Depending on your perspective, Central Christian Church is either a church with a dog park, or a dog park with the church. Opening in the fall of 2006, Central Dog Park was created to give dogs and their owners a fun, relaxing, safe and friendly place to exercise and socialize. Shade trees allow a pleasant place to sit under and talk to friends while you watch your dog have a great time. Central Dog Park normally opened seven days a week from sunrise to sunset.

Bring Your Dogs & Worship With Us On Sunday!
Weather permitting, we have outdoor worship in the dog park every Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. Come as you are and, of course, your dogs are welcome too! Click here for a map.

Saint Roch and the Dogs to Kick-Off
August 8th Worship
Take your place in the Great Procession!

The Great Procession of Saints starts with the Old Testament heroes of Hebrews 11, leads through two millennia of Church history and includes us today. Enacting our place in The Great Procession, on Sunday, August 8 our worship will open with a processional of dogs in the spirit of 14th century St. Roch, the patron saint of pilgrims, sick, gravediggers, secondhand dealers and, of course, dogs.

As a young man, St. Roch devoted himself to caring for those who suffered from plague. Contracting the disease himself, he withdrew so he could die without troubling others. As he was dying a dog from a nearby villa brought him food. He recovered to continue his ministry to the sick with the dog at his side.

Dog sitters will be ready in the Dog Park to care for the dogs immediately after the procession, so all can feel free to enjoy the service. You are welcome to bring your leashed dog for the processional. Just meet at 10:45 AM in front of the sanctuary.

Pastor Stolpe’s messages will lead us on The Great Procession.

John Tracy Performing At the Next Meet the Neighbors Picnic - August 11th
Come out and meet the neighbors!

Join us for a midweek picnic and evening concert with John Tracy. Filled with insightful lyrics, his original music is for real people living real life. This is guaranteed to be a memorable evening, so make your plans to attend and bring a friend!

Dinner begins at 6:00 PM followed by the concert at 6:30. There is no charge for dinner, but a free-will offering will be taken. For more details, contact the church office.

For more information about John Tracy’s music, visit www.johntracymusic.com

Ride On Our Float! The Highland Park 4th of July Parade for 2010
For the fifth year, Central Christian Church will participate in the 4th of July Parade for the Town of Highland Park that wil be held on Monday, July 5th this year. We will have a trailer full of float riders that included friends, family, neighbors and our friends of Central Dog Park (plus their dogs) and gardeners from the Acers Community Gardens. Continuing the tradition of past years, we also served a tailgate breakfast to all of the people who crewed the other floats in the parade. These folks line up very early in the morning (starting at 6:30 a.m.) along Euclid Avenue to get a good position in the parade for a 9 a.m. start. Our congregants will walk up and down the parade line beginning at 6:30 a.m. passing out orange juice, fresh coffee and freshly-baked pastries from Breadwinners.

We would like to specially thank Breadwinners for their fourth straight year of partnering with us for this service project.

Click on the "start arrow" in the Flash player below to see the video of this year's parade.

Click here to see all four of our past parade videos beginning in 2006. You can see what has become a tradition of our church, our history of service to our neighbors, as well as the just plain fun we had in patriotic celebration with our community.

New Issue of the CDP Newsletter Available!
Vol. 4, Issue 2 of "Unconditional Love," the Central Dog Park Newsletter, is available to download. The newsletter is published four times per year. Back issues are also available so you can catch up on anything you missed.

Click here for the newsletter archive.

Outdoor Worship to Resume April 4th
Outdoor worship in the Dog Park resumes on Easter Sunday, April 4th. Coffee starts at 9:45 am with eclectic music, service from 10-10:25 am, We have about 5 people who rotate on sharing an inspiring Biblical message:

• Barron Bell
• Todd Boddy
• Russell Church
• Brandon Boyer
• BJ Austin

Occasionally guest musicians perform/sing inspiring hymns. All people and doggies welcome.

New Issue of the CDP Newsletter Available
Vol. 4, Issue 1 of "Unconditional Love," the Central Dog Park Newsletter, is available to download. The newsletter is published four times per year. Back issues are also available so you can catch up on anything you missed.

Click here for the newsletter archive.

Westside Café Bible Study and Worship 
Do you need another approach to Bible study and meaningful wisdom for your life? You are invited to the Bible Teaching Ministry of the Westside Café, with Pastors Todd Boddy and Dr. John Cunyus. Join John and Todd each week as they teach, converse, and thoughtfully engage each other from the Biblical text at the Westside Café.  It is fast paced, in depth, and strong on application. Become part of the deep conversation as the Spirit speaks through the scriptures.

Click here for details.

