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What to Expect When You Visit Visiting a church assembly for most people is pretty hard. You don’t know what to expect when you walk through the doors. Will the people be friendly? Where will I sit? Will I be embarrassed by being singled out? We try to make a visit to our worship assembly a simple and painless process. Everything is fairly informal. People will speak to you; we have a reputation as a friendly church. No one will be too pushy. You can sit where you want, and we won’t single you out in anyway. We may give you a card to fill out. If we do, the purpose is simply to get an address so we can send you a letter with a little more information about the church. As you sit in our assembly there is a good chance that you will have questions come to mind. The first question that arises for visitors to our assembly usually is “Where’s the music?” or something similar. Good question; very fair question! A cappella (without instruments) music is a part of our tradition, based on Scripture and church history. While it may seem unusual to those who are used to instruments, we enjoy the simplicity and beauty of blending diverse human voices into simple praise to God. During the assembly you will notice that the Bible, which we believe to be the Word of God, will be read a lot. We have a public reading of Scripture, and the sermon will be based on Scripture. We believe the Bible helps lead us into a relationship with God. Each week in communion or the Lord’s Supper. Our communion is open to any baptized believer in Christ. Feel free to enjoy this time with our church family. Following our communion we will take up an offering. This is primarily for our church family. Visitors should not feel any obligation to participate. You may have other questions about who we are and what we believe. Our mission statement is an accurate description of who we are striving to be. We are baptized believers participating in the life of God for the sake of others. If you have questions about what all that means, then please feel free to engage one of our elders or ministers. The people sitting around you can assist you in finding the right person to talk to. Overall we believe you’ll find our assembly a simple, God-honoring gathering. We are simple folks trying to allow God to shape and mold us into the image of his son Jesus. We want to be shaped by worship so we can become better servants in this world. What about children? Please bring them! We have a nursery for the smallest ones. They can stay in there during the entire assembly. For those who are 4 years old through kindergarten we have Bible Activity Time (B.A.T.) during the sermon. The children are invited to leave just before the sermon, and then they return as the assembly is ending. We encourage parents to have their children with them in worship as much as possible. What if they make a little noise? We sometimes say, "A noisy assembly is a sign that the future is bright!" Our children are the future and we accept them as a wonderful part of our assembly. In fact the children are invited to come down the front at the very beginning of our assembly for Kingdom Kids. A loving teacher will interact with them for just a few moments about the theme for the assembly that day. |