What’s Sunday Like?
What’s Sunday Like?
Whether you’re new to church or just new to our church, you’re probably wondering what our gatherings look like each Sunday. From your first visit to your 100th time with us, here’s what you can expect week by week at Faith:
We gather to worship both morning and evening.
From the creation of the world, God graciously set aside one day each week for his people to rest from their ordinary labors, so that they might spend the day contemplating his goodness and enjoying his presence in worship; and ever since the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the first day of the week has been kept as the Christian Sabbath, also called the Lord’s Day. Like many Protestant churches in earlier generations, we at Faith still find that one of the most practical ways to help keep our attention on God throughout the Lord’s Day is to gather for worship as a church not just once in the morning, but also again in the evening, for two distinct worship services each Sunday.
Expect to enjoy a double portion of biblical preaching, joyful praise, and Christian fellowship.
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night.”
—Psalm 92:1-2 (“A Song for the Sabbath”)
We gather to sing the great hymns of the faith.
At Faith, we love to declare God’s glory and goodness through congregational songs brimming with biblical truth and reverent devotion. A song we sing in worship may be anywhere from 30 to 3,000 years old! In terms of “style,” we believe that the tradition of simple sacred music for congregational singing which developed for several centuries out of the Protestant Reformation is exceptionally well-suited to the honor of God and the formation of Christians’ souls. With the Psalms themselves as our template (and we sing a lot of those too!), our hymns are designed to impress upon our hearts the abiding realities of God’s character, word, and works, and so to train us to love and worship him through all the varying seasons of life.
Expect to hear awe-filled praise to the King of heaven, telling of his might and singing of his grace.
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!”
—Psalm 100:1-2
We gather to feed on the Word of God.
When you join us for worship at Faith, you are going to hear a LOT from the Bible! In fact, it is often said among Presbyterians that all we really do in corporate worship is “read the Bible, sing the Bible, pray the Bible, hear the Bible (through preaching), and see the Bible (in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper).” We do all this because the Bible really is the word of God, completely true in all that it says, and uniquely given to teach us how to know God unto salvation and to live for him. Therefore, it is both our duty and delight as a church to strive to learn more and more from the Bible week by week, both broadly (Old and New Testaments alike) and deeply (with true understanding), for our doctrine and practice.
Expect to hear a wide range of Scripture passages read in our services; and expect our pastor to preach straightforward, verse-by-verse expositions of books of the Bible, setting forth both their timeless meaning and their vital import for our lives today.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple…
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.”
—Psalm 19:7, 10
We gather to pray.
As prayer is an essential part of the individual believer’s relationship with God, so too is it a central element of our worship together as a church. Indeed, many of the other elements of our worship are either preceded or concluded with a prayer, as we praise and thank him for his goodness and ask him to make our worship fruitful for our growth in grace. We also take time together for an extended prayer each week, lifting up the timely needs of various households of the church, and making supplication for our neighbors, missionaries, other churches, the civil government, the cares of our hearts, and more. Additionally, since we are not currently able to have a regular Wednesday night gathering, we set aside one Sunday evening each month for a congregational prayer meeting.
Expect to join your hearts with one another in reverent and adoring prayer to our God, who delights to give good gifts to his children who ask in faith.
“I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.”
—Psalm 116:1-2
We gather to receive the sacraments.
Before the Lord Jesus departed from the earth to ascend to the throne of heaven, he instituted two special ceremonial acts for the church to use in worship until his return—acts which are designed to depict the saving blessings of his gospel, to set believers apart from the rest of the world, and to build them up in their trust in him. These two sacraments (or ordinances) are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. At Faith, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper twice each month: once in the morning worship service at the beginning of the month, and once in the evening service later in the month. The table of Christ, through which Christians spiritually feed upon our Savior when we partake with faith and a clear conscience, is open to all those who make public profession of faith in Jesus and are baptized members in good standing of a Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church.
Expect to taste and see that the Lord is good, through the regular observance of the Lord’s Supper.
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”
—1 Corinthians 10:16-17
We gather to confess the ancient faith.
As we interpret and teach the Scriptures at Faith, we do not want to be theological innovators of any kind! Rather, we are pleased to express our unity of faith with the church across time and space through the use of ancient Christian creeds and historic Reformed confessions of faith in our worship. These creeds and confessions serve as helpful summaries and reminders of the Bible’s core teachings, and they guard us against both doctrinal novelty and doctrinal ambiguity. It is no embarrassment to us to be part of a millennia-old institution—in fact, we are abundantly grateful for our inheritance of sound biblical teaching that we may use to our benefit!
Expect to recite tried-and-true gospel summaries from historic sources such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
"Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you."
—2 Timothy 1:13-14
We gather as a family of families.
Throughout the Bible, we see that God has a special regard not only for individual believers, but for their households as well; and so we gladly continue the church’s historic practice of bringing our children to worship together with us in the sanctuary. After all, what better way is there for our children and youth to hear the saving offer of the gospel and learn of God’s holy calling upon the life of every Christian? Indeed, we believe it is not only good for our kids, but for us adults too, as we have the opportunity to hear the glories of Christ on their lips and to model sincere devotion before them. We also offer a nursery each Sunday for fussy infants and boisterous toddlers (which are not in short supply around here!), generously maintained by the women of our church.
Expect to see 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds praising God side-by-side, receiving his precious word together, and forming bonds of Christian fellowship across generations.
“Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.”
—Psalm 148:12-13
...and you're invited!
As you can see, we regard it as a great honor and privilege to stand in the presence of God and render our worship to him each Lord’s Day. The Bible describes a proper Christian attitude for worship as consisting not only of joy and familiarity, but also of reverence and awe. After all, we are doing nothing less in worship than enjoying a royal audience with the King of creation in the very courts of heaven! (This is also why you’ll always see our pastor wearing a suit and tie, and why many of our members make a point to dress more nicely than they do during the week, as a personal expression of honor and solemnity.) In other words, our manner in worship would probably never be described by anyone as “casual.”
Nevertheless, we want to assure you that our worship services are open to anyone who desires to hear the word of God or to join in the worship of his holy name. Whatever your condition or station in life; whatever your background or wardrobe; whether you are a skeptic, a novice to Christianity, or a lifelong believer, expect to be warmly welcomed by our congregation.
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