Worship

Our gathered worship service on Sunday mornings is at the very heart of the life of our church, and the perfect place to begin your exploration of our community. Click here to get directions and join us on Sunday. We have two identical services: 8:45 and 11:15 a.m. You can also check out our Sunday School program, School of Discipleship for more Christ-centered fellowship and learning. (Our evening activities meet at 6 p.m. on Sundays during school year months.)

The Divine Service

The “Divine Service” is the term we use to describe our weekly, public, gathered conversation with God. Although we believe that God is with us every day of the week in all our regular activities, he has given us special promises when we gather together in worship. It is the Divine Service because God is the primary speaker and actor in the service: he calls us into his presence; he creates and strengthens faith by his Word and Supper; he sends us out with his blessing. We respond with prayer, praise, confession, and acts of gratitude and service. If this form of worship is new to you, please participate as much as you are able—you are standing in a stream of Christian worship that stretches back almost 2,000 years.

Click here for a series of short articles that explains our liturgy or “how” we worship. Click here to view a sample bulletin, or here for the list of current bulletins.

The Hymns

Redeemer Presbyterian Church is well-known as a singing church! We take Paul’s words in Colossians 3:16 seriously, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” The hymns that we sing represent some of the best music that the church has produced over the last 2,000 years. We stand in a long tradition of church music and we work very hard to choose hymns that are true, good, and beautiful. We want to sing true hymns, those that accurately reflect biblical teaching about God, this world, and our life in it. We want to sing good hymns, those that fit the place in the service where we sing them and have also stood the test of time. And, we want to sing beautiful hymns, those whose lyrics and tune unite to convey the message of the hymn in a manner that gives the congregation full voice. So, lift up your voice and join with all the angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, to praise and magnify God’s glorious name!

Children and the Liturgy

Worshipping here at Redeemer is a feast for the ears. The music, the singing, the words spoken in unison—each part of our worship service serves up an auditory treasure. In the middle of it all, you might hear a small voice yell out its own, “amen!” Or stumble on a word in the Creed. Or even ask a mother if the “long talking” is done! We love having children in our worship service because we believe that God is forming them (and us) into the worshippers he created us to be. By standing with their parents, by responding with “thanks be to God,” by singing the doxology, the heart habits of our children are being formed. It is not enough merely to teach our children the truth, we must also embody the truth in the standing, sitting, praying, singing, giving, receiving acts of worship each Sunday. Parents, please explain the service to your children. Sometimes drawing an illustration in their bulletin can help them follow along. Those of you without children in the service, please welcome the children (as Jesus did!) and give a smile of encouragement to their parents. Sundays can be hard days to be a squirmy child or a tired parent, but the investment we all make here will reap eternal rewards.

The Church Calendar

Although Presbyterian and Reformed churches are not known for “keeping” the church calendar, a limited use of the liturgical seasons in an appropriate way to commemorate the high points of the gospel message along with our brothers and sisters in Christ in other branches of Christendom. By doing so, we are also able to emphasize for our friends and neighbors the Christian nature of what have nearly become the wholly secular holidays of Christmas and Easter. Here at Redeemer, we believe that following the church calendar gives us “signposts” throughout the year that draw our attention back to the significant events in the life of Christ: Advent (culminating in Christmas), Epiphany (the appearance of the wise men or, more properly, the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles), Lent (Jesus’ wilderness temptation of forty days, culminating in Good Friday), Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost.