"The glory of God is humanity fully alive." ~ St. Irenaeus
We worship on Sunday mornings at 10:45 a.m. Childcare is provided during the service. Our services use traditional liturgy with joyous music from various periods and styles of the church. On any given Sunday you might hear Taize music, blues, traditional hymns, or contemporary music, all played with a variety of instruments. The arts are very important to us as an expression of the beauty of God. Thus, you will find a sanctuary filled with color, banners, music, and movement.
Young children attend the beginning and the end of worship with adults during the school year, attending Sunday School in the middle. They rejoin us for Holy Communion, either to be blessed or to receive.
In keeping with the Protestant Reformation, we celebrate two sacraments; Holy Communion and baptism. Holy Communion is celebrated weekly and our table is open to all baptized believers. In keeping with our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, we recognize and perform both infant and believer baptism.
Worship at Trinity Church
Human beings were created for
worship. The triune God has invited us to share in His life, and Jesus, our
High Priest, leads us into the presence of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our celebration of worship is the central way we make ourselves present to what
God has done and is doing through Jesus Christ.
Worship at Trinity Church is not a
spectator sport. We are invited to be fully engaged as whole people in the
public service of remembering God's covenants with His people. The liturgy is
not our words, but the Church's words, given to us by a gracious,
self-revealing God. We need worship, as one writer says, because we need
"weekly practice at not being God" and discovering just who the one
true God is. It is only with this vision clarified that we can ever discover
who we are, and flourish as human creatures. Every worship service at Trinity
Church contains four elements: The Gathering, the Word, the Table, and the
Sending. Each of these elements intentionally forms us into the people of God,
mindful of God's gift of Himself:
1. Gathering as the People of God
- we come together, out of our various and distinct places of service in the
world, to be joined together as one people with one purpose; to be re-oriented
to God's life and God's world.
Silence - We pause briefly to hush the
"noise" of our lives, recalling that, left to ourselves, we have
nothing to say to God.
Call to Worship and Invocation - Here we recite our purpose for
gathering and are reminded that we come only at God's gracious invitation. For
this gift, we can only respond by saying "thank You."
Confession of Sin and Words of
Pardon - We do not come before a holy God
on our own terms. We have sinned. We have hurt others and ourselves. Confession
is honesty about who we are in the light of who God is. We confess our sins
together, with the whole Church, because we do not stand alone in our
brokenness. Yet, we come to confession not to grovel in anxiety, but to empty
our hands of our own "solutions" so that we can receive God's gift of
promised forgiveness in Christ.
Peace - As forgiven and reconciled
people, we have been called to a ministry of reconciliation in the world. Since
God has forgiven us, we can forgive others and live at peace with them. We
start with the family of God, speaking words of peace in Christ, and continue
by extending that peace in all our relationships and choices.
Praise - Learning again that God has met
us in our need, and has abundantly forgiven us, we celebrate in songs of
gratitude and joy. Once again, these are not merely our words, but words given
to us by God in His Church.
2. Listening to God's Word -
the center of our worship is the revealed speech of God. God has spoken to His
people "words of eternal life," and we take time to simply,
reverently, and humbly listen to what God is saying. The Scriptural story is
our story, as the people of God. This is a story of people caught up in God's
grace, human faithfulness and failure, and God's constant loving kindness
toward us.
Scripture - we typically hear four passages
from Scripture (Old Testament, a Psalm response, New Testament Epistle, and a
Gospel reading). These texts, often taken from a three year lectionary cycle,
are shared in common by Christians from many denominations around the world.
Here we remember that God is speaking to all of us, the whole people of God,
and our response at this Word is one of gratitude: "Thanks be to
God!"
Sermon - The sermon is a prayerful attempt
to proclaim the Word of God within our lives together as followers of Jesus
Christ. God's Spirit continues to speak to us, and we are compelled to hear the
daily call to faithful discipleship.
Creed - Biblical worship always includes
response. In our affirmation of faith, we are invited to corporately affirm
what the Church proclaims. With this confession, we join our voices to the
Church around the world and throughout time, saying, "Yes Lord, we
believe, and will obey."
3. Gathering at the Lord's Table
- Here we begin to act as obedient disciples, through giving of our lives,
interceding in prayer for others, and sharing in the meal that identifies us as
people of the kingdom - the body of Christ for the world.
Offering - Like the rest of the worship
service, the offering is a meaningful symbol. By giving to the ministries of
the Church as an act of worship, we are acknowledging a deeper, larger reality:
All of life is a gift from God. What we joyfully give in worship should keep us
mindful that everything we have is a gift of God and should be used for His
glory.
Prayers of the People - God has ordained us to be
priests. Part of that priesthood is the work of intercession. In the prayers of
the people we begin the lifelong task of bringing before God - through the
ministry of Jesus, in the power of the Spirit - the needs of the world, the
church, our communities and families, and ourselves.
The Eucharist - Communion is the reality of
participating in the life of God through the gift of Jesus Christ to us. Here
we give thanks to the Father for His work of creation and redemption; we
remember the Son, Jesus, for His life-giving life, death, and resurrection even
as we await His coming; and we ask for the presence of the Spirit to join us to
the life of Christ and to transform us into kingdom people, who seek to live
lives of justice and peace in the world, until the day the Kingdom of God fully
arrives.
4. Going out into God's World
- Worship makes "sense" of the world, inviting us to see and do the
world God's way. The end of the service is really a beginning: the beginning of
a life of worship in which we love God and neighbor, seeking to "do
justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God."
Sending - Having heard God speak, having
learned the Good News, having been nourished at the Lord's Table, we have been
commissioned for the work of Jesus in our homes, places of work and play, in
the whole creation. The "sending" offers words of direction -
marching orders - for the people of God: "Go in peace to love and serve
God and neighbor." We have work to do.
Benediction - Yet we must always remember that
the work that must be done is really God's work. We need God's grace and
blessing to fulfill our calling as the Church in the world. The final words
should ring in our ears, and burn in our hearts every day of life as our
primary identity: "The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you always."