Christian Community Presbyterian Church stands on Belair Drive in Bowie, Maryland, about 200 feet up the road from Annapolis Road (MD 450). The congregation of roughly 200 members is known for an open and affirming style of worship that pairs traditional hymns with contemporary praise music, for decades of service to families in Prince George's County, and for mission work that has carried clean water to villages in Honduras. A first-time guest arriving for the single Sunday service at 10 AM finds a sanctuary built for participation, with a children's moment in every service, a large screen that displays the text of the service, and coffee waiting in the atrium afterward.
Ten O'Clock on Sunday Morning
CCPC offers one worship service each Sunday at 10 AM, held in person in the sanctuary and live-streamed through the CCPC Online Platform. The service typically runs about an hour. Music, hymns, praise music, prayer, liturgy, a children's moment, biblically grounded preaching and the prayers of the people all have a place in it, along with readings from scripture and the reading together of creeds and confessions that Presbyterians use in worship. The music ranges widely, mixing contemporary songs with hymns and special music of other styles.
Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month and throughout the year at special seasons and days of the Christian calendar, and each Communion plate includes gluten-free wafers. Communion is open to all who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, so a visitor does not need to be a member of CCPC or a Presbyterian to take part, and parents are encouraged to include baptized children when they are ready. Baptisms and special congregational observances happen during worship when called for.
A Sanctuary Set Up for Every Body
The buildings and grounds are accessible to people using wheelchairs, and accessible parking spaces sit in the front lot closest to the main entrance. During worship, assistive listening devices are available on a cart immediately inside the sanctuary doors, and an usher can help with special needs. A large screen displays text to be read, spoken or sung by the congregation. For anyone sensitive to noises, noise-canceling headphones are waiting just inside the sanctuary.
Families with young children are expected and welcome. The Joyful Noise room at the rear of the sanctuary lets parents tend to a child's needs while still seeing and hearing the service, and baby changing stations are located in that room, in the nursery and in the women's restroom near Dodds Hall. Adult hygiene products are available in the restrooms in Dodds Hall and near the sanctuary.
Children have a meaningful place in worship, so a children's church for ages 2 to 6 meets during the service: children have a snack, discuss the sermon and make a craft, then travel to the preschool room after the children's message and return at the end. Older children and youth can serve as lectors and acolytes, play in the Carillon handbell choir, join the tech team and mentor newer acolytes.
The First Protestant Church in the New Part of Bowie
During the 1960s, federal programs and agencies in the Washington, D.C. area grew in size and scope, fueling population growth in nearby Bowie as the Levitt and Sons planned community flourished. Christian Community Presbyterian Church was the first Protestant church in the new Levitt part of Bowie and was officially organized on April 1, 1962. Organizing pastor Dewey Dodds brought dynamism to the work just as families began moving in, and by 1963 CCPC was the fastest growing Presbyterian church in the nation. The young congregation met in homes and schools until the fellowship hall was completed, then dedicated an education building, and the sanctuary was constructed and dedicated in 1994. The church marked its golden anniversary in 2012.
Mission has driven the congregation from the beginning. In the 1970s, under the pastoral leadership of Richard (Dick) Neff, the Bowie Therapeutic Nursery was established at CCPC and Prince George's Community Ministry began. CCPC opened a Senior Services Center and provided emergency housing. The food pantry began in the early 1970s when a hungry person came to the church searching for food; in discussion with the Clergy Council, CCPC established a food pantry and an Emergency Aid Fund, and by 2009 the Interfaith Food Pantry housed at CCPC had distributed nearly a quarter of a million dollars in food as a nonprofit agency.
Pastor Rex McDaniel led the first group of CCPC youth to work camp in the 1980s, beginning a summer tradition of youth and adults building homes with Habitat for Humanity and Hosanna Industries. CCPC was among the first Prince George's County churches to join Warm Nights, which provides shelter and food during winter months for adults and children who are homeless, and an emergency apartment was created on campus. A tradition of Christmas sharing began in the 1990s, providing food, presents and school supplies to community families; by 2011 the Christmas Families project served 91 families representing 264 children.
