WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU VISIT VALLEY CHURCH
Visiting a church for the first time can be an overwhelming experience - whether you're a lifelong follower of Jesus or a complete newcomer, so the very first thing we hope that you meet is a community of welcoming, caring, and helpful people who invite you into their presence and into conversation with them. We also hope they will be able to answer any questions you might have. However, knowing what to expect during a service of worship can certainly help, too. You will find a guide to what you will encounter in a service of worship at Valley Church below.
But first, we want to make one thing clear: our Sunday morning worship services are designed for one thing - to invite and enable God's people to hear his Word in order that they might be shaped into the community he has designed them to be, and to respond in worship and adoration. We want to give God the worth that is his rightful due - with our heads, hearts, and our whole beings.
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Dress:
There is no dress code at Valley Church, and a lack of a certain kind of clothing should never be a barrier to joining God's people in worship. At Valley Church some come in traditional "Sunday best" (dresses or coats/ties) while others come in jeans and sweatshirts. Most come dressed somewhere in between those!
There is no dress code at Valley Church, and a lack of a certain kind of clothing should never be a barrier to joining God's people in worship. At Valley Church some come in traditional "Sunday best" (dresses or coats/ties) while others come in jeans and sweatshirts. Most come dressed somewhere in between those!
Liturgy:
At Valley Church, we use the words of scripture and the long history of God's people as we worship; we speak the poems and the songs of scripture to express our own gratitude, shame, confession, amazement, disappointment, doubt, and inexpressible joy to the God who rescues us. |
Music:
One of the poems of the Bible makes a command: "Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!" At Valley Church, we take that command seriously. We sing the words of hymns, songs, and spiritual songs - both old and new - with joy. We sing praises to our God with piano, guitar, organ, bass, trumpet, flutes, and occasionally even the banjo! |
Preaching:
We believe that Jesus, our king, exercises his sovereign authority over us through the great story of God's rescue of this world in scripture, and all the smaller stories, poems, songs, proverbs, that we find in it. The Bible is the primary means through which Jesus shapes and molds us into his likeness. Our preaching is accordingly committed to opening up the Bible - taking seriously the way the story implicated the people to whom it was originally written, and taking seriously the way the story implicates us today. We preach the story of God's mighty acts to rescue his people and his creation that we find in the Bible. |
Prayer:
We take the call to pray for one another seriously at Valley Church. During every service of worship, we are given the opportunity to share the things in our lives that are bringing us joy or are matters of concern, and then we bring those joys and concerns before our God in prayer in confidence that we are children of a Father who listens. |
Sacrament:
At least once every month (usually the second Sunday of the month) we celebrate the sacrament of our Lord's Supper. As we celebrate this feast together, we remember Jesus' death, proclaim his resurrection, and we celebrate the presence of our Lord in his communion with us, his family, around the family table. Most of all, this is the feast in which we give thanks. At Valley Church, the table of the world's Lord and King is open to all baptized members of God's covenant family (including baptized children) who worship, adore, and serve Jesus as King. Occasionally we have the privilege and joy of baptizing the children of active, professing members of Valley Church or adults who are professing their faith for the first time. |