What is a church service like?

Worship

Christian worship in the Reformed Church tradition has a basic structure. Worship to God has everything to do with action. All three Greek words for worship in the Bible are action verbs, that have the most to do with bowing down, prostrating oneself, and participating in the act(ion) of worship to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

Rosemont Community Church basic worship structure remains the same most every Sunday, although the order within that structure may change from time to time for different reasons. Having said that, let me share with you a road map of where we are going each Sunday morning in worship, why we do it in that particular way, and what meaning it has for those participating with us.

Prelude

This is usually music played on the organ. It gives us opportunity to catch our breath. These are precious moments of transition between "getting here" (arriving) and "being here" (transformed in time) with God through reverence, rest, silence, and release. Worshipers take this time to pray, read the bulletin (our road map through worship), look around and see who is present with us, breathing in and out slowly as we feel our heart muscle experience different emotions, and to focus on the presence of God in the precious seconds and minutes before the organ stops.

Celebration of Life

The worship leader gives us a welcome and invites us to share our stories from our week. We share weekly birthday greetings and wedding anniversary well-wishes. We rejoice with family and friends who may have come or gone far-away to places, sharing with friends and loved ones. We share our journey from the past week with each other.

Prayer Concerns and Prayer

Sorrows follow close to joys always. We lift up all those from our church family, extended family, and friends, lifting them up to Almighty God for healing, help, health, and hope.

WE APPROACH GOD

Worship is divided into three major areas of focus. This first is our approach to God. We come to celebrate, rejoice, ask forgiveness, hear an encouraging word that we are forgiven (not by what have done or could ever do, but rather what Christ did for us), and lift up our hearts to God.

Call to Worship

We let God know we are in his presence in some particular way. We invoke his presence among us. One way is to call upon his name (and God has many names). In essence we proclaim, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." What we are saying is that we are here. We are prepared for worship (whether we are or not) and we ask you to engage us and help us to feel your presence and your power.

Singing God's Praises

Knowing that God is with us, we sing praises. Using familiar choruses and led by our choir, we lift up our voices in song.

Unison or Responsive Reading

We pray a prayer of thanksgiving or confess our sins to God. We ask for the forgiveness that will set us free from the bondage of sin and Satan. We ask for release, knowing that God loved us first and because of that love through his Son Jesus Christ, offers us the opportunity to love and respect ourselves. And in so doing, we can share that same forgiving love with others. We are free to be who God wants us to be by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Words of Assurance/Assurance of Pardon

In this most powerful of moments, we are set free from the bondage of Satan. Satan has no power over us. We are free to be what God has called us to be. Sons and Daughters of the Creator! Most often the words come directly from Scripture.

(In the Approach, we may use the Lord's Prayer, Apostle's Creed, words from one of our Confessions: Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dort, Belgic Confession)

Passing of Christ's Peace

When Jesus, God's Son, left this earth and ascended to heaven to re-unite with God, His Father, he told his disciples that he was leaving them his peace. One of the most beautiful and passive moments in worship is when God's People stand and reenact this moment of gentle love, affection, affirmation, and support with one another in the name of our Lord and Savior. As we move from person to person, we are reminded again and again that we too have been given Christ's peace for our hearts, minds, body, and soul. We do not have to be afraid any more.

Ministry of Music

Our choir or a soloist lifts their voice to heaven in praise to the God of Glory.

WE HEAR GOD'S WORD

The second area of focus is God speaking to us through the Holy Bible.

Scripture Lesson(s)

Worshipers perhaps get closest to God when the Bible is being read because we hear God's Words actually, literally speaking to us in that very moment in time.

God's Word in Drama

This is one way to share God's Word. A creation of a true life story, a hypothetical circumstance, or given situation is acted out, portrayed by one or more participants.

Children's Sermon

A second way to share God's Word is with our youngest worshipers. The children are invited to gather together to share in an object lesson or story by a leader. Or they join in an activity, whereby the teacher shares with them or carries out for them a message about the Bible passage for the day.

Sermon

A third way to share God's Word is to let God speak to us through "a spiritual conversation". The person speaking, usually a pastor or minister, makes their best effort to help us better understand the Bible text we just read. There are many, many methods for doing this, including for example:

1. going verse, by verse, by verse (called expository preaching);
2. or by using a specific topic such as sin, or heaven, or faith, and addressing how these verses help us better understand (called thematic preaching);
3. or taking a whole book of the Bible, like the Book of Jonah, and sharing God's story through Jonah through a number of weeks (called preaching in series);
4. or by dressing up in full costume with makeup, acting out and recreating different stories and bringing to life the character (called first-person sermons).

Prayer

We always ask for God's blessing on the Word be applied to our hearts and minds.

WE RESPOND TO GOD

Offering

One of the wonderful opportunities we have to live out our ministry is to give regularly, cheerfully, voluntarily, lovingly, liberally, and without boasting of our tithes and offerings to God, who always out gives us by providing for us his grace, mercy, power, and peace as we continually live out our life faithfully, while standing on God's promises.

Hymn

Throughout our worship, we sing hymns that reinforce our Bible text for the day and God's message we are invited to carry with us throughout the week.

Benediction

This is God's word at the closure on our time of worship. It is God's goodbye, reminding us that He is always with us.

Postlude

The joyful and triumphant organ resounds that God is great, Jesus victorious, and the power of the Holy Spirit is with us yesterday, today, and forever.

View some videos of what goes on at Rosemont