Church Information    Church Meetings    Supported Ministries   Map to Mifflin   Announcements   Recommended Links   Recommended Reading    Sermons

PROVIDENCE CHURCH
   Proclaiming the Biblical and Reformed Standard for Faith, Family and Society

 

Providence Church - Serving the Ashland - Mansfield area and meeting at the Community Center (Lions Club Building) on State Route 603 in the center of Mifflin across from The Mifflin Trading Post.

Sunday services at 10:30 AM

 
  

Worship at Providence Church

 

How Providence Church Meets

Providence Church has now been meeting together for many years.  It is interesting that over the years we have received criticism for being too hang-loose and even of being too structured in the format of our meetings.  Even though we have spent time on Sunday mornings describing how and why we meet and have incorporated it into our teachings we decided it was time to put into written form why we do what we do on Sundays.  The structure of our public worship meetings includes four parts.  These four have been traditionally used in the history of the Church and can be found in the Old Testament forms of worship as well.  It is a general format with great historical usage and a structure that can be a guideline for very liturgical churches or for those with very minimal structure.  Order must have meaning and we employ it as a way that preserves both form and freedom.  

1)    The first part of our worship meeting involves Preparation.  The purpose of this time is to speak to one another and to call one another to God, the reason why we are meeting.  In this part of the meeting we are not directly addressing God, but rather one another.  The invocation, however, calls God or invites God to meet with us.  So we begin Sunday worship calling one another to acknowledge God and reminding one another why we are gathering.  This can include many different activities:  A call to worship, an invocation, testimonies, reciting of the creeds, singing, confession of sin, reading of scripture, a responsive reading, or a brief exhortation to recognize we are in God’s presence as His forgiven people.  We’ll never do all of these in a single morning, but any would be appropriate.  The goal of this section is to impress upon people that they are coming into the presence of the Lord. 

2)    Delivery of the Word of God is next.  Once we recognize who God is and who we are as His gathered people, we seek His revelation to us through the reading of Scripture and the preaching of the Word.  In this primary segment, God speaks to us or it can be said that we hear from God. 

3)    Third is our Response to God.  This is explicit direct worship of God where we speak to Him.  This is through singing, words of praise, reading Scripture (particularly segments that honor God or praise Him for who He is or what He has done).  In this time we are gathered corporately but our focus is not on one another, but is rather on God.  Communion is a part of this and can be at the beginning, middle, or end.  It involves confession.  These second and third parts of the meeting are the most essential parts.  They acknowledge that we meet centered around Christ, represented most clearly through the preaching of the Word and the breaking of the Bread.  Preserving time for this is necessary.

4)    Finally, we are dismissed to Go Into the World.  Here we can give thanks and testimony to what God has done previously.  This transitions us from worship and also continues it by acknowledging our thanks to God.  It also reminds us that as He has been faithful in the past, He will continue to do so as we part.  A time of intercession for one another is also part of our preparation to return to the world.  Finally, the service concludes with a Benediction.  The Benediction is an invocation for blessing and guidance.