Capital Church Park City invites the community to attend its Easter services on April 5. The session will start at 10 a.m. at its sanctuary location, 1400 Bitner Rd., said Lead Pastor Troy Champ. “This will be our first Easter gathering since we merged with Creekside Fellowship, and we are looking forward to serving Park City and Summit County,” Champ said.  For the past decade or so, Capital Church leased the space for Saturday-night gatherings from Creekside, a longtime Park City staple, according to Champ. “We enjoyed every bit of celebrating with the Park City community,” he said. “Gordy Byers who was the lead pastor of Creekside for 25 years, is an amazing man, and over the past 10 years he’s become such a trusted friend. We’ve done a lot of life together just between the two of us.” Throughout the years, Champ and Byers talked on and off about merging their churches, according to Champ. “Long story short, last fall the leaders of Creekside came to Capital Church and asked if they could do it, so we began making plans and sorting what that would look like structurally,” he said. Much of the planning looked at logistics because Capital holds three gatherings every weekend in Salt Lake City, Champ said. “But getting to know the Creekside people helped things move along,” he said. “They are amazing people who love the community of Park City and have put down deep roots there.” The Capital Church was established during the autumn of 1997 in Salt Lake City by one of Champ’s professors. “He invited my wife Suzanne and I to help start it, and we moved to Utah on May 1, 1998,” Champ said. “Our founding pastor served as pastor of Capital Church for about six years, and I became the lead pastor in 2004. We’re actually a volunteer-run organization. We have a staff that brings leadership, but we couldn’t do anything without the joyful efforts of our volunteers.” When Capital and Creekside started the merging process, the leadership came up with a single vision, Champ said. “It’s simple — ‘Better Together,’” he said. “When we began talks of what this could be, our mutual purpose with every conversation was we only want to do this if we could be better together — how could we better serve Park City and Summit County if these two church communities merged into one? And how could our collective partnership help us further our mission and vision in the days that are ahead?” Easter and other services aren’t the only programming Capital Church offers. Champ plans to partner with other organizations and churches to meet the needs of the community, including teens. “We have a passion to help students and teenagers in Park City,” Champ said. “I’m a father of three daughters, and my youngest are twins and are 18. Let me tell you, it’s hard to be a teenager these days, and it’s getting harder and harder.” One of Champ’s goals with Capital is to create safe spaces for young people. “We want them to know that they are loved, seen and accepted,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who they are, where they’re from or what they have done. It’s important for us to think of how we can come alongside them with grace and help them become who they are meant to become.” To do that, Capital works with other organizations to broaden its reach. “We at Capital do not believe in reinventing the wheel,” Champ said. “When we see leaders of other places who are doing what they do with excellence, we will put our time and our resources behind them.” One of those organizations is the Christian Center of Park City, which offers an array of programming such as counseling and wellness, basic needs and food pantries to help those experiencing food insecurity, to name a few, Champ said. “It’s easy for us to come alongside them because we have a passion to help the community and the vulnerable,” he said. Rob Harter, the Christian Center of Park City’s former executive director, holds a special place in his heart for the Capital Church.  “When we first moved here 16 years ago, we looked for a way to get plugged into the community,” Harter said. “We looked around at the different churches, and Capital was one we had friends in. They would drive down to Salt Lake because they didn’t have a Park City campus at that time.” During that first meeting, Harter connected with Champ, and Harter’s wife Leah, connected with Champ’s wife, Suzanne. “Capital was helpful with Christian Center’s Hike for Hunger and the food pantries, and that’s how we got involved,” Harter said. “(Throughout the years) we had been talking for quite a while for an opportunity to come to Park City and serve the community, and we were helpful in getting that rolling with the Saturday-night service at Creekside.” Although Harter started his own coaching and consulting firm and Leah Harter started up her own counseling center in Holladay, they maintain a strong connection with Capital Church. “Rob’s wife Leah is an incredible therapist, and I don’t know how many people in the past 15 years we have sent in her direction to bring help and healing to people,” Champ said. “Rob, with what he does with leadership and consulting, is a seasoned leader, and I have found his wisdom and insight priceless day in and day out. Over the past 15 years, he has taught at our weekend gatherings, and I’m thankful to use his wisdom as a communicator in both Park City and Salt Lake.” For information about Capital Church Park City and its services and resources, visit capitalchurch.com. The post Easter is a new beginning for Capital Church Park City appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less