What To Expect
“Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.”
Psalm 95:6
“In the public worship of the church, the people of God, redeemed by Christ, glorify and enjoy the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as He reveals Himself in His Word” (Reformed Presbyterian Directory for Worship, 1.1)
God uses church as one of the primary ways to care for us in this life. When we gather for worship to sing His praises, to pray together, to enjoy fellowship with other believers, to sit under the reading and preaching of God’s Word, to partake in the Sacraments, to come under the authority and care of elders, we are blessed and strengthened by the Spirit (Acts 2:42, 47; Rom. 10:13-17; Eph. 4:13; ). We get to meet with the Holy God who made us, and we come with confidence as those redeemed by the blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness.
Our worship is simple and biblical, and focuses on the preaching of God's Word through faithful exposition and application. We believe that the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments are primary means of grace.
Why do we worship the way we do? - The Regulative Principle of Worship
As a Confessional Reformed church we believe in the regulative principle of worship. This means that we believe that scripture is our ultimate authority, and all of our worship is to be directed by God’s Word (Deut. 12:32; Ex. 20:4-6; Col. 2:23).
You will notice that we only sing the Spirit-inspired Psalms, and we sing without any instruments. God has graciously provided a sufficient and complete psalm book in His Holy Word, and we enjoy the privilege of singing God’s Word back to Him. The Psalms give expression to every human emotion, and prophecy of Christ’s redemptive work. When we sing the Psalms we sing about Christ, in Christ, by Christ’s power and work.
We sing without musical accompaniment because in Scripture the instruments in worship were connected to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament that anticipated Christ’s sacrifice. The ceremonial system has been fulfilled in Christ, and He alone is our mediator. We are now free to worship God in Christ, without the restriction of sacrifices, priests, instruments or other ceremonial requirements.
“And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.”
- 2 Chronicles 29:28
“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
- Hebrews 13:15
While we attempt to sing beautiful praise back to our God, you do not need to be good at singing! God is more concerned with our heart. Ultimately the thing that makes our worship pleasing and pure before God is not our piety, formalism, or abilities. It is the blood of Christ.
To familiarize yourself with the tunes to our psalter you can find them at https://psalter.org or on Spotify:
The Lord’s Supper
We celebrate the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of each month in the morning service.
One aspect of our worship service that may surprise some is that, while everyone who comes in the door is welcome to hear the word, sing, and pray with the congregation, participation in the Lord’s Supper is something we carefully guard. The Supper is a great and wonderful privilege, which Jesus gave to his people. The apostle Paul warned that people who ate and drank carelessly risked the wrath of God (1 Corinthians 11:17-32). We don’t want that for you.
Since this is not our Table, but the Lord’s Table, the invitation to commune extends beyond our own congregation's members:
We invite all who are baptized communicant members in good standing of any branch of the Reformed Presbyterian Church to commune with us by letting the Session know who you are and to which congregation you belong.
We invite all who are baptized communicant members in good standing of any of the churches within the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Counsel (NAPARC) (example: PCA, OPC, URC) to commune with us by letting the Session know who you are and to which congregation you belong.
We also invite any baptized communicant member in good standing of another evangelical Christian church to talk with the Session before communion to share your profession in Christ and understanding of the Christian faith.
Any visitors who either do not meet one of the three above criteria or have not talked with the session before the service, are asked to refrain from communion. In this case, we ask that you only participate by observing and meditating upon the grace offered in the ordinance as others commune.
Children in Worship
Our children remain with us during worship and the preaching of the Word. We believe that God has included our children as members of the new covenant community of Christ and they should be included in our worship service (Matt. 21:16, Acts 2:39) We also recognize that at times children, and especially babies, may need to make use of our nursery or nursing room.
