WHAT TO EXPECT
We are very pleased that you are considering visiting us here at Trinity! Here’s what to expect at one of our typical morning worship services:
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Our service typically lasts for about an hour and fifteen minutes (10:45 to Noon). Most everyone comes a few minutes early to secure their preferred seating, and to prepare their hearts for worship as the pianist plays meditative music.
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One of the pastors will welcome everyone and make any necessary announcements. He will then call the congregation to worship from the scriptures and invite the congregation to rise and sing the Doxology.
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At this time in the service the scriptures are read from the pulpit. We read consecutively through the New Testament in the AM service and the Old Testament in the PM service. Each Lord’s Day a portion is read, so that after a few years we will have read through the entire Bible as a congregation.
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After the Scripture Reading, the pastor leads the congregation in a hymn, a psalm, or a song of praise. In our morning worship services, we try to make a point of singing to all three Persons of the Godhead. Usually the first hymn is directed primarily to the Father, the second hymn to the Son, and the third hymn to the Holy Spirit.
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After the first hymn, the pastor then leads the congregation in a prayer of invocation, asking God to be pleased to meet with His gathered people and bless the prayers, the praises, and the preaching.
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After a couple of other hymns and another time of pastoral prayer, the pastor/preacher enters the pulpit and brings to the congregation a 40-50 minute message from God’s Word. We regard this time of preaching not only to be a continuation of worship (listening to Christ speak to us through His Word and by His Spirit), but also to be primary and indispensable to the worship service.
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After the preaching we have a time of silent reflection and meditation and the pastor concludes the service with a Benediction (Blessing).
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It is our custom to observe the Lord’s Supper (Communion) weekly in our Afternoon PM service. If you are visiting with us, we invite you to speak to one of the pastors after the AM service before partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
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As far as ‘what to wear’, you will find that people at Trinity dress anywhere from casual to formal, but with a concern to be modest and non-distracting to other worshipers.
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We do provide childcare for children up to the age of 4, and we encourage parents to take advantage of this service. There is also an area in the back of the sanctuary that is reserved for families with small children who choose to have their young ones in the worship service with them.
We invite you to come and worship our Triune God with us. We trust that you will find our services God-centered and soul-enriching.
PREACHING
The Ordinary Means of Grace
We believe that the primary and most important part of worship is the systematic reading and expository preaching of God’s Word. This is precisely because everything is to be governed and disciplined by Holy Scripture. How would we accurately know the God we worship apart from the Scriptures? How would we know how to worship God acceptably apart from the Scriptures? How would we know what to believe or how to live apart from the Scriptures? It is through the preaching of His Word that God is pleased to grant faith (Romans 10:17) and strengthen faith (John 17:16). The preaching of God’s Word is the primary and ordinary means of evangelism (Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 1:21) and of making disciples (Matthew 28:20). The preaching of God’s Word is also the primary means by which God’s people become mature in the faith and more like Christ (John 17:16; Ephesians 4:11-16). The preaching of the Word in truth is nothing less than Christ Himself, by His Spirit, preaching to us (Ephesians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 5:20;Romans 10:14b). And what Christ has to say to His church in His Word and by His Spirit is far more important than anything we might have to say to Him in our prayers and praises. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit [of Christ] says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Sadly, fewer and fewer churches have ‘an ear’ for sound, Biblical teaching. The Apostle Paul exhorted his son in the faith, Timothy, that in the face of this inevitable falling away from preaching, he was to continue to preach the Word even when it is no longer popular to do so (2 Timothy 4:1-5). Therefore we purposely devote the majority of the worship time to preaching, and by God’s grace will persevere in this commitment, despite the spirit of our age.