On a quiet stretch of Five Mile Road in Livonia, Michigan, the congregation of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church has spent decades building a rhythm of worship, learning, and service that revolves around a single idea: feeding people in body, mind, and spirit. The church describes itself that way in its own mission language, and the phrase shows up everywhere from the food drive in the lobby to the Sunday morning fellowship table. The PC(USA) congregation gathers each Sunday for a traditional service led from the front of the sanctuary, sends a stream of classes and Bible studies out across the week, and then pours itself back out into Detroit-area kitchens, soup lines, farm ministries, and disaster zones throughout the year.
Sunday Morning: Worship and Learning Side by Side
The Sunday rhythm at St. Paul's starts earlier than most. Adult education gathers at 9:00 a.m. in room 9 and online, where the Christian Century Conversations group reads current events and news from the wider church each week. The class is built around conversation rather than lecture, and the church invites newcomers to drop in, in person or by joining the dedicated Google Meet line.
Worship itself begins at 10:15 a.m. The format is traditional. The congregation stands for hymns and responses when they are able, reads from hymnals and Bibles set to the New Revised Standard Version, and follows along on a projection screen at the front of the room. A regular bulletin, a large-print bulletin, and large-print Bibles are available for anyone who needs them, and hearing devices can be picked up from an usher on the way in. The sanctuary is barrier-free, with wheelchair seating in the center and back.
Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month. All baptized Christians are welcome at the Lord's Table, regardless of denomination. Bread and juice are distributed at the front, but servers will bring the elements to anyone who cannot come forward. The bread is always gluten-free on each tray, and the juice is alcohol-free.
The service is also livestreamed on Google Meet, and a Virtual Narthex opens at 9:45 a.m. so members can greet one another before the service begins. Orders of service and hymn lists can be downloaded in advance, and a chat box inside the livestream is available for prayer requests during the service.
Come As You Are
The church is matter-of-fact about what worshipers wear. Its Come As You Are note simply says the most important thing is worship and community, not what you have on. Members arrive in everything from jeans to jackets, and the room is filled with a wide range of ages. Visitors are greeted in the lobby before each service and are welcome to stay for coffee and conversation afterward.
Music, Dance, and the Worship Team
The Music ministry frames itself with a question: do you sing with the car radio, have you ever played an instrument in a band, sung in a school choir, or danced around the house when no one was home? At St. Paul's the answer is yes, and there is a place for all of those impulses in the worship life of the church. The choir rehearses on a published schedule, and instrumentalists and singers of every level are invited to take part.
Dance has its own page on the menu of ministries. The church likes to say that David danced in his ephod, and that it chooses to be a little more clothed but as exuberant. Movement is treated as a form of worship in its own right, and the Moving With the Spirit class that meets on Tuesdays grew out of that same impulse to bring the body into prayer.
Mark Handford leads the music and tech arts side of worship. He is supported by a Tech Arts team that runs the projection screen, livestream, and sound, and by a roster of volunteer singers and instrumentalists. The congregation dedicated one hundred new Glory To God Presbyterian Hymnals in early 2020, breaking the spines with a congregational hymn sing before they were placed in the pews.
Children and Youth at the Heart of Worship
Children are welcome in worship. The church is firm about this: kids belong in the service. Each Sunday they begin with their families, then come forward for a Time with the Children, after which they are invited to leave for Sunday School if they want. On the first Sunday of each month, when Communion is celebrated, all children may participate in Sunday School, and those who remain in worship can pick up worship bags from the narthex filled with activities connected to the service. Age-appropriate bulletins sit on a rack by the door for younger worshipers.
Kathy Potter, the Director of Christian Education, oversees the children's program and coordinates Sunday School, Easter Fun Day, and the Vacation Bible School that runs each June. The church's own recent VBS themes have included Clean and Bright: God's Care for Us and Our Care for Others in 2024, Put on the Armor of God in 2022, Creative Arts in the Bible in 2021, and Weird Animals: Where Jesus' Love is One-of-a-Kind in 2019, with a visit from Howell Nature Center and Alexandria's Nature Bus. Vacation Bible School is open to children from age three through fifth grade and runs Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to noon. A family registration fee covers the first three children.
Easter Fun Day is a separate, free event for the wider community, with crafts, activities, an Easter egg hunt, treats, and the packing of Comfort Kits for those in need. The day is built so children, grandchildren, friends, and neighbors can all show up.
Adults Learning All Week Long
The learning does not stop at the door. In addition to the 9:00 a.m. Sunday hour, three Bible study and discussion groups run through the week, all online, all open to anyone who wants to join.
Tuesdays at 9:00 a.m., a study called Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament works through a book by Farrel, Jones, and Dornacher that traces the deep connection between the Testaments. Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m., Bible Study with Pastor Jim gathers around the meeting link for a weekly look at Scripture. Both groups share the same Google Meet style format used for the livestream and post their phone-in numbers on the calendar.
The Adult Education calendar also lists a series of seasonal offerings, including the longtime Romans study that gives the congregation's signature mission gathering its name.
ROMANS 12:4: Reaching Out in Mission and Service
The most distinctive feature of life at St. Paul's is a regular gathering the congregation calls ROMANS 12:4. The name comes from the verse that anchors it: For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Following worship on Sundays when ROMANS is scheduled, the entire congregation is invited to come to the Social Hall for a meal and a hands-on mission project. Past gatherings have included packing a thousand condiment and utensil packets for Crossroads Soup Kitchen, baking and assembling cookies for Crossroads Farm's at-risk rural youth in western Michigan, packing sack lunches for the homeless through Janoah House in Detroit, making necklaces as BINGO prizes for the Deacons' ministry to nursing homes, building Comfort Kits from the Advent Giving Tree, repairing the sanctuary Chrismons, and assembling small floral arrangements for nursing home residents.
