What To Expect
Visitors are more than welcome! Here are five things you should expect to find at Church of the Redeemer.
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A Christ-centered liturgy
- Prelude
- Pastoral Call to Worship
- Historic Hymns
- Reading of God’s Law
- Corporate/Personal confession of sin
- Words of Assurance of pardon
- The Creed
- Gloria Patri
- Old Testament / New Testament Lessons
- A catechism question
- Pastoral Prayer / the Lord’s Prayer
- Sermon
- The Lord’s Supper
- Offering
- Doxology
- Benediction
- Postlude
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Christ-centered, expository doctrinal preaching.
Following Christ’s example in Luke 24:27, He is to be found and preached from every text of the Bible: beginning with Moses, and all the Prophets, in all Scriptures (i.e., from Genesis to Revelation). They are expository, because, ordinarily, they will follow a book of Scripture from beginning to end. They are also doctrinal because, they will also occasionally be a explanation of a historic reformed doctrine, comparing and contrasting it with contemporary trends in evangelical theology.
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Weekly Administration of the Lord’s Supper
Following the biblical pattern (as seen e.g., in Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor 11:33), the practice of the apostolic church, and the advice of the Reformers, our Sunday services will always include the administration of the Lord’s Supper, which is the sign and seal of the covenant, and the visible gospel that confirms God’s promises in the preached Word.
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A generationally diverse congregation
We have the privilege of worshipping together with people of all ages. The father and the Son send us the Spirit, who unites us in the preaching of the Law and the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments. By His Spirit we are more and more united to Christ in His mystical Body; therefore we also forever live and are governed by His Spirit, as the members of our body are by one soul, to the glory of the Father.
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An environment of reverent worship
During our services we come together as the covenant people of God to worship him with reverence and Awe (cf. Heb 12:28-29).
Church of the Redeemer’s Philosophy of Music
COR uses the Trinity Hymnal in corporate worship, believing that the best expression of worship in music is through use of the great hymns of the faith. We agree that “One of the major contributing factors to the superficiality of the lives of evangelical Christians in our country today is the failure of the churches to teach and use the great hymns of the church universal in their services of worship.” (Robert G. Rayburn – O Come, Let Us Worship) We believe that the church can best worship through hymn singing when the doctrinal content and background of the hymns is understood – our services are not designed to entertain the individual, but to glorify our Redeemer and Creator! We concur with the words of David Wells, “The purpose of worship is clearly to express the greatness of God and not simply to find inward release or, still less, amusement. Worship is theological rather than psychological.”