The Means of Grace

This is intended to prepare our hearts and minds for worship. It involves reading a passage of Scripture that directs our attention to the goodness and praiseworthiness of God. This practice is seen throughout the Psalms; Nehemiah practiced this before the public reading of Scripture; and Paul prefaces each of his epistles with a call-to-worship. This is usually followed by a brief moment of silence as we reflect on what was just read.

We are commanded in Scripture to pray whenever we gather as a church. We aim to pray five different petitions during our gatherings; each are rooted in Scriptural precedence and follow the general structure of the Lord’s Model Prayer.​ In the first, we ask for God’s Name to be celebrated in our meeting as we ascribe praise to Him for who He is. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name!

We are commanded in Ephesians 5:18-20 and Colossians 3:16 to “sing to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Therefore, you will find us singing all three genres in our gathering. Further, we sing songs from every period of church history to show solidarity with the whole body of Christ from all ages. This is our criteria and evaluation process for selecting hymns:​​​​​​​​​

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Although this petition isn’t explicitly demonstrated in The Model Prayer, it is commanded elsewhere in Scripture. Why? Because a person cannot understand the things of the Spirit, except by the Spirit (1 Cor 2:6-16). Therefore, before we begin our exposition of Scripture, it is important that we ask God to give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts that cherish, and minds that understand.

​This is what is often referred to as the "sermon" or "message." Our method of preaching is through books of the Bible, sequentially, verse-by-verse, thought-by-thought, expositing each passage in light of its proper context. Each text will be exposited, illustrated, and applied. This is the mode of preaching practiced in the Bible. In Acts, the Apostles “exposit” the Law, moving through it from front to back. The practice remained common throughout the early church. Expository preaching guards against the pastor abusing Scripture by taking passages out of context, and ensures that we “preach the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:17, 2 Tim 3:16).

After a time of response (more congregational singing), we address two or three questions from our catechism. A catechism is simply a summary of the core tenants of our faith in the form of common questions and answers. We use The Baptist Catechism, written by Benjamin Keach in 1693. Just as we preach sequentially through books of the Bible, we also move sequentially through the catechism. 

Here we express sorrow for our sins, and ask for forgiveness. James 5:16 stresses the importance of confessing our sins in prayer. To prompt a confession, a text of Scripture containing God's Law is read (generally one of the Ten Commandments), and then we confess how we may have broken that Law by corporately praying, “forgive us our trespasses.”

Following our prayer of confession, a gospel reading is shared, assuring pardon to all who repent of their sins and turn to Christ in true faith. We respond by thanking God for all that He has done for us in Christ. Multiple passages of Scripture tell us to pray with thanksgiving in our hearts (e.g. Col 4:2, Phil 4:6, 1 Tim 2:1, etc.).

Having confessed our sins, and having given thanksgiving for our assurance of pardon, we join together and proclaim the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. We recite the three historic ecumenical creeds of the Church on a weekly, rotating basis: the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. These creeds are helpful for three reasons: (1) they reflect the language of Scripture and are a good summary of our faith; (2) they are a defense against heresy; and (3) they reflect the common beliefs shared with all believers everywhere, across all eras and regions. While we cannot recite the whole Bible in one sitting, we can summarize it.

If there are baptisms to be held, this is also the time when we observe those. Baptism and Communion function as signs and seals, outwardly demonstrating the gospel. Baptism is the profession made by a new believer, whereby they are immersed in water, symbolizing their union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Communion symbolizes Christ’s broken body (bread) and shed blood (wine), and believers are told to observe this “when you come together” in order to “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor 11:23-26). Therefore, we observe communion on a weekly basis and only administer baptism to newly converted believers. 

Following Communion, we sing one final song, and then conclude by singing the Doxology. We also often sing the Gloria Patri. The Doxology is a song of praise to God as Trinity, and is a paraphrase of Psalm 117. The Gloria Patri is an adaptation of Matthew 28:19, set to music during the second century. It is the oldest hymn in continual use.

This serves as our closing prayer. Supplication is seeking and asking God for what you and others need. We often use this time to pray for the physical needs in our congregation and community. James 4:2 says, “ye have not, because ye ask not.” Thus, we pray: “give us this day our daily bread,” and “lead us not into temptation.”