Frequently Asked Questions About the Church of Christ and Other Topics

WORSHIP

Question: "What can I expect if I visit one of your services?

If you join us for our Sunday morning worship, the first thing you'll see is one of the men of our church get up and "make announcements." It's probably not that different than what you would experience in most other churches. He welcomes everyone and then informs the congregation of upcoming activities and lets us know who needs or has requested our prayers. This usually takes no more than five minutes.

For roughly the next hour or so there'll be singing, prayers, Scripture reading, Bible teaching, a free-will financial contribution will be taken up, and we'll partake of the Lord's Supper. Let me tell you briefly about each one of these activities so you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect. We'll start with singing.

The musical side of our worship services is quite different from most religious groups in a couple of ways. For one thing, most religious groups utilize, to some extent, things like soloists, quartets, and choirs. When you visit our services, however, you'll see none of these. Instead, our singing is exclusively "congregational." That is, the whole congregation actively participates in the song service. One of our men will get up, announce a song selection to the church from a song book, and then lead us in that selection. There are plenty of song books in the seats so that all who want to sing praises to God with us may do so.

Another thing that you'll notice about the musical side of our services that is different than what you'll see in most other churches is that we sing without musical instruments -- our musical praise is all vocal, it's acapella. As you might imagine, this raises the question "Why?" from a lot of our guests. If you're asking that question yourself, just go back to the FAQs and click on the question "Why doesn't your church use musical instruments in worship?"

Now let me say something briefly about the other activities you'll see in our services. At different times during the service you'll see a few men get up, stand in front of the congregation, and pray. These men are voicing the concerns of the whole congregation. Just as prayer was a central part of periods of worship in the churches of the New Testament (Acts 2:42; Acts 4:24-31; Acts 12:5; 1 Corinthians 14:14-15; 1 Timothy 2:1-2), it is also a central part of our gatherings.

We also have a public Scripture reading and a Bible lesson (that is, preaching) at each service. Just as praying and singing we're important features of the assemblies of New Testament churches, so was delivering and receiving the word of God (1 Timothy 4:12; Colossians 4:16; Acts 20:7). Hearing the word of the Lord makes us aware of God's presence in the assembly, and it is largely through hearing and understanding God's word that we are blessed by the worship service.

The other two activities that you'll see in our services if you visit on a Sunday morning are a financial collection being taken up, and the Lord's Supper being eaten. As you read through the New Testament, one of the things you'll notice and be impressed by is that so many of the earliest Christians were constantly willing and ready to give (Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:32-37; Acts 6:1-7; 2 Corinthians 8:1-6). That same readiness and willingness to give should be a constant feature of our lives (Romans 12:13; James 2:14-17). Sometimes giving is done privately, but sometimes it's done as an activity of the whole church. You can see it as an activity of the whole church in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2.

Following that example, each Lord's day, at the end of our Sunday morning services, we pass plates around for those who would like to make a financial contribution. This money is used for many things including, but not limited to, paying for local efforts to preach and teach the Bible to adults and children, preaching the message of Jesus in other countries, and helping the needy.

Of course, one thing we'd like to make very clear to our visitors is that we don't for a minute expect you to make a contribution to the work that we do. If you would like to make a contribution, that's fine; but I guarantee you that you will not be asked, and please don't feel obligated. So, if a collection plate comes past you, don't feel one bit reluctant or one bit guilty about just passing it on to the next person without putting anything in it.

Finally, let me say a word or two about the Lord's Supper. I saved this for last, but ironically, we consider it to be the central reason that we come together on Sunday. At some point in our service, several men will gather at the front of the auditorium (that's the sanctuary to some of you) and they will begin to pass out plates of thin, unleavened bread. This bread symbolizes the body of Jesus that was broken on the cross for our sins (Matthew 26:26; Luke 22:19). After a prayer of thanks for the sacrifice of Christ, these plates will be passed throughout the congregation. Feel free to participate if you would like by breaking off a small piece of the bread and eating it. Just pass the plate to the next person after you've taken some of the bread.

After everyone has eaten from the bread, the men who passed the bread plates will return to the front of the auditorium and begin to pass out trays which contain many small cups of grape juice. This juice symbolizes the blood of Christ which was shed for our sins (Matthew 26:27-29). A prayer of thanks will also be given for Christ before this is passed throughout the congregation. Again, feel free to participate if you would like by taking one of the small cups when the tray comes to you, drinking it, placing it back in the tray, and then passing the tray to the next person. Of course, if you'd rather not participate in the Lord's Supper, that's fine too. Just take the tray and pass it on to the next person when it comes your way.

When it comes to eating the Lord's Supper, this is another area where there's a difference between our services and most other religious groups. We are different in that we eat it every Sunday. And, like singing praise without musical instruments, our reason centers on our determination to strictly follow the New Testament pattern.

Although there's no explicit command in New Testament that we must eat it every Sunday, we do find a couple of examples in the New Testament which suggest that churches during the apostle's time ate this memorial meal every first day of every week, or Sunday (If you'd like a little more detailed discussion on this just go back to the FAQs and click on "Why does your church eat the Lord's Supper every Sunday?").

Well, that's pretty much it. As you can see, our services don't resemble the complicated productions that you'll find in a lot of churches. In our quest to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9; Ephesians 5:8-10; Colossians 1:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2), we've searched the Scriptures for a picture of how He wants us to worship Him; and what we have found is a picture of worship that's very simple.

Why don't you drop by for a visit soon. We'd love to have you. (click here for times of services and directions to our building).