God designed humans to be “gatherers”, meaning, we’re communal creatures. This is why we pursue the many relationships available to us, whether it’s friendships, or marriage, or stronger connections with our kids. We are designed to need and long for meaningful attachment with other people.

Because God has created us with this desire, He also provides us with one of the most important aspects of the Christian life—the local church—of which the Sunday morning gathering is the main activity. In fact, the Greek word (the New Testament was written in Greek) for “church” literally means, “gathering”. But God doesn’t just tell us that we should gather together on Sundays, He also tells us what we should be doing when we gather together. As we read in 1 Corinthians 14:12, we are to “strive to excel in building up the church”. Our time together on Sundays is designed by God to encourage and build us up in our faith in Jesus Christ. At Grace Bible Church, we aim for this end through the elements described to us in the New Testament: singing together, praying together, hearing the Bible preached together*, witnessing the baptism of new Christians together, and taking the Lord’s Supper together.

All of these elements take place in a pretty informal atmosphere wherein our members introduce themselves to visitors and enjoy getting to know them after the service, but in which nothing is expected of visitors during our service…no recognition of new folks, or coercion to take part in any element. We really just try to create an atmosphere that’s encouraging for our
members and comfortable for folks visiting, whether they’re Christians or non-Christians. Most of all, we hope that when folks visit, they’ll get to experience the Savior we worship–Jesus Christ. Come and join us any Sunday morning from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.

* During the extended prayer and preaching portion of the service, we offer age-specific teaching for any infants through fifth graders in our Nursery and Children’s Church.