Welcome

What is your service like? Because Caldwell was revived as the result of blending the cultures of two churches, you may find that we aren’t quite like other church experiences. We use traditional liturgy in the Reformed tradition and our music inspires clapping and moving and applause. We pause to pass the peace and hug necks. We invite joys and concerns to be expressed during our Prayers for the People at least once a month. We welcome these heartfelt expressions of our different backgrounds. You will also find that Caldwell makes room for the Holy Spirit, which means our service runs a little longer than one hour.

How should I dress? Caldwell is as relaxed and informal as you wish to be. You will see people who are dressed up and people who are dressed down, and everyone seems comfortable with the diversity.

We want to greet you. If you are visiting, we hope to greet you and make you feel welcome. Don’t expect us to try to recruit you or convert you. Just know that we are genuinely happy to see you. And you will know a lot about just how joyful we are in each other’s company during the passing of the peace early in our service. If you’re comfortable doing so, we will invite you to stand and share your name and where you are from during Welcome and Announcements at the beginning of the service.

What about children? We would love for your children to join our children when they leave for classes part-way through the service. When we invite the children to come forward, please bring your children down and walk to their classrooms so we can meet you and you can feel confident knowing where your children are. You are welcome to drop off infants and toddlers at 10:45 in the nursery.

We have gender neutral restrooms. Exit the sanctuary in the back to the left of the pulpit and the old choir loft and go straight through the hallway to the Stronghold room. There are also restrooms outside the Shelby Room, where we hold our Adult Sunday School classes and downstairs; the stairs are located in the hallway behind the sanctuary. Turn left at the bottom of the stairs.

A word about language: At Caldwell, we do our best to create an inclusive, welcoming and safe environment for all of God’s children, however they identify. After several months of study and discussion, church leaders have endorsed the use of non-binary language in worship and church communications. We will aspire to this goal, knowing that we won’t always get it right. Please feel free to ask the pastors or elders if you have questions.

Who you’ll meet. One of the most important things for you to know may be that we are an intersectional church, blessed with a multi-aspect diversity that blends significant percentages of both people of color and people of differing sexual orientation. Some of our members are life-long Presbyterians; some come from other faith traditions, or no faith tradition; many have been rejected by organized religion and have never lost their hunger to connect with God. Caldwell strives to create a safe place for that wide range of religious experience, which makes for opportunities to question and learn and grow together.

Communion: We serve communion on the first Sunday of the month. We believe this is not Caldwell’s table, but God’s table and all are invited to God’s table.

Location & parking: There is parking on the street in front of the church, including designated accessible parking. On Sundays, our neighbors in the medical office building at the corner of Hawthorne and Fifth streets allow us to use their parking lot. The metered parking along Travis Avenue is free on Sundays. And there is limited parking in the lot behind Belk Hall at the back of the church off Park Drive.