Reverend James Brassard, who came to CCPC in 2004, expanded the mission focus to include the gift of clean water, and the Living Waters for the World team began teaching health and hygiene classes and installing water purification systems in Honduras. The Alternative Christmas Gift Market, which supports mission projects around the world, raised more than $30,000 in three years. Brassard served as pastor until his retirement in 2020, and the congregation is now led by Rev. Dr. Kori Phillips McMurtry, who preaches with enthusiasm, creativity and scholarship and keeps a warm door open to new friends and visitors.
Make a Joyful Noise: Music for Every Age
CCPC takes Psalm 100's call to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord" seriously, and its music ministry ranges from the most beloved traditional hymns to current contemporary Christian music. The Celebration Choir gives young people and adults the chance to sing choral music of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including arrangements of popular contemporary selections. The adult bell choir, Clinquant, offers special music throughout the year, especially at Christmas and Easter, often performs with the vocal choir, always accepts new ringers and rehearses on Wednesday evenings in the sanctuary.
The CCPC Children's Choir began in September 2018 and presents special musical offerings during worship, sometimes joining the Celebration Choir at Christmas and during Holy Week; COVID-19 forced the choir into an inactive status, and it hopes to restart. The Children's Bell Choir, also begun in September 2018, performs several times a year and practices Sunday mornings from 11:00 to 11:30 a.m. from September through May. A recorder ensemble that began in March 2019 is eager for new members when it resumes. Talented members and friends of the church contribute instrumental preludes, offertories and anthems throughout the year.
The newly hired Director of Music Ministry, Kevin Allen, brings more than two decades of experience as a church musician, choral conductor, pianist and music educator. He most recently served as Director of Music at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Annandale, Virginia, where he led diverse programming including Advent and Christmas cantatas, jazz in the sanctuary and hymn festivals, and he teaches high school vocal music and piano in Prince George's County Public Schools.
Learning Together, From Lectionary to Life
Sunday School for children in grades K through 12 meets from 11:30 to 12:15 p.m. during the school year, and the youth lessons follow the lectionary, teaching through the Bible to gain a fuller understanding of the truths found in Scripture. The children's Sunday School curriculum, "Feasting on the Word," focuses on the stories of the Bible so that those truths can be carried into daily life. Classes meet in person in Room 6 of the Dodds Hall building and in the Youth Lounge, which is temporarily in use during renovations.
Adult Education meets at 11:30 a.m. on most Sundays from September through May, and CCPC describes itself as a community of thinkers and seekers where biblical sources frame issues of contemporary life. The committee offers a diverse menu of scriptural study, theological inquiry and historical and cultural offerings, and recordings with resource documents are kept for those who cannot attend.
Straight From the Source, a Bible study conducted by Zoom, meets weekly on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m., with fellowship at 7:15, and recent recordings on 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude and James are available. The church also keeps a daily rhythm of Scripture reading. Lectionary Readings from the PC(USA) Daily Lectionary are presented by Chuck Tanner at 7:15 a.m. every day except Sunday in the private CCPC Facebook group, where previous recordings and a daily devotional are kept, and the count of daily readings has passed two thousand consecutive readings.
The Deacons, Prayer Shawls and Cluster Care
The Board of Deacons exists to support and care for the congregation when people are in need, sick, feeling friendless, in distress or grieving life's hardships, and to celebrate life's joys and successes. Deacons also serve as liturgists and help serve the Lord's Supper, and they meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share congregational needs and to learn about events in the church and the community.
Every member and friend of CCPC is assigned to a deacon, who maintains contact with the people in that cluster, and the cluster list is updated continuously to include new members and long-term visitors. The deacons also coordinate the prayer shawl ministry, a group of members and friends who knit and crochet soft shawls and lap rugs. The deacons pray over each piece before delivering it to someone in their cluster who needs comfort and support.
