What’s Sunday All About?

We believe that Jesus was raised from the dead on the first day of the week, and so we follow the practice of his earliest disciples and gather on Sundays to express our faith in his resurrection. We do not gather to memorialize a dead hero but because we believe that Jesus Christ, as a living and transforming presence, is able to use worship as a means of bringing us into shared life with him and with one another. We pray, sing, listen, and respond in faith and commitment because Christ is risen and really present wherever his disciples gather together (Matt. 18:20).

A Presbyterian service is built around reading, proclaiming, and hearing God’s life-giving Word, which comes to us through Scripture. In our tradition, we believe the Word of God read and preached is central and indispensable to the act of worship and the dynamic principle of our life together as followers of Jesus. Every week we respond to what we’ve heard God say to us in the Word through praying together, singing time-tested hymns of praise, affirming our faith in Jesus Christ through saying the Apostles’ Creed together, and giving financially to support the church’s ministry. We also observe the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on special days throughout the year, and we invite all who trust in Jesus to come to his table with us. Our responses to the proclamation of the Word complete the dialogue which God initiates and allow us to rise together in tangible ways into our new identity as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27).