Our Worship Schedule

SUNDAYS 

  9:00 am  Classes (see our education page for details)

10:00 am  The Divine Service

Holy Communion (The Divine Service) is celebrated every Sunday. See the Q& A below for more details.

Nursery care is available for children during Sunday services and classes.

Why Do We Gather for Worship?

In the Divine Service, our Lord speaks to us and we listen. Faith comes from hearing God's Word and eagerly receives God's gifts. Faith also responds with thanksgiving and praise.  We gather to know Christ and to make Him known!

Our worship service is based on the rhythm of God's giving and our responding, in continuity with the Christian Church throughout the centuries. In worship, we build one another up as we speak and sing to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. In our services we sing hymns and songs from throughout the Church’s history. Our attitude echoes that of the Psalmist who wrote, I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!" (Psalm 121:1).

As Dr. A.L. Barry, former president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod wrote:

"The most precious gifts and treasures our Lord gives us are His forgiveness, life and salvation. Through His innocent life and bitter sufferings and death, Christ has purchased and won us from sin, death and the devil. Through Jesus Christ, all the sins of the world were paid for and the wrath of God was appeased. Christ has reconciled the whole world to God.

Jesus Christ serves us again and again as His Gospel is proclaimed, as His people are baptized and as His Word is read. He serves us as His forgiveness is pronounced and penitents absolved. He serves us as He gives us His body and blood under the bread and wine to eat and to drink. This is how our Lord gives us forgiveness, life, and salvation. What a blessing it is to be called and gathered for worship by our good and gracious God!"

To learn more about the worship practices of our Lutheran Church click here.

Communion Q&A

Should I come forward to the altar during Communion?

Absolutely! All Christians are invited to come forward during Communion distribution.

Should I eat and drink the Lord’s body and blood?

All confirmed members of this congregation and confirmed members of our sister congregations in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) are welcome to partake of the Lord’s Supper. If you are a member of a church in another Lutheran church body, or are from another church body or tradition, please speak to the pastor or an elder before you take the Lord’s body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. For more of an explanation of our communion practice, please see the card “About Holy Communion” in the pew. Gluten-free wafers are available – please let the pastor or elder know you need one BEFORE the service begins.

Are you saying that only LCMS Lutherans are “good enough” to receive the Lord’s Supper?

Absolutely not! We all come to the Lord’s table recognizing that we are sinners continually in need of Christ’s forgiveness, including the forgiveness delivered in the Lord’s Supper. But we also recognize that the Scriptures say you can be HARMED by partaking of the Lord’s Supper without discerning the Lord’s body and blood (1 Corinthians 11:27-32). We at Messiah don’t want to be an instrument of harm to your soul.

What will I receive if I don’t partake of the Lord’s Supper?

Come forward and place your arms across your chest at the communion rail. The pastor will give you a blessing. You have received the forgiveness of sins which we ALL need in the absolution at the beginning of the service, and through the proclamation of that forgiveness in Jesus Christ in the reading of His Word and in the sermon. Rejoice!