A Sunday Morning on Hope Valley Road
Christ the King Church sits along Hope Valley Road in southern Durham, North Carolina, where it has been gathering neighbors from across the Triangle for worship, study, and service. The congregation is part of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a connection that shapes its leadership and its global mission partnerships. Inside its walls and out in the wider neighborhood, members come from differing ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, financial situations, and life histories. The church describes itself as a family that is "different from one another in many ways, but the same in our love for Christ, His Church and His work in the world."
The motto drawn from the words of Rupert Meldenius sets the tone for everything that happens here: "In Essentials, Unity; in Non-Essentials, Liberty; in All Things - Love." Members describe their life together as a growing community of adults, youth, and children "with a clear and joyful purpose - fulfilling Christ's vision for His people."
Worship, Word, and Welcome
The Sunday worship service begins at 10:15 AM and runs about seventy-five minutes. Visitors can expect a warm welcome from greeters, music that blends contemporary songs with traditional hymns, messages that are biblical and practical, and fellowship that deepens old friendships while making new ones. People tend to dress comfortably but respectfully.
Sunday school classes for children ages two and older meet at 9 AM during the school year. During the morning worship service, the church provides nursery care for children ages three and under, along with activity bags for older children who stay in the service. Every volunteer who works with children submits to a background check and Safe Sanctuary training.
For those who cannot attend in person, the service is livestreamed each Sunday at 10:15 AM, and recordings of recent sermons are kept on the media section for later viewing.
Children and Youth
Christ the King's children's ministry is led by Director of Children's Ministry Jennifer Thomason-Scott, whose family has been part of the church since before she was born. The ministry's aim is to assist parents and families in raising up children in the knowledge of Christ, presenting the Gospel through engaging, age-appropriate, and biblically sound programming. Teachers work to help children build a resilient faith that can withstand the questions they will face later in life, equipping even young children with answers to the doubts the world will demand of their faith.
For the youngest families, Christ the King hosts Pre-K Play Dates on Wednesdays from 9 to 11 AM. Children ages five and under bring their favorite scooters and outside toys, build friendships, and play, while caregivers connect over coffee and water. These free, parent-supervised events have become a popular entry point for new families in the neighborhood.
Middle and high school students meet for Youth Christian Education at 9 AM on Sundays during the school year, then return in the afternoon from 5:30 to 7 PM for the youth group gathering. The student ministry is led by Student Pastor Tyler Maraia, who describes the group's purpose this way: "God created you ON purpose FOR a purpose." Teens are welcomed "no matter what your situation is," and the program includes Bible study, games, fellowship, and time for honest conversation about faith and life.
Small Groups, Men, and Women
The church is intentional about inviting each member to be part of a small group. Leaders describe small groups as families within the church, studying the Bible together, praying for one another, helping one another through hard seasons, having fun together (bowling, camping, movie nights, special events), and growing together in faith. The church sees these gatherings as a continuation of the early Christian communities described in Acts, where believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.
The Men's Ministry hosts two annual retreats for reflection, fellowship, and fun, one in the fall and one in the spring, often held on Lake Gaston. Men also gather for workdays, mowing teams, Summer Faith Adventure recreation, and weekly small group studies, and they have fielded team sports over the seasons.
The Women's Ministry coordinates an annual spring retreat, along with other activities designed to nourish women's spiritual lives and help their friendships grow. Smaller women's groups meet throughout the year for study, prayer, and fellowship.
A separate Care Team stands ready to help members navigate spiritual, emotional, mental, career, family, marital, or financial challenges. The team's approach is rooted in the conviction that "we all need support" and that "I wasn't meant to do this alone." Members complete a confidential survey to begin the conversation, and the team helps connect them with appropriate resources.
The Essentials of Faith
Christ the King affirms what it calls the "Essentials of Faith," beginning with the conviction that all Scripture, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible, divinely inspired, supreme and final authority on all matters on which it speaks.
The church teaches belief in one God, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. True God became true man, united in one Person forever. He died on the cross as a sacrifice for sins, rose bodily on the third day, ascended into heaven, and now serves as High Priest and Mediator at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
The Holy Spirit has come to glorify Christ and apply His saving work to human hearts. He convicts of sin, draws people to the Savior, indwells believers, gives new life, empowers for service, instructs into all truth, and seals believers for the day of redemption.
Salvation is wholly dependent on the work of God's free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone, justifying them in His sight. Only those born of the Holy Spirit and receiving Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
The true Church is composed of all persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, are united together in the body of Christ. The Church finds her visible expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in purity, the sacraments are administered with integrity, scriptural discipline is practiced, and loving fellowship is maintained.
