Our Order of Service
In the interest of familiarizing oneself with the order of worship, here is the order of worship that we use at Grace Presbyterian Church.
-Greetings & Announcements (this, by the way, is not formally part of the order of service)
-Call to Worship and Invocation
-Two Songs (Psalms or Hymns)
-Confession of Sin & Assurance of Pardon
-Scripture Reading
-The Living Church (this is where we will receive new members, then sing in celebration)
-Affirmation of Faith (The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Larger Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, etc.)
-Pastoral Prayer
-Gifts/Offering
-Song
-Sermon (Prayer of Illumination, Scripture reading, Sermon, Prayer for Transformation)
-Supper
-Song
-Ten Commandments
-Benediction (this formally concludes the worship service)
-Departing Hymn
We stand during all the songs, the Ten Commandments, and the Benediction. But you’ll notice in this order a balance of positions (standing or sitting) as well as a balance of speaker. Worship is dialogical in that God speaks, and his people respond. Hopefully, this order highlights this back-and-forth reality.
As for the logic, this is how we proceed. We are first called into God’s presence through his Word. We immediately realize that we need his help, and so we pray the prayer of invocation, calling upon our God to aid us to worship him in Spirit and truth. We sing two songs that highlight God’s call and our response to this call. However, as we come into God’s presence, no sooner are we struck with the reality of our sinfulness. God is holy, holy, holy. For this reason, at the front end of the service, we confess our sins. Graciously, we are assured of God’s pardon! And it is on the basis of this pardon and its benefit of assurance that we proceed in worship. We hear his Word to us in the Bible. Then we affirm our faith using a common creed or confession.
After hearing God’s Word read, and singing his praises, we have a full plate of prayers to offer. Our hearts overflow with adoration and thanksgiving, along with supplication, and so we pray the “long prayer” (as some Presbyterians used to call it). We’ve offered our words, and in gratitude we offer our monetary gifts to the Lord for the glory of his name, the building up of his people, and the testimony to the world that Jesus is Lord. It is only fitting, then, to offer a song of praise, for the act of giving is a joyful, cheerful act! God loves a cheerful giver.
Next, we turn our attention not only to God’s written Word (as before) but to his preached Word, which especially is used by God to work in our hearts (see WLC 155). And so, we first pray that God will illumine the text for us, we listen to the Word preached, then we pray that we would not be hearers only, deceiving ourselves, but transformed and doers of God’s Word (James 1). Having heard God’s Word, it is time to eat his Word. That is, it is time to have the visible Word in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It is time to commune with the Triune God. After communing, it is only right to rejoice in song because of the sufficient work of Christ on the cross for us and the ongoing application of that work to our hearts by his Spirit. Being renewed by the Word spoken and eaten, as real means of grace, we recommit our lives to follow our God, and so we recite together the Ten Commandments as a summary of God’s command for us. Finally, because God has the first word (Call to Worship), he also has the last word, as seen in the Benediction. We leave with the divine blessing upon our lives, a final reminder of God’s grace that will pacify and energize us to live the week in obedience to him.
If you have more questions about our practice, please reach out to an elder. You can also check elsewhere on our website in which we explain our commitment to worshiping God in the way he has prescribed in his Word.