The Divine Service: 9:00 A.M.

What to Expect

From one church to the next, worship looks, sounds and feels different. Often it is intimidating to walk into a church and have no idea what to expect. Our worship services are reverent yet relaxed, formal yet comfortable, and always filled with the good news of Christ Jesus through His word and sacraments.

Our worship follows the traditional pattern of songs, psalms, prayers, and scripture that has fed countless generations of Christians for almost two thousand years. This pattern leads us from confession and repentance through forgiveness into praise and prayer, hearing God's life giving Word and the reception of His gifts of grace and peace.

Most importantly, in our worship services you will always hear the Word of God read. We always read from the Psalms, the Old Testament, a letter of the New Testament, and one of the four Gospels. After all, we come to church to meet Jesus - and he promises to always meet us in His word.

We celebrate communion on the first and third Sundays of every month and on the occasional special Sunday when communion is most appropriate.

Our entire worship service is laid out in a bulletin that is easy to follow and easy to understand. You can even take it home with you.

What is worship about, anyway?

We worship the one true God, the creator, redeemer and sanctifier of all things. The living God doesn't simply stay "up there" somewhere, but He is the God who comes to us in flesh and blood - in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't just go back to heaven after his ministry on earth to stay there - no, he promises to come to us and be truly present with us whenever we gather in his name to read his living word and proclaim him death and resurrection at the altar during the Lord's Supper.

Jesus Christ is alive, and so is worship. Just like Jesus, worship even has a heartbeat - a regular rhythm. In our worship, this heartbeat can be felt. We come to God, bringing him our sins and a broken spirit, exactly as they are, and he responds with true, complete forgiveness. We return to him with our thanks and praise, and he comes right back at us with his living, feeding word. We respond with gratitude and wonder, he responds with the true good news of Jesus Christ. We respond with our prayers, he responds again with the assurance that he is our gracious Father, giving good things to his people who call on his name.

This heartbeat, this rhythm, this back and forth between God and us is our living worship of him. We come to bring him all that we are, and he always responds with his loving gifts. And this is why we call it the Divine Service - it is where God serves us by His Word and Sacraments. Here at St. Paul, you will find Jesus Christ, every Sunday.