About Worship
Each worship service is made unique by our music, the children's sermon, the regular sermon, and prayers. We use a liturgy, a specific order of prayers and hymns, and we celebrate Holy Communion at every service. We also use a lectionary, a schedule of Sunday Bible readings. Our service feels familiar to those acquainted with a Catholic or Episcopal service, and welcoming to everyone.
Children of all ages are welcome to worship, but if they wish, parents may bring them to Nursery Care provided during 9:00 worship. Just off the sanctuary there is a "Crying Room" from which you can hear and see the service while attending babies.
Musical Worship at 9:00
Our music has the high quality you'd expect from a larger richer church. We are blessed to have a very talented choir director and organist/pianist, Peter and Jeanne Bedrosian. They have transformed a collection of mere mortals into a gorgeous blend of voices manifesting God's presence... you just have to hear it! The songs uplift, inspire, and sometimes even challenge us.
We're also blessed with two very talented members directing our bell choir, Karen and Marty Claussen. Some who previously thought themselves non-musical discovered they were wrong. As the directors say, if you can count, you can play in bell choir! The results are astonishingly beautiful.
Both choirs include all ages from high schoolers through senior citizens and are open to all. Vocal choir meets Thursday evenings 7:30 - 9:00. Bell choir meets Sunday mornings at 11:00.
Guest musicians, members of the congregation with musical talents, make occasional appearances as God leads. Examples are amazing flute and piano duets, solo voice accompanied by piano, and voices accompanied by guitar.
Spoken Worship at 8:00
The 8:00 worship service does not include music so it takes a little less time than the 9:00 service. Sometimes you want to attend church but need to get "in and out" on a Sunday morning. We understand!
Sermons
Expect to come away with something solid to chew on. Pastor Yasenka has a knack of weaving the day's lessons with contemporary ideas and experiences, creating a rope to support your faith. He's brought in a steering wheel, made baseball analogies, and turned us into Biblical scholars comparing the Gospels. One Easter the holes in the bottom of his shoes became a lesson on the holes in our 'soles' only God can fill. We've heard about Sophia, the personification of wisdom in the Bible. A life-size cardboard Captain Picard of Star Trek and a member who is a sea ship's captain once illustrated Pastor's point. Recently we heard Jesus compared with the ancient Hebrew prophets. When his son was young, Pastor Yasenka brought in a super soaker and showed us that with water (of baptism) and the Spirit (pneuma, air) you get a long shot!
Before the regular sermon, Pastor Yasenka sits on the step in front of the communion rail and gathers all the children up front to sit with him. He illustrates a point from the readings with a prop and asks a few questions. Sometimes the kids get silly and other times they blow your socks off with their simple but profound answers.
Prayer
Prayer time mid-service is alive. Congregation members have a chance to speak aloud if they wish. Some weeks we hear many spoken prayers, each one closed with the congregation's response, "Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer." Sometimes the prayers are all silent within our hearts. Either way is OK.