Meals, Shelter and Warmth Close to Home
Warm Nights, the homeless shelter program, receives deliveries from CCPC in January or February: a grab-and-go breakfast and sack lunch for residents, plus laundry supplies, cash for washing machines and dryers, and toiletries. Sunday school classes and volunteers make the sandwiches, producing about 350 sandwiches for the week along with fruit, cookies, water and a treat, plus breakfast for fifty people each day. CCPC also provides temporary housing through Hudson House, an efficiency apartment attached to the fellowship hall that is designed for someone in need; the church partners with Community Crisis Services to match a resident to that transitional housing and to keep the apartment stocked and maintained. Alpha House offers transitional housing for refugee families.
The Bowie Interfaith Food Pantry is supported with monthly donations and periodic collections of canned goods and wish-list items, and the children and youth of CCPC take part in the Souper Bowl of Caring with donations going to the pantry. The pantry is housed at 2614 Kenhill Drive and is open from 9 to 11 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, where volunteers are welcome to collect and distribute food from local grocery stores and restaurants.
Each year, beginning in October, congregation members can adopt a Christmas Angel through the Salvation Army's Christmas Angel Tree, and volunteer teams help sort and distribute the gifts at the Salvation Army warehouse in Hyattsville. CCPC supports Champ House, an addiction recovery center for men in Bowie, through the Alternative Christmas Gift Market and donations of toiletries and body wash. It supports Chrysalis House, which provides substance use and mental health treatment for women 18 and older while allowing their children to live on site, with Sunday afternoon visits that bring cake and a fun activity for the mothers and children. The church's parking lot and Dodds Hall also host a yard sale where donated items are sold for missions and vendors keep their own proceeds with a free-will offering for the space.
Clean Water for Honduran Communities
Living Waters for the World is a program of the Synod of Living Waters, Presbyterian Church (USA), that trains and equips mission teams to share the gift of clean water with communities in need, and CCPC is a strong supporter. Between 2010 and 2019, CCPC mission teams installed eleven water purification systems in Honduras, bringing clean water to thousands of Hondurans in the villages where they live. Health education on sanitation and the benefits of using clean water was part of each trip for adults and children alike. Teams worked alongside Honduran operating partners not only to install the systems but to train people to operate and maintain them, and each installation ended with a celebration as ownership of the system was turned over to the community. The team closes that celebration with the words of John 4:14: "But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty."
Beyond clean water, CCPC members support mission trips to build houses in other states, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, an Alternative Christmas Gift Market that raises funds for organizations such as Heiffer International and the Medical Benevolence Fund, scholarships for students through the Honduras Salt and Light Foundation, assistance for a South Sudan refugee family, a hospital in Cameroon, and a 30 Hour Famine project by the youth that supports hungry people.
What CCPC Believes and Who It Welcomes
The mission statement reads: "Christian Community Presbyterian Church (CCPC) is a Christian congregation that seeks to worship God, grow in faith and community, and place our gifts in the service of Jesus Christ." Presbyterians at CCPC believe in God the Father, creator of the universe; Jesus, the incarnation of God on earth; the Holy Spirit, the presence of God in the world and in the believer; the Church, a universal company of Christ's followers; forgiveness of sins made possible by the crucifixion of Christ; life everlasting, shown by the resurrection of Jesus; and the Bible as the inspired word of God. The Bible is the most authoritative source for faith, though the church holds that its authors were inspired by God and wrote in their own words and under the influence of their times.
Presbyterian faith places more emphasis on personal freedom and responsibility than on a strict set of beliefs, and CCPC holds that a church never reaches a "reformed" state but is always in a state of reformation and open to the power of the Holy Spirit for change. Two biblically based sacraments are followed. Baptism unites a person with Jesus and makes that person a member of God's family, whether by immersion or symbolic sprinkling, and is not a guarantee of heaven. Communion renews faith and focuses on the responsibilities and gifts Christians have, and any member in good standing in any Christian church is welcome to take part. CCPC also holds that Presbyterians embrace the contributions of women as elders and as ministers of the Word.
