Worship at Grace and Peace

 You will be greeted at the front door with a smile and a worship guide for the service. The greeters will direct you toward the nursery if you have small children (but you are welcome to bring them into service), or toward the worship area otherwise. On the way into the worship area, you will find an information center with lots of information about our church, our denomination, and various ministries we support. You will likely be greeted by other worshipers as you enter the worship area, who will help you find a seat and be glad to answer any questions that may have come up as you made your way in. Our worship service is traditional and liturgical, which means that it will follow a structure laid out in the worship guide, including Scripture readings, prayers, hymns, and confessions. Everything you need to follow along in the service is printed in the worship guide. Our music is mostly traditional in style. It is led by a piano and consists of hymns, both old and new, as well as singing some of the Psalms of Scripture. The sermon is usually 30-35 minutes and will come directly from a portion of the Bible, seeking to help you apply it to your life. At some point during the service, we will pass an information pad down the aisles and ask you to fill out as much as you are comfortable sharing. The purpose of this is simply to allow us to follow up with you after you visit to thank you for coming and to see if we can answer any questions for you.

Loving the little ones

We love children at Grace & Peace. The safety and spiritual nourishment of your children are very important to us. We provide a nursery for children up to 3 for the entirety of the worship service. Children ages 4-6 are allowed to go in during the sermon. All of our nursery workers are church members, are background checked, and participate in safety training.

While we are happy for your children to be part of our nursery, we also welcome children of all ages in the worship service. We believe the children are part of the covenant community, and we want them to worship with us as soon as possible. Of course, we understand that young children will have trouble sitting still and they will have questions. We don’t mind a bit of extra noise from the children, especially if they are learning to worship with the people of God.

Come together at the table

We serve Communion or the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. We believe that it is a means of God’s grace to us, which means that God works through it by His grace to build us up in our faith. Those who receive communion in faith feed upon Christ and are nourished spiritually. We do not believe that Christ is physically present or that we partake of his physical body and blood, but that he is present spiritually and truly works in us through this meal.

Because this is true, we believe that the Lord’s Supper is only for those who trust in Christ alone for salvation. Those who aren’t trusting Christ alone for salvation are welcome to stay as we celebrate this sacrament, but are asked to refrain from partaking of the bread and wine. In 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 we read, “Whoever, therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” We believe this a warning for all of us to examine ourselves before partaking of the Lord’s Supper, but especially a warning against partaking of it without believing in the good news that it portrays.

Come as you are…

… but expect to be changed. We believe that none of us can make ourselves worthy of God, but He graciously reaches out and makes us worthy in Jesus Christ. He receives us as we are, but He never leaves us as we are. By His grace, we are transformed to live the way that He created us to live. So don’t think you have to get your act together or make yourself worthy in some way before you can come to church. Just come as you are and receive the grace of God. You will never be the same.