In this edition of the Liberty Stake News, we’re launching our new Faith Friends Feature, shining a spotlight on different faith communities within the Liberty Stake and the meaningful service they offer to our community.

It’s 10 a.m. Sunday morning and the church bell is tolling in the historic First Presbyterian Church in Liberty, Missouri.

The Rev. Nikki Cooley sits on the rostrum along with several choir members in white choir robes. Calvin Permenter, a former William Jewell music professor, begins a beautiful piano prelude when the tolling of the 152-year-old bell subsides.

Two children, serving as acolytes, walk to the front of the sanctuary holding long candlelighters. They light a 7-candle candelabra, then move to the back of the chancel and light two more. The sunlight shining through the stained glass rose window illuminates them and the cross hanging below.

The rose window with its image of a lamb, Rev Cooley later explains, evokes images of God’s peaceful kingdom as well as Jesus as a sacrificial lamb.

The congregation has been active for 196 years and worships in the 136-year-old Presbyterian Church building which sits across Mississippi Street from the Historic Liberty Jail. Just east of the church is the First Presbyterian Church Park. South of the church, alongside the sidewalk is a plaque honoring Alexander Doniphan, a historical figure well-known to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When the piano music stills the worship leader goes to one of two pulpits, makes church announcements then calls the congregation to worship with the words of Psalm 32: “All the Faithful should pray to the Lord during troubled times. O God, you are my secret hideout…” (Common English Bible translation)

The service will continue with congregational hymns, scriptures and calls and responses between the worship leader and congregation, and a children’s Sacred Space before Rev. Cooley gives her sermon on “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

During the Sacred Space, children come to the steps for a lesson focused on them.  “Sacred Space is a time within our worship service for the young and young at heart to come up front and hear a message specifically for them. They open and close with a song and share their own prayers before leading the congregation in passing the peace of Christ with one another,” says Rev. Cooley

First Presbyterian Church of Liberty was established in August of 1829. The original church building was constructed in the 1850s. In 1989 part of the church was destroyed by fire. Fortunately, firefighters were able to save the rose window. Then during the 2003 tornado, the building was damaged again. And in 2009 and 2010 the building was hit by several lightning strikes. Each time the members rallied and rebuilt their church.

When Rev. Cooley is asked what she and members of First Presbyterian would want others to know about them, she answers, “That we are a family, that everything starts with relationships and then grows from there. That lots of churches say they are welcoming and we really are. And that we are working to be the hands and feet of Christ in our neighborhood, in our community.”

Rev. Cooley has been with the church since 2013. Her husband Troy is the church administrator at the First Christian Church in Liberty.

“For a while when I got here it felt like we were on the edge of something. Something was going to happen. What is it, what direction are we being called? We’ve focused on feeding people,” she says.

“We’ve really had to say we can’t do everything, but we can do something.  When we ask God, ‘what is that something?’ We’ve been called to feed people.”

To that end, the church began its Little Free Food Pantry five years ago. “It’s really been adopted by the community. It has been used a lot,” said Pastor Cooley. The pantry is a small wooden box mounted at the corner of Gallatin and Mississippi in Liberty. It offers 24/7 access to donated, shelf-stable food items. A message on the box invites people to “take what you need…leave what you can.”

Another initiative adopted by First Presbyterian is providing a hot meal to the hungry once a month as part of Johnny’s Café, a ministry started by Liberty Christian Church. Members plan the meal, donate the food, cook and serve the meal each month at First Presbyterian for anyone in the community, said Cooley.

“We don’t ask people any questions like ‘what’s your income, could you afford to pay? we don’t do that. There are absolutely people in the community that are hungry,” said Cooley. “But loneliness is a huge epidemic in our society these days. People aren’t making connections and they aren’t doing in-person things; so emotional health and mental health, that all goes along with food. So we don’t ask ‘could you pay, would you pay?’ We welcome people in.”

The church sponsors an apartment for Hillcrest Hope Transitional Housing as part of their outreach. Members also participate in Restock Mondays where they help stock the shelves in Hillcrest Hope Thrift Store.

Each summer First Presbyterian has a week-long day camp program for K-6th grades, and has a service project or mission trip for the youth.

Last summer adults and youth traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma to do much-needed service projects in the city of Greenwood, a black community that was burned down in 1921 due to racial strife. The area has been rebuilt but suffers from poverty. “The racial divide in Tulsa is still extreme,” said Rev. Cooley.

The church supports Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops and hosts youth group meals and activities on Sunday evenings. In the basement of the sanctuary, is a dedicated Youth Room with ceiling tiles decorated by graduating seniors.

“At First Presbyterian Church, we know that children are not the future of the church, they are the church now. We need everyone to be active participants in faith building. Jesus welcomed children and so do we,” says Rev. Cooley.

The members of First Presbyterian Church meet at 10 a.m. Sundays at 138 N. Main St., Liberty. They welcome visitors.