CCPC describes itself as a Matthew 25 and a More Light Presbyterian church, and its commitment to inclusion extends across race, ethnicity, citizenship, economic class, gender identity and expression, sexual or romantic orientation, age, physical or mental ability, neurodiversity, military or veteran status and faith tradition. The church calls itself open and affirming, says it welcomes people of all races and ethnic backgrounds, seeks to be LGBTQIA+-affirming in its worship and fellowship, and states that it stands against racism in all of its forms. It rejects prejudice and racism, commits to the active practice of eliminating systemic inequities, and invites people to bring their authentic selves to worship.
Governance runs through a Session of elders elected by the congregation to three-year terms, with one-third of the Session elected each year, an arrangement the church describes as representative democracy. The congregation approves sales and purchases of real property, the hiring of new ministers and the annual terms of call for ministers. CCPC belongs to the National Capital Presbytery, part of the regional synods that make up the national General Assembly, and those governing bodies are composed equally of lay persons and clergy.
Finding a Place at CCPC
Visitors are welcomed from the pulpit but never asked to raise a hand as a new person; when you arrive at any service you are greeted and given a bulletin outlining the service along with announcements. New Members Classes are offered periodically, covering the history, form and functioning of the Presbyterian denomination and CCPC, and including a tour of the campus and time to meet staff, leaders and members. Membership rests on two requirements set by the Presbyterian Church: a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and a commitment to support the work of the congregation.
Life at CCPC gathers in many small groups. The Lady Tigers, a daytime and evening book group for women, meets by Zoom on the second and fourth Thursday mornings at 10:30 a.m. The Paper Tigers, a men's group of members and friends, meets on Wednesday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 by Zoom for social time and a book discussion chosen by the group. There are also women's Circles, a knitting group, a softball team, vocal and bell choirs, a youth group, a bridge club, Children's Church and Sunday School, and a caring ministry, along with mission work at home and abroad. Seasonal gatherings include potlucks, deacon group meetings, the annual women's retreat and scholarship meals. Coffee and light refreshments are served in the atrium after Sunday worship, and a monthly newsletter, The Caller, carries announcements and plans. Prayer requests can be sent to the pastor through the church office at 301-262-6008 or office@ccpcbowie.org, and giving, including annual pledge commitments, is available online. Sermon recordings and special music videos are kept on the church's YouTube channel.
Young people find their own ways in. Youth serve as lector, in the Carillon handbell choir, on the tech team and as acolytes, and they train to mentor newer acolytes. The CCPC C&Y Trail Club takes youth ages 9 to 17 on short walks of roughly one to three miles, once a month on a Saturday, with games along the trail and snacks afterward; families are welcome, and parents or guardians attend with children under 12.
Finding the Church in Bowie
Christian Community Presbyterian Church is at 3120 Belair Drive, Bowie, MD 20715. The closest main intersection is Belair Drive and Annapolis Road (MD 450), at the traffic light nearest the parking lot for Bowie High School, the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts and the Bowie Public Library. CCPC stands about 200 feet up Belair Drive from MD 450, with two entrances on the right. The closest intersection to the church parking lot is Belair Drive and Sedgwick Lane, with parking to the side and behind the church and accessible spaces in front, closest to the main entrance. GPS systems generally provide adequate directions, and map and directions are provided for 3120 Belair Drive.
CCPC is a congregation of about 200 people who gather on Belair Drive for worship at 10 AM, for classes that run from Sunday School through adult forums, for music that ranges from hymns to handbells, and for mission work that has run from a Bowie food pantry to water systems in Honduran villages. The pastor, staff, Session, deacons and congregation welcome those who arrive at the door.