What to Expect When You Visit

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Text Box: A Little About Us We want you to visit us at Warner Robins Church of Christ and to feel comfortable when you come.  We know that sometimes an unfamiliar place can be intimidating, so we thought we would take a moment and tell you about what you can expect when you honor us with a visit. The Setting Our church building may be much more modest than you are used to.  When you enter our building, you will enter into the auditorium for worship.  There will be rows of pews for the worshipers.  There are no reserved seats, so please feel free to sit anywhere you choose. Singing The services generally begin with singing.  You will find hymnbooks on the back of the pew before you.  When a song leader announces a number, you can turn to that number in your books and sing along with us.  We try to also post the song number for that day's service up front in case you happen to miss the number called.  You will discover our music is all done without any musical instrument accompaniments.  We seek to worship according to the New Testament pattern found in Colossians 3:16, and since the New Testament only authorizes singing, that's what we choose to do.  You may consider us narrow on this point, but we believe you will respect our conviction regarding this and believe you will find the singing very meaningful, with everyone being invited to participate. Prayers There will be several prayers throughout the service.  Some will include prayers on the behalf of our sick and afflicted.  Sometimes you will be asked to stand for prayer, and other times you will just bow your head sitting down.  Only one man at a time will pray out loud.  We are sure you will find our services very orderly. Preaching Our preacher does not have a title.  He won't be referred to as Pastor or Reverend, because such titles are not found in the New Testament.  Some may refer to him as Brother, but most of us generally know him by his first name.  He won't be wearing any ecclesiastical costume that will set him apart from the rest of us since we believe in the priesthood of all believers.  The sermon itself will be about 30 minutes and will be totally Bible-based.  We invite and encourage you to open your Bibles and follow along. Invitation At the close of the sermon, the preacher will extend an invitation.  This is a time to invite those who are moved to do so to make a request for prayer support from the congregation.  He will also encourage those who wish to be saved to come forward to confess Christ (Romans 19:9-10) and be buried with Him in baptism.  Don't feel ill at ease during this invitation.  You will not be singled out in any way.  There may be several who respond, or there may be none.  If someone does come forward to be saved, you will witness the baptism during the service.  The baptism will be one of total immersion in our baptistery, and it will be for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). Lord's Supper If you visit us during the Sunday morning service, we will participate in sharing the Lord's Supper with like-minded believers.  We observe this memorial every Sunday as the New Testament church did.  During this memorial, plates containing unleavened bread will be passed throughout the congregation.  The bread symbolizes the body of Christ that was offered on our behalf.  Each participating person will break off a piece of this bread and eat it and then pass on the plate.  Next, cups containing grape juice will be served.  This fruit of the vine represents the blood of Jesus.  Each participant will take one cup from the tray and drink its contents before replacing the cup back into the tray.  You will notice that during the time of this memorial, the church will be very quiet as each member prayerfully reflects on their spiritual walk and the great price Christ paid for His people (I Corinthians 11:23-28; Matthew 26: 26-28). Please do not feel that you need to participate during this memorial.  Feel free to pass on the tray without being embarrassed.  No one in our assembly will think any less of you for it. The Offering During Sunday's worship service, we will pass plates to collect the weekly financial offerings of the congregation.  This is in keeping with the New Testament admonishment to lay up in store the first day of every week (I Corinthians 16: 1-2).  For convenience sake, we choose the time prior to, or immediately following, the Lord's Supper.  As our guest, you are not expected to give an offering.  Please feel comfortable in just passing the collection plate on down the row. The People We hope you will find us to be a friendly and warm people.  We come from various backgrounds and are at different stages of knowledge and spiritual growth.  We know that we are continually learning and have not arrived at any point of perfection.  We make our mistakes and hopefully  learn from them.  We are fellow travelers coming together to worship our Father and to encourage each other along the way.  We do not claim to have all the answers, but we all know that without Jesus we are nothing.  We hope our love for Christ, His body, and the Bible is quite evident to you during your visit. What Do We Expect From You? Absolutely nothing!  You are welcome to participate, but don't feel obligated to do so.  You will be asked to fill out a Visitor's Card.  This provides our church with information so that we can write or call to thank you for your visit.  It is never shared outside of our church, but if you do not feel comfortable filling out the card, you do not have to.  We do hope you will come and visit us again.  If you have any questions about what you heard or any desire to learn more, we have people who are more than willing to help serve you in that manner. Bible Classes We have classes for all ages.  This is a wonderful time to feed from the Word, and we want to invite you to join with us during this time.  Again, you will never be singled out or made to feel uncomfortable.  You will find that this is not only a time for instruction, but also a time for sharing questions and thoughts.