Editor’s Note: “A Church You Should Know” is an occasional feature spotlighting congregations in the Qcity area.
Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church
Founded: 1865
Address: 5125 Mt. Olive Church Road, Charlotte
Phone: (704) 394-8814
Website: N/A
Membership: 700
Denomination: Presbyterian
Pastor: The Rev. Herbert R. Shackelford (Since 1990)
Worship Services:
- Church School, 9:45 a.m.
- Sunday Worship, 11:00 a.m.
- Children’s Church, 11:00 a.m.
- Bible Study, Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Q. What makes this church unique?
This is a well-established church. We’ve been here since 1865 and served the community for years. Many of our people have moved out of this community where they were born, but they all come back to this particular church. We are one of the few black churches in this community. We have good worship, we are family structured, very strong structured, and we are a caring, loving church.
Q. What is the church’s vision?
Our vision is to become a community-oriented church, one that serves the needs of our particular community. And not just our community, but the whole city. We want to have for this community the kinds of things that can enhance the family and enhance lives.
Q. What are the church’s core beliefs?
We are a Trinitarian church. We believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe very strongly that Jesus died and rose for our sins and that we are saved through the precious blood and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We believe that God is our father. He’s our creator and our maker and that the Holy Spirit sustains us and upholds us as we live from day to day and empowers us to do the work that Christ would have us to do.
We believe in heaven and hell, and we also believe that what we do, though it will not save us, has a direct bearing of where we will be in the afterlife.
Q. What type of ministries and programs are offered?
We have four choirs, we have an usher ministry, we have a ministry of compassion where we help people in the community. We have a food closet, and we do different things for people.
We have an older adult ministry, where they come here twice a week and they take trips and they do various things together. We have a men’s ministry and a women’s ministry. We have a youth ministry in which they go on trips every year and do different things. We also have a church school, which we operate every Sunday morning from 11 a.m. until about 12.
Q. What are the greatest strengths of the church?
I think our greatest strength is that we are a loving, caring church. We care about people. We rise to the occasion when our folks or other people are in need. We do what we can. We’ve worked with other Presbyterians to help during times of needs and world crisis. Our church does that quite a bit. We take very seriously the different ministries that we have within the church, and the people do a good job.
Q. How do you foster spiritual growth for individuals in the church?
I try to do a lot of that through my preaching. I try to deal with the kinds of things that help us grow spiritually. We also do it with our Bible study. We have vacation Bible school. We try to let our people know just how important the bible is, and that it needs to be studied, and that it will help us with our spiritual situations.
Many times I deal with the spiritual situations that happen here from the pulpit. I try to bring some light on them and how God would have us handle a particular thing. We do our share of praying and fellowship, which will help our spiritual growth.
We recently made a pact, our entire congregation, to make sure we don’t have situations where we can’t discipline our children. A lot of times, people don’t want you talking to their kids. But we made a church pact that if we see somebody wrong, we can address it without any problems and without any feedback from the parents. We try to make sure our children go the right way and do the right things.
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Editor’s Note: If you would like to see your church featured in this ongoing series, ask your senior pastor to answer the questions above and email the answers to churches@qcitymetro.com.
