Morning Worship
We meet every Sunday at 10:15 AM. We pray, sing hymns and spiritual songs, receive the sacrament of the Word and the Lord’s Supper weekly. In order to understand what this means we must lay out the doctrine of the Regulative Principal of Worship. Put simply, the Regulative Principle of Worship states that the corporate worship of God is to be founded upon specific directions of Scripture.
Our morning worship service can be described as a traditional Reformed Worship Service. We believe that scripture lays the foundation for how we ought to worship God, and as Paul writes to the church in Rome, we are to “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom. 12:1–2). We believe that all life is regulated by what Scripture teaches, and that everything we do should be conformed to what scripture teaches. It should come as no surprise then that the worship of God would follow suit and have a prescriptive element to proper worship. We, in fact, see this throughout the Old and New Testament, in places like Gen. 4:3–8 where Cain’s heart attitude was deficient according to God’s prescriptive motive, in Ex. 20:2–6 where God specifically prescribes in his decalogue how He is to be worshiped, and in Ex. 25:40 “….after the pattern…shown you”. We also see the Apostle Paul speak sternly to the church at Colossae for a “self-made religion” Col. 2:23.
Ultimately what the Regulative Principle of Worship does is free us to worship God properly, according to His commandments laid out in scripture. We believe scripture is clear in prescribing us to worship God through the reading of scripture, preaching the Word, singing hymns and spiritual songs, as well as participating in the administration of the sacraments of the church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. There are of course other elements like those laid out in the Westminster Confession of Faith, such as oaths, vows, solemn fasts and thanksgivings, which we take part in when necessary. However, we are now freed to worship the living God as He has prescribed in His word, and it is our hope that these truths are manifested in our weekly Morning Worship!
Frequently Asked Questions
We worship following a printed liturgy, which is provided each week at the entrance of the chapel. We also provide the hymnal and Songbook at each chair. We recommend bringing your Bible and a pen for note taking if you chose.
There is no prescribed dress code, however we believe that proper dress attire helps to prepare our hearts and minds to worship God as he has prescribed
In order to follow the prescribed method of the institution of the Lord’s Supper we practice a “fenced” table. We offer the Lord’s Supper to all who have made a profession of faith and are members of Bible believing Church. If you are unsure of whether you meet these criteria, please see one of the elders before the service.
We believe it is important that all children and especially all covenant children take part in the worship of the church, therefore we do not have children’s church during our Morning Worship service, after all, it is their church as well! However, we do have a children’s Sunday School following the Morning Worship in the upstairs of the chapel.
Our Morning Worship typically lasts about 90 minutes. This varies depending on our monthly worship schedule.