GoD and DoG Video by Wendy Francisco
"I look up and I see God ... I look down and see my dog." It's not often that one finds a systematic theology in a two-minute YouTube video but here is one! A lovely song and animation by Wendy Francisco in which the first two lines of the song convey that people are in the middle, between two kinds of sincere devotion.

Click here for details.

Neighbors Enjoy Music and Grill on June 9th
Neighbors Enjoy Music and Grill on June 9th

Submitted by Todd Boddy on 06/21/2010

Click here to read the full CDP Community Blog.

Meet the Neighbors
Live music, food, and many of your Central Dog Park and Acer Community Garden Neighbors

Submitted by Todd Boddy on 06/21/2010

Click here to read the full CDP Community Blog.

Casita Dog Wash and Picnic May 23rd
This Sunday Afternoon May 23rd, the Casita Mission Team, from Central Christian, will hold their last “Dog Wash” fund raiser between 12:30-3:00pm. The Wash will be stationed in front of the Dog Park. They will be shampooing and pampering your favorite friends. Friar Tom will be at the grill with a few outdoor sit down tables if you like a hot meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips. Home made peanut butter and pumpkin doggie treats will also be on sale.

Submitted by Todd Boddy on 06/21/2010

Click here to read the full CDP Community Blog.

Upcoming Events and Work Days
As the weather warms the events at the dog park heats up as well in April and May, Outdoor worship, Dog washes, Paws in City Garage Sale, Work day

Submitted by Todd Boddy on 04/15/2010

Click here to read the full CDP Community Blog.

The Blessing of the Animals In the Sanctuary of Central Christian Church - St. Francis Pet Blessing
All The original outdoor-indoor worship service moved completely under the roof of the main sanctuary in light of the Noah’s ark deluge on tap the entire weekend of Sunday Oct. 4th.  Many overcame the rain however with rubber boots, high steps and a little courage. A towel patrol waited at the front door if needed.  And no, the ark never pulled up, but it could have. This year’s Pet Blessing service reserved the first four pews for owners and their animals. The service was shortened up a bit for those dealing with ADADD (adult doggie attention deficit disorder). Representatives from the Central Dog Park and Central Christian Church served as the official blessors.

Click here for details.
Media from the service can be found in the sidebar at the right.

Small Doggies Rejoice!
The Central Dog Park is now equipped to handle doggies which might be intimidated by the size or novelty of the dog park. As you enter into the main arrival gate, there is a new gate on the right which enters a fenced area set aside from the main section of the dog park. We hope this will give a respite from times when the big dogs run a little too hard. We want to thank Frank Whittington, Dustin Taylor, and Colton Boddy for their hard work in constructing this beautiful new fenced area.

The Puppy Connection to Border Blessings
There had been this idea: take a group of willing workers to Brownsville/Matamoras for a week or so and build a small house on the Mexican side of the border for a deserving family.  Central Christian was sending thirteen of it’s own on the trip. A quite diverse group! One seventy-something, two teenagers, four women, nine men.  Some skinny, some fat. . . gay, straight. . . you name it.

Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries designed this program of cross-border exchanges.  During the past two years approximately sixty small houses have been built.  Perhaps just a drop in the ocean, but an important drop.

Click here to learn more.

A Love Story from the Dog Park

No, no, this is not a human story; it’s the story of a man and a dog.  Several years ago my friend, Craig Tomanek, was seeking to purchase a male Yorkshire terrier.  He had a female, Ellie Mae, but she was getting up there in years and Craig felt she needed a young companion to keep her youthful.  He found a male online and phoned the woman in far north Texas and went immediately on a Sunday night to meet his new dog.  The woman said she was a breeder and the price would be $1,275.  Craig went immediately that Sunday night.  When he arrived he saw a puppy mill, not a breeder but he wanted the dog so badly.  She wanted cash so he went to the only ATM in this small town and it was out of cash.  This was the second red flag so he decided against purchasing the little dog.

Click here to read more.

CENTRAL MEDIA PANEL
Check out our featured media below. In this panel we will highlight either our special or most currrent media that is available on this site. For additional media, please go to the "Media" menu in the primary navigation above. 

2009 ST. FRANCIS PET BLESSING
"From Knighthood to Sainthood"
October 4, 2009
Rev. Norm Stolpe & Rev. Todd Boddy

Click on the "Start" arrow on the Flash player below to hear the most recent Sunday service. Or, for all of our recent Sunday sermons, click here for our 2009 Media Catalog and links to sermons from earlier years.

ST. ROCH SUNDAY
"Hidden Savior, Unconditional Love"
St. Roch Sunday
August 16, 2009
Series: What Good Is Being a Christian?
Part 5 of 6

Click on the "Start" arrow on the Flash player below to hear this spcial Sunday service. Or, for all of our recent Sunday sermons, click here for our 2009 Media Catalog and links to sermons from earlier years.