Village Presbyterian Church (Prairie Village, Kansas)

Traditional worship services are regularly held online each Sunday at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. [8] These services include a sermon, traditional hymns, and church announcements.[8] Sermons are archived with transcripts as well as videos of the service, and saved on Village Presbyterian's website.[8]

The Gathering is a contemporary worship service regularly held at 5 p.m. Sundays currently exclusively online. [9] Described as "alternative worship,"[9] the service (when held in-person) includes contemporary songs led by a live band, the inclusion of interactive media, extended time designated to greet other congregants and a sermon.[9]

Taizé worship is held at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month online.[10] Described as a "quiet, contemplative worship experience,"[10] the service includes "simple songs, silence, and scripture,"[10] as well as serving communion.

Village Presbyterian's youth department serves members of the church in middle and high school.[11] The youth department hosts a variety of worship, mission, and fellowship programs each week.[12][13] Additionally, the department offers a variety of mission and worship-based trips during winter and summer school breaks, including an annual ski trip, a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, youth choir tour, summer mission trip, and annual trip to Montreat Conference Center.[14]

Presbyterian Women are "all women members of the church and women in the community interested in the purpose of Presbyterian Women."[15] The group hosts a variety of events for women in the church, including a Bible study, book club, and a sewing and knitting group.[15] Presbyterian Women holds an annual Advent Candlelight Dinner, and sends out their own newsletter each month.[15]

Village Presbyterian's music ministry includes six different choirs and an orchestra.[16] The ministry includes an adult choir, a chamber choir, a young adult choir, a "once-a-month" choir, a summer choir, a youth choir, and a youth orchestra.[16] The ministry is headed by Will Breytspraak, director, Elisa Bickers, organist, and Matthew Christopher Shepard, associate director.[16]

Located off-site from the church itself, the Village Presbyterian Food Pantry hosts more than 300 volunteers each month.[17] The pantry serves anyone in the area who completes an application and is near the Federal Poverty Guidelines.[17] The pantry consists of a grocery-store-style area where clients receive provisions like bread, pasta, pastries, produce, and toiletries, as well as a clothes closet in which clients can get necessary items like dresses, shirts, and undergarments.

Doctors and nurses from the Village congregation as well as the Kansas City area make four annual trips to La Romana on a medical mission to provide health care to the impoverished residents of rural bateyes and urban barrios.[18] The church's youth department began an annual spring break mission trip to La Romana in the 1990s to work on construction projects like the Joe Hartman School.[19]

Front Porch Alliance is a partnership between Village Church and the Ivanhoe neighborhood of Kansas City. Front Porch Alliance provides mentor programs, home repair, and career services to residents of the east side neighborhood. The program was founded in 1999.[20]

The Environmental Action Committee (formerly the Sustainable Sanctuary Task Force) was formed and renamed in 2007.[21] The committee encourages the church to recycle, buy environmentally responsible products, make sure the church's facilities are maintained in an environmentally-friendly way, and assists in the education of the church about environmental issues. Additionally, the committee assists with the annual Earth Day service.