National Park Church

OUR VISION

You can read more about where we are headed on our Vision page here.

OUR BELIEFS

We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Eph 1:13-14)

We believe Jesus became flesh, died, and arose to reconcile fallen man to God. (I Cor. 15:1-3, Rom. 3:25)

We believe the Bible is the written word of God, the final and complete authority for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. (II Tim. 3:16)

We believe all mankind should accept Jesus as Christ and Lord, repent of all sin, confess their faith continually, and be immersed in water for the remission of their sins.  (Acts 2:38).

We believe the mission of the Church is to spread the good news of Jesus to the lost, work for the unity of all believers, create a atmosphere of love and growth for the children of God, show an attitude of praise and reverence for God, and to uplift the downtrodden by all means possible. (Mt. 28:18-20, Acts 2:42)

OUR MISSION

It is the mission of the National Park Church to serve God, our fellow Christians, and our community by magnifying God in our lives and in our worship, by bringing others to a relationship with God through a mission of evangelism, by nurturing spiritual maturity through education and encouragement, and by assisting those in need with a ministry of benevolence that reflects the love and grace that God has given us.

OUR HISTORY

The National Park Church of Christ (NPCC) met for the first time on Sunday, January 17, 1999 at the Quapaw Community Center in Hot Springs, Arkansas with 53 people in attendance.  This community of believers began with the purpose of reaching out to the un-churched living in Hot Springs, bringing back into fellowship those who had quit attending elsewhere, and to uplift one another in our daily walk with God.  The focus of those efforts was then, and continues to be today, based on 5 key areas of purpose:  Mission (outreach), Members (fellowship), Maturity (discipleship), Ministry (service), and Magnify (worship).

Since our inception, NPCC has remained flexible to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  After meeting only two weeks at the Quapaw Community Center our newly organized family moved to the Hot Springs Beauty School.  This move was made because we needed a location that could afford us more convenient hours for meeting as a church family.  God richly blessed us through this move and our numbers quickly swelled from the 50’s to the 70’s.  However, our growth was limited by space, and because the location was a working beauty school, we needed a meeting place that we could set up and leave during the week.  God blessed us with an answer to our need and on March 7, 1999 we moved into the former Cock of the Walk restaurant located at 4949 Central Avenue in Hot Springs.

This location was our first real home and holds a special place in our hearts and our history.  Our congregation grew to over 100 members and we enjoyed a tremendous period of blessing from God.  It was during this period that the community really became aware of our church and realized that we were different.  We were family.  We invited them to eat barbeque at our 1st anniversary in January and to join us for fireworks at the 4th of July celebration on Lake Hamilton.  It was also at this location that God used our family to serve the community when we served tired rescue workers and prayed with those who lost family members following a horrible boating accident on Lake Hamilton.  During this time we began to use small groups on Sunday nights to assist us in growing closer to each other and in reaching out to our community.

One year later NPCC was informed that the building we were leasing would be razed to make room for a new condo development.  Our fourth move was to the former Music Mountain Jamboree building located at 2720 North Albert Pike Road.  It was here that our average attendance grew to 120.  It was also here that we instituted our first Elders, held our first gospel meeting, had our first musical concert, conducted our first VBS, and hired our first Youth interns.

Over time the rent at the Albert Pike location became such a hindrance that we decided to find another location.  On August 19, 2001 NPCC moved to the former Church of the Rock building located at 2828 Park Avenue.  Again, our numbers increased and it was at this location that we hired our first Church secretary, appointed our first Deacons, sent our first mission team to Honduras, and hired our first full-time minister.  It was also at this location that we began developing plans to build a new building for our family on the grounds of property we had purchased in 1999 at the corner of Lakeshore and Panama drives.

We moved into our new building on January 4, 2004.  Since then our numbers have grown to an average of 150 to 160.   In 2007 we added 2 new Elders to help shepherd our growing congregation.  We are excited about the future direction of NPCC and believe that God is calling us to do even greater things in our community.  Our church family has always wanted to be flexible in regards to worship times, dress, and worship styles so that we might attract people drawn to a resort community.  We also believe that there is an important need to reach out to those in our community who are parents with young and teenage children.

As we look to the future we believe that our church family will have an even greater impact in the Hot Springs community.  We are convicted that the Good News of Jesus’ love is to be shared with those who may not know him and those who are seeking a richer and more meaningful life.  Our Shepherds are men of vision and have challenged us to grow in our daily walk with God and in our stature within the community.