Worship and Sermons
Coordinator: Simon Duan

It was well put many years ago when St. Irenaeus brilliantly declared ‘The glory of God is a man fully alive; and the life of man consists in beholding God.’  We gaze on God, we receive his life.

Worship as the Bible clearly demonstrates is not simply something that happens on a Sunday, still less when we sing a few songs together. Worship is our grateful response to God for all he has done for us. “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering” [Romans Chapter 12 verse 1 Message]

When we gather on a Sunday, we come to worship in song, to pray, to listen to the Bible read and taught, to learn, to share, to grow. Our desire is that we encounter the living God and leave changed in some way by that encounter.

On Sunday’s the whole church gathers. The values that we seek to encourage are:

• Encounter: We want to experience an intimacy with God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

• Participation: We encourage people to come with something to bring as well as to take, to offer as well as receive.

Our Style

When we praise God in song we want to use our voices and the words of the songs to honour him, to celebrate him, to invite him. We have a music group using their gifts to help us. Our style is mainly contemporary though we use a mixture of new and older songs. Our main concern is that people worship God in spirit and truth, (John chapter 4 verse 23) that their hearts are given to God rather than what particular song is used. It's not about perfect music; it's about joining the holy roar of a community honestly wrestling with what it means to follow their Creator.
 

Our Shape

There is a monthly shape (or emphasis) to the first part of each Sunday morning:

• First Sunday – Café style: Dialogue and discussion usually of a current theme (with a break for drinks and croissants)

• Second Sunday – Testimony: Opportunity is given to share what God has been saying, doing in your life, to pray, to encourage.

• Third Sunday –Young people: The emphasis is given more to the children and young people of the church. All ages stay in for communion (taking bread and wine).

• Fourth Sunday – Prayer for our world: We are led to engage and pray into the issues, situations and concerns of the world in which we live.