Worship

Worship is the most important thing God’s people are called to do.  Yet it has become the most divisive issue in the church in our day. 

We believe that the most important thing to remember about worship is that this is the place where God promises to meet His people.  God is the true seeker (John 4:23-24) who comes to the worship service to give His good gifts to His people in Word and Sacrament.  Thus our worship service is saturated with Scripture from beginning to end so that God’s people are fed and nourished not just in the sermon but also in the other elements of our worship service.  To this end we also choose music that ‘teaches and admonishes’ (Colossians 3:16).  We are mindful that the goal of worship is to pass on the historic Christian faith to future generations. 

Worship ought to be a dialog between God and His people.  Our services follow a call and response pattern: God calls us to worship Him and we respond with praise; God reminds us of His holiness and calls us to confess our sins, we respond by confessing our sins and repenting of them; God assures us of His pardon and we respond with praise; God speaks to us in the sermon and we respond with gratitude and a commitment to obey; etc. 

Sermons are expositions of Scripture and we usually preach through entire books of the Bible.   

We have a high view of the sacraments as a means of grace.  Thus we celebrate Communion twice a month (first and third Sundays).

Sunday is the Lord’s Day and we end the day as we began it, by receiving God's good gifts in corporate worship.  Often this second service is a bit less formal than the morning service but it includes a time of singing and prayer along with an expository sermon.