If you are planning to visit our church for the first time here is a description and explanation of the order of our service.
We have a nursery available for ages 0-3 during the worship service.
Call to Worship
We believe that the Triune God (Father, Son and Spirit) is worthy of our sincere praise and adoration (Ps. 92:1; Ps. 33:1). Thus, we mark the beginning of our worship gathering with a call to worship where one of the pastors reads from a Psalm and exhorts the church to lift her voice in joyful singing and praise in light of who God is and all that He has done.
Singing
God has ordained that his people–of every age, place, and language–would sing praise to Him and Him alone (Ps. 67). We believe that God is pleased with sincere praise in the form of singing with our lips as an expression of our hearts filled with God’s Word often accompanied by various instruments (Ps. 33:1-3; Col. 3:16). We also believe that our singing is pleasing to Him only as we offer it through Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection (Heb. 13:15). In this way we seek to obey the command to worship God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23)
Prayer
We believe that God is our Father and loves the prayers of his children (Mt. 6:9; 1 Tim. 2:1; Phil. 4:6). We believe that acknowledgement and confession of sin is part of the normal Christian life and the worship of God’s gathered people (1 Jn 1:8-10; James 5:6). Thus, we are led weekly in a prayer of confession in which we confess our sins to God and thank Him for His forgiveness given to us through Christ Jesus. We also engage in prayers of adoration, praising God for who He is, thanksgiving, prayers that thank God for all He has done, and petition, asking Him for His provision and help.
Catechism
The Lord Jesus taught that those who would worship God must do so in spirit and in truth. To worship God in truth means to honor Him and relate to Him as He truly is. Right praise of God is contingent upon a right knowledge of Him. The purpose of a catechism is simply to train God’s people in sound doctrine. (2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3) And in each question we are asking what the Bible teaches about either God, Man, or Redemption. We generally ask and answer one question together each week. If you have questions about the content of the catechism, our elders are always glad to converse with you about it after service.
Preaching
We affirm the 1689 London Baptist Confession (LBC) when it states that, “The Holy Scripture [the Bible] is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience” (LBC 1.1). Because of this conviction and the Bible’s emphasis on the necessity of preaching (Mt. 4:23; 2 Tim. 4:2), we, therefore, make it one of the central purposes of our gathered worship to preach the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) proclaiming the supremacy of Jesus Christ in all of life (Col. 1:17-18). Since we believe that preaching is not the communication of man’s ideas, but the exposition of God’s Word, our sermons are always accompanied by reading God’s Word. The reading of Scripture before the sermon is concluded with, “This is the Word of the Lord,” and the congregation affirms this by responding with, “Thanks be to God.”
Lord’s Supper
We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a sign of the New Covenant given to us by Christ to remind us of his death for us, assure us of our union with him by faith and symbolize our unity in him. (I Cor. 10:16-17) We do not believe that the elements of the Supper become the body and blood of Christ, but we do affirm Christ’s spiritual presence with believers as they eat and drink in faith. We affirm the 1689 LBC when it states that the Supper “is given for the confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits of Christ’s death, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him” (LBC in Common English 30.1). (I Cor. 11:217-34) We would like to warmly invite you to join us in partaking of this meal if you are a baptized disciple of Jesus Christ and submitted to either this church or another likeminded church which proclaims Christ and obedience to him in all things, trusting in him alone for salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.
Offering
In both Old and New Testaments we see examples of God’s people giving to the Lord as a part of their worship. God’s people are commanded to give willingly and joyfully to the Lord in recognition that all we have truly belongs to Him. (I Corinthians 9:6-8; I Chronicles 29:14) Therefore every week as part of our worship we collect the offerings of our congregation given to support the ministry of this church and yet done so as unto the Lord. We do this by passing baskets down the isles during one of our final songs.
Benediction
We end our worship service with a ‘benediction’ or ‘blessing’ that is spoken by the preacher to the congregation. Generally this comes from a verse or two in Scripture that is meant to encourage God’s people in believing His promises, loving Him, and obeying His commands. The benediction concludes the service in the name of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the congregation responds with, “Amen.” (2 Cor. 13:14)