Elements of our Service

Humans were made for worship. True worship focuses on God and is a time of reflective dialogue as our hearts respond to who he is and what he has done in Jesus. We incorporate arts and liturgy to help us express gratitude to God. Our music seeks to reflect the diversity and vibrancy of our city by incorporating the best of a variety of styles - hymns, contemporary music, as well as songs from the wider global church body. Feel free to join in or to simply listen to the words.

This reminds us of some element of who God is and call on us to worship him as he invites us into his presence.

We pause a number of times throughout our service to pray because we have a personal God who gives his children access to him through Jesus. God is holy, so we take time to confess how we stray and fall short of God's standard and then are quickly reminded of the work of Jesus in the gospel in forgiving us and giving us the same standing he has with God. Our prayer for the church & the city gives us time to pray for the peace and wholeness of our city and to ask God to make his church into an agent of gospel grace and renewal.

We believe that all we have is a gift from God. The offering is an opportunity to worship by giving back a portion of what God has blessed us with to meet the needs of the city and the church. If you are a visitor, please do not feel like you need to participate in this part of the service as you are our guest.

The Bible is God's chosen means of speaking to humans. Each week we read a selection from the Bible, listening to God reveal both himself and the character of our hearts.

God and His Word, the Bible, challenge the both the skeptic and the Christian with the radical and transforming nature of the gospel. Our preaching and teaching explores Scripture and seeks to be thoughtful and engaging as it addresses common objections to the gospel found in our culture.

Entering into conversation is an important part of the process of understanding and applying. We usually provide a Q & A time after the sermon so that people can ask the questions they have, probe the text for the needs of their own souls, and get humble answers to the issues they have with Christianity.

The central event that animates our lives is the perfect life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for us. We celebrate that truth in song, word, and in participating together around the bread and cup that demonstrates and signifies all He has done for us. Please feel free to participate if you have professed your faith in a Christian church. If you have not made a public decision to follow Jesus, but would like to, please talk to the pastor or whoever invited you to church.

We baptize both new Christians and "covenant" children as an admission into the visible church. Baptism is a multi-faceted sign that tells of how God seals us into life with him in a covenant of grace. Water signifies a person's union with Jesus by the washing away of sin, as well as the dying to the old way of life and the rising again to new life. It further points to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit who empowers us for living out of gospel.

A benediction is a blessing from God. The pastor or speaker will pronounce this blessing reminding us of the smiling presence of God upon his children.

Please hang around with us after the service so that we can get to know you. We typically have food and drink after the service to facilitate fellowship and community building. We hope that you are willing to continue the conversations throughout the week as we offer a variety of close-knit Intermission small groups to help skeptics and Christians alike to discover more about Jesus and practically live out Christian faith in the city.

Please direct questions to our children's coordinator Katrina VandenBerg.

If you have any further questions regarding worship at New City Church, please contact Colin Toffelmire, our worship coordinator.