What To Expect
The first thing you will probably notice as you pull into our church driveway is our church building. The current church sanctuary has been standing and in use for over 200 years. We are thankful to God for the chance to worship Him together in it, although we realize that church is about more than just a building.
As you enter our front doors, you can expect to to be greeted warmly by a variety of people who we hope will make you feel welcome.
Then you will enter our sanctuary. Please feel free to sit anywhere you wish--there are no assigned seats in this house of God!
You will probably then notice our unique style of blended worship. We have a combination of traditional hymns, special music, choir, and contemporary praise songs. We feel that there are a variety of ways and musical styles to use to praise God. if you want to sing, clap, dance, lift your hands, etc. in praise to the Maker of the Universe, please do not hesitate to do so...He is worthy of our praise!
As our worship service progresses, you will see a variety of different parts to it. There is Moment for Missions, where someone (usually our pastor) shares a bit of information about what Christians are going through throughout the world (both good and bad). We have a time of prayer concerns where those in the audience can share any prayer concerns they have. If you have something to pray about, please don't hesitate to share it so we can pray with you. There is also an offering, or giving of money to the church. Let us make this crystal clear: Giving is primarily for members of our church. If you are with us, please do not feel like you are obligated and have to give. Your giving is just the fact that you are there.
About three-fourths of the way through our service, there is a Children's Sermon where all of the younger kids are invited to come up front. A volunteer then teaches a short lesson. The kids (grades 1st and under) are then permitted to go downstairs in the education building (attached by the breezeway hallway) for Children's Church. By the way, Nursery services are also freely available for kids four and younger during the whole service and during Sunday School. (More info available in our weekly bulletins when you come.)
After the Children's Sermon, our pastor, Pete Ely, comes forward for the preaching and teaching time. His messages revolve around how the Bible relates to daily living and how we can grow closer to God. He normally uses Bible verses from the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. We recommend bringing your own NIV Bible because our pew Bibles are a different version, the New American Standard Bible (NASB). We do show the NIV Bible verses on the projector screen every Sunday morning for our worship service if you prefer to read it off of that..
If it is the first Sunday of any month, we will also celebrate Communion, or the Lord's Supper, a ritual that Jesus instituted just before he was crucified, together.
Hope you come out to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our service sometime!