What Will This Service Be Like?

Liturgical…

Anybody a little nervous about that word? If so, please rest easy ~ you’ll find that this is a lot more familiar than you may think. The word ‘Liturgy’ has a couple of meanings that describe the public gathering of worship:

~ First of all, it means ‘work of the people’ and refers to the idea that worship involves the participation of all the people gathered – not just the select few who are leading or directing the service. Worship is what we do together, not what we have done for us. This is something we already know: in our current services, we listen and affirm the prayers and message spoken or sung, and we proclaim our collective praise through the songs we sing together.

In this new liturgical service, the participation of the congregation is expanded to include not only listening and singing together, but also speaking together: reading Scripture, prayers, responses, and exhortations.

~ Secondly, ‘Liturgy’ also refers to a particular order or pattern of worship. This, too, is already familiar to us. Our current services follow a ‘liturgy’ that usually includes: A Call to Worship, Welcome, Praise, Prayer, Offering and Remembrance of Salvation {through communion or song}, Sermon, Sending, and Blessing. This particular order that we use is actually an adaptation of historic models of worship that arose during the Reformation.

Our liturgical service will simply incorporate a few more elements of this historical model; click here to see the new order of service.

A gracious place…

we hope to create an environment that’s warm, inviting, peaceful yet spirited, intergenerational, corporate, and ‘spacious’ ~ providing room for reflection and contemplation.

for inspiring thought…

for those whose hearts are stirred by ideas, words, and images, we pray that you’ll find yourself inspired by the array of carefully chosen and crafted prayers, readings, quotations, lyrics, and photos offered each service.

for grounding in the Word…

we anchor our worship in our relationship with the Word made flesh – Jesus Christ, and in accordance with the Word of God spoken – the Bible. We’ll share communion together approximately every other week, and Scripture will be a prominent feature in our gathering.

for encouraging generous deeds…

faithful worship always broadens our vision to see all of God’s creation as He sees it, and refreshes our desire to actively participate in bringing God’s hope to a broken and hurting world. May each service send us out to live more obedient, grateful, creative, and openhearted lives for the sake of Christ and His glory.