The meals are typically prepared and donated by members of the congregation, often the VanEck family, and the projects are designed so anyone can join in: seniors, singles, couples, youth, and children. The whole point, the church says, is that everyone is needed, and that any age or ability can take part in feeding the community.
Local Mission Partners and the Wider World
Beyond ROMANS, St. Paul's maintains an ongoing portfolio of mission partnerships in metro Detroit and beyond. Members serve Sunday meals at Crossroads Soup Kitchen on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit from noon to 3:00 p.m. The church has sent work crews to Gleaners Community Food Bank in Brighton and has run an ongoing food drive with friends at Rosedale Gardens Presbyterian Church, with monthly deliveries of non-perishable items ranging from peanut butter and pasta to canned meats and pancake mix. Members have served with Life Remodeled in Detroit, Habitat for Humanity, Redford Interfaith Relief, and Detroit Medical Relief.
The church also collects cereal for Blessings in a Backpack: Livonia, which provides weekend meals for children in the Livonia Public Schools, and supports the Judson Center through assembly projects during ROMANS gatherings. Crossroads Farm in western Michigan, a ministry to at-risk rural youth, is a long-running partner. Each Advent the congregation bakes, decorates, and ships more than a hundred dozen cookies and decorating kits to the program, sometimes topping two hundred dozen in a single year.
When disaster strikes elsewhere, the church has shown a track record of sending people rather than just money. A team of ten spent ten days in Puerto Rico in November 2018 helping rebuild a home damaged by Hurricane María. Other relief efforts over the years have included tornado relief in Oklahoma and Missouri, hurricane response on the East Coast, and work in Louisiana.
The mission statement ties all of this together: Unified in Christ, our mission is to bring people to Jesus by practicing God's will for our lives through worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission.
Fellowship Across the Generations
Around the edges of worship and mission sits a full calendar of fellowship. The church likes to say that members share experiences over a coffee, donut, hot dog, or ice cream, and that even if your mouth is not watering, you are welcome to drop in for Christian fellowship. Tigerfest takes the congregation to a Detroit Tigers game together. Drive-In Caroling has, in years past, filled the parking lot with caroling in the dark of December. Fall Fun Fest, the soup luncheon that broke in a hundred new hymnals, and the bowling league at Oak Lanes all keep members of every age connected through the year. Livonia Community Theatre, which shares a connection with the church, is featured among the fellowship partners.
Moving With the Spirit
On Tuesday mornings, Room 11 becomes a movement and prayer space. Karen M.L. Barsy, a registered Dance Movement Therapist with an M.A., leads Moving With the Spirit from 10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., combining centering exercise, gentle movement, guided imagery, and breathing prayers to sooth body, mind, and soul. Classes are designed for participants at every level of ability, with stretching, gentle exercise to improve range of motion and balance, and optional floor work with therapy balls for those who want a stronger physical challenge. Members can also join online through Google Meet. There is a small fee per class, paid directly to Karen, and newcomers are asked to wear clothes they can comfortably move in and to bring a stretch rope, scarf, or tie.
Sacraments and Pastoral Care
Baptism is one of the two sacraments celebrated at St. Paul's, in keeping with the Reformed tradition. Both children and adults are baptized, with adults making a profession of faith and parents presenting infants in the covenant of the community. The church recognizes one baptism across the church universal: anyone baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at another church is welcomed as already baptized at St. Paul's and across the PC(USA). Baptisms take place during the regular Sunday worship service and are arranged through the pastor.
The Board of Deacons oversees funeral receptions and luncheons for members and their families, and the pastor is available for prayer, counsel, and help planning funerals and memorial services. The same care extends to weddings, with the church making its sanctuary available for member weddings and walking couples through the process with the pastor.
The Memorial Garden
Behind the church sits the Memorial Garden, a place where cremated remains of members, former members, and their immediate relatives are interred directly in the earth under plantings, without containers. Memorial bricks along the garden path carry the names of those laid to rest there. The garden is open year round to families with children, to brides and grooms on their wedding days, and to anyone who wants a quiet place to meditate and remember.
The St. Paul's Presbyterian Church Foundation
The Foundation is a separate endowment managed by members to build a fund whose income supports future needs of the church. Members can give through periodic gifts, charitable remainder arrangements that pay income until death and then pass to the Foundation, memorial gifts, or by naming the Foundation as a beneficiary in a financial account, insurance policy, will, or trust. The Foundation invests through bank accounts, annuities, and mutual funds, and questions are routed through the church office.
Getting Connected
The church office at 27475 Five Mile Road, Livonia, MI 48154 is open Monday through Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and again from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to noon for the 10:15 service. Friday and Saturday the office is closed, along with December 25 and 26 and January 1. The main number is (734) 422-1470 and the email is sppc@stpaulspresbyterian.church. The church is closed whenever Livonia Public Schools close for weather.
Online giving is available through the church's National Covenant Services giving page. The Sunday service is livestreamed on Google Meet, and past services are saved as unedited videos that members can view or download. The church maintains an active Facebook page at facebook.com/stpaulslivonia and an Instagram account at instagram.com/stpaulslivonia.
Wanda Seymour serves as Business Administrator and is the point of contact for most administrative questions. Mark Handford oversees music and tech arts, and Kathy Potter leads the children's and adult education programs as Director of Christian Education. The church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) within the Detroit Presbytery.