Christ the King looks for the personal, visible, and bodily return of Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history. The church takes seriously the Great Commission, understanding obedience to it as requiring total commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us" and a life of self-denying love and service.
Core Values That Shape Daily Life
Around the essentials, the church holds a set of core values that shape its ministry. Prayer undergirds everything, individual and corporate, as the foundation for anticipating the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Local and global missions flow from the belief that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Members pursue a variety of means of proclaiming the Gospel, both in their own community and to the nations.
An environment of grace characterizes the church's response to one another, recognizing that any good in ministry is the result of God's grace and that the same grace should mark how members treat each other, especially in light of the wonderful diversity they share as the body of Christ.
Christian education and youth ministry aim to bring every member, children, youth, and adults, to spiritual maturity in Jesus Christ.
Effective ministry balances gathering members together to be equipped with sending them out to do the ministry for which they have been equipped.
The discipleship, intimacy, and accountability of small groups receive ongoing attention as a high priority for the congregation's life together.
The importance of the home and family is recognized as one of the key battlegrounds of faith. The church is committed to strengthening the spiritual lives of families and singles as beacons of light for Christ in the community.
Caring generosity and humble, loving servanthood undergird the church family, treating one another with loving care and undertaking ministry with grateful hearts.
Diversity in worship reflects a wide appreciation of music and Christian history, including psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, as well as the unity found in the celebration of the sacraments.
Reaching Out in Durham and Around the World
Christ the King partners with a number of local ministries serving Durham, Chapel Hill, Morrisville, Cary, Raleigh, the Research Triangle, and beyond. These include Meals on Wheels of Durham, Pregnancy Support Services, Durham Rescue Mission, Rise Against Hunger, Senior PharmAssist, the Family Medicine Foundation of North Carolina, the United Methodist District in Durham, and a volunteer coordination site for hands-on service projects.
Beyond Durham, Christ the King supports a wide network of global mission partners. WEC International takes the gospel to peoples and nations who have yet to hear it through youth work, teaching, medical work, music and the arts, Bible translation and literacy, business enterprises, ministries with addicts and children in crisis, and helping local Christians share the gospel cross-culturally.
The church has a long-term relationship with the Vida Joven camp in Nicaragua, started by Young Life missionaries in 1992 and now run by local Nicaraguan leaders. The camp hosts up to 350 local Nicaraguan kids for summer camps each year.
Other global partners include Bridges International, which serves international students; EPC World Outreach, the mission sending agency of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, focused on church-planting movements among least-reached people groups; Trans World Radio, the largest Christian media organization in the world, heard in 190 countries; Cru; OMF; Team Expansion; InterVarsity; Child Evangelism Fellowship; and WEC International.
The People Who Lead
Christ the King is led by Pastor Jack Parmelee, an ordained Teaching Elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Jack holds a Master of Divinity from Duke Divinity School and a Bachelor of Arts from Pepperdine University. He and his wife Jessie have been married since 2008 and have one son. He began attending the congregation in 2016, joined the pastoral staff in 2019 as Assistant Pastor, and became Pastor in 2022.
Jennifer Thomason-Scott serves as Director of Children's Ministry. A graduate of NC State University with a B.S. in Elementary Education and a concentration in STEM, she taught in public schools before redirecting her focus to Christ-centered education.
Dave Stall serves as Director of Worship Ministry, leading worship for over twenty years in churches, Christian schools, and other ministry contexts across multiple denominations. An ordained minister and a Doctoral Candidate for a D.Min. in Church Revitalization, he brings experience from worship-led revitalization efforts at three separate churches.
Tyler Maraia serves as Student Pastor, regularly preaching and teaching the youth group. Guest preachers, including Rev. Dr. Marty Duffell and others, also fill the pulpit during sermon series and on Sundays when staff are away. A Session, or Board of Elders, provides spiritual oversight for the congregation.
Getting Connected
Visitors and newcomers are welcomed through the church's "I'm New" page, which offers a connect card and information about next steps. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM and can be reached at 919-489-1711 or office@ctkhome.org.
Online giving is available through the church's secure giving page, and offerings can also be placed in the Sunday offering plate or mailed to the office. Visitors should know that the service is a gift to them and no financial gift is expected.
The church publishes a weekly email newsletter, hosts an active calendar of events, and welcomes volunteers across all of its ministries. Whether someone is looking for a small group, a place to teach children, a short-term mission trip, or simply a place to belong, the church invites them to step in and become part of the family.