: if every person is created in God's image and every person is welcome in the full life of the church, the building itself must make room. Accessibility is thus not a peripheral add-on but an expression of hospitality pursued through planning, fundraising, and shared conviction.
Meals for Others and a Community Cupboard
One of the church's most concrete mission projects is “Meals for Others” at First Reformed, United Church of Christ, in Lancaster city. Members of the Outreach Committee prepare meals that are served to people in need on a Tuesday four times a year. Volunteers help with food preparation and service, and baking brownies for the meal is another familiar way to participate. The work connects the congregation's Sunday table with a community meal in which preparation, service, and fellowship are all part of the offering.
The Elizabethtown Community Cupboard is another focus of the Outreach Committee. The congregation has collected needed items and monetary donations for the cupboard and has exceeded its fundraising goals in doing so. A Mental Health Ministry also stands alongside these community-oriented efforts. Together, these ministries reflect a consistent pattern of moving from concern for people to practical support, whether that means food, education, advocacy, or another form of care tailored to local needs.
Compost, Crops, and Care for the Earth
Wittel Farm gives the church's Creation Justice Covenant a visible form in Elizabethtown. The Green Team collects organic material from homes and yards, including vegetable scraps, fruit rinds, coffee grounds, and eggshells. Members transport the material to the farm in five-gallon plastic buckets. Over several years, the congregation has collected an estimated 2,500 pounds of material for composting. Volunteers also work at the farm and bring what is grown to the Elizabethtown Farmers Market.
At the farm, organic waste is placed in piles with brown materials such as tree leaves. Microorganisms digest the mixture over several weeks, turning it into compost. That compost is then blended with soil to fertilize food crops. The process is small but tangible: discarded material is redirected from landfills, soil is enriched, and food is grown in the community. The harvested crops are donated to help individuals and families in need through the church's partnership with Hunger-Free Lancaster County.
The Green Team also explains why composting matters beyond the farm. Compost is a natural fertilizer that attracts earthworms, improves soil, controls some soil-borne diseases and pests, and promotes drainage in clay soil. It also keeps methane-generating organic material out of landfills, where methane is a potent greenhouse gas. The team asks residents not to include fats, oils, whole eggs, dairy products, bones, meat, fish, or poultry because those materials do not compost.
At the Elizabethtown Farmers Market, the Green Team offers free vegetables from the Wittel Farm project along with mint tea. The market takes place every other Wednesday on the town square from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. For many people, that table of produce is the most visible connection between the church's care for creation and its care for hungry neighbors. Food grown from composted local material becomes a gift of fresh produce rather than an abstract environmental exercise.
LiFT, Scouts, and Shared Tables
Community life at Christ Church is carried by many small and durable forms of fellowship. LiFT, which stands for Ladies in Fellowship Together, is a group of women who plan gatherings for women in the church, while friends are always welcome to join. Its activities have included making holiday candy for outreach, picking wildflowers, going to a movie or out to eat, and sharing a Christmas tea. The group offers both service and recreation, making room for friendship across the congregation's age groups.
The Social Committee plans events for people of all ages. Its work has included congregational picnics, potlucks, seasonal gatherings, trips, and the Threads and Treads fundraiser. Boy Scouts Troop 117 also meets at the church on Monday evenings, making room for young people and families to connect with scouting. These activities reveal a church whose service is not limited to formal programs; it also includes the repeated work of sharing meals, raising money, planning gatherings, and making space for different kinds of participation.
Clergy, Choir Directors, and Musical Ministry
Rev. Dr. Galen Russell III serves as lead pastor, and Rev. Lisa Clark serves as associate pastor. Their pastoral work is accompanied by a substantial music ministry led by Justin M., organist; Conner U., director of music and the Chancel Choir; Ruthann R., director of the Carillon Choir; Ali S., director of youth choirs; and Jan S., director of CollectiveSpirit. Together these roles support the church's emphasis on music as a way to deepen understanding of Scripture and enrich congregational worship.
That musical ministry includes the adult choir, handbell musicians, children's choirs, youth choirs, the Chancel Choir, the Carillon Choir, and CollectiveSpirit. Traditional organ and piano accompaniment sits alongside choirs, special music, and occasional contemporary offerings. The variety allows services to retain the feel of a relaxed Reformed worship tradition while drawing on the abilities of people across the congregation. Music is both part of the service and a form of shared formation for those who sing, rehearse, direct, listen, and participate from the pews.
Rooted in Elizabethtown and Welcoming at the Table
What holds Christ Church together is a connection between deep roots and wide welcome. The congregation carries a history beginning in 1743 into a worship tradition grounded in Scripture, prayer, Communion, and song. It makes room for children, teenagers, adults, and seniors through Faith Formation; for varied musical gifts through several choirs; and for questions and uncertainty through honest adult conversation. Its Open and Affirming covenant, accessibility work, meal service, social justice education, and creation-care projects extend that welcome beyond the sanctuary.
At 247 South Market Street in Elizabethtown, Christ Church United Church of Christ continues a story begun in 1743, joining Sunday worship at 9:00 and 10:30 a.m. with Faith Formation for every age. The open table, accessible sanctuary, working soil, and shared tables all reflect one church's way of making faith present in everyday life.