What to Expect
Welcome
If you come to worship with us on a Lord’s Day morning, you can expect to find a friendly church that has been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our worship may be different than what you are used to, but we trust you will find it biblical and God-glorifying. Below are some insights we believe will be helpful for your visit.
If possible, before you come, please drop us a line, and we’ll greet you upon arrival!
Enter Into His Courts...
At Ascension Reformed Church, we believe we enter the courts of God when we enter into the worship service. Our approach is both reverent and joyful. Jesus the Messiah has made a way for us to approach the throne boldly so that we might obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need. In doing this, we seek to follow the “Regulative Principle of Worship” which states that God’s Word directs everything we need to worship and to please Him.
Liturgical & Corporate
In the book of Revelation, the angels are worshipping God in a beautiful, coordinated way. This is New Testament worship, and we believe it is a pattern to follow. In corporate worship, we worship not as individuals, but as a body.
Some people see liturgy as restricting. We see the opposite! We see liturgy as allowing reverent and active participation by all members of the body. Grandparent and grandchild are saying the same thing to God at the same time…along with the whole church! We encourage a heart-felt, robust liturgy. Here is the amazing thing: liturgical worship carries over into our lives and provides structure, meaning, and beauty throughout the week!
During worship, just respond to the minister and say the words written in bold font in the Order of Worship. If you get lost, don’t worry! God is still pleased as you seek to worship Him.
Family Integrated Worship
You will notice our children are with us for the entire service. This is called “Family-Integrated Worship” today, but there is nothing new about it. This pattern is in both the Old and New Testaments, and it was the practice for all history until the last seventy years. Thankfully, the Lord is returning His Church to embrace the family covenant and to worship together. We see our children as covenant children and part of the Church. So they worship with us.
Head Coverings
The leadership of Ascension Reformed Church believes that 1 Corinthians 11 is prescriptive in that women are to wear head coverings in worship. Our understanding is that this is commanded not because of ancient culture but because of the nature of worship for all time.
However, a biblical case can be made that the hair is the covering. As such, we do not require head coverings for women unless they are performing music. So, if you visit, please know that we see this as an area of Christian freedom. We encourage all members to study this important topic regarding worship at some point.
Communion
The elders at Ascension serve communion every Lord’s Day. We hold to the Westminster Confession’s view that it is for the perpetual remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice and our spiritual nourishment and growth in Him. We use real wine in our communion because that was the pattern He gave us for His Table, and we don’t believe we have the authority to change it.
We practice “covenant communion” where our baptized children who are old enough to eat and drink (and therefore comprehend that they are in the worship service) may partake of the meal. This is an exception we make to the Westminster Confession of Faith based on our understanding of the Bible’s account of children participating in sacramental meals in the Old Testament and the benefits of being in the covenant.
Having said this, we respect the Confessional position (that only those children who pass an elder examination can be admitted to the table) and do not require our members to practice covenant communion. If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact one of the elders.
We would also like to mention to our fellow Reformed brothers who are curious about our paedocommunion (aka covenant communion), that we do not hold to sacramentalism. We hold that the sacraments are only efficacious when received in faith, including for children. This is the position of our church and our denomination.
Requirements for Taking Communion
We invite our visitors to commune with us as long as they meet these two provisions:
- Participants must be current church members in a Bible-believing Protestant Church, and they must not be under church discipline.
- Participants must be baptized into the name of the Triune God by a duly ordained Protestant minister.
This applies to children as well as adults.
If these provisions do not currently apply to you, we ask that you let the bread and the wine pass. The elders would love to talk to you about taking communion in the future.
If visitors continue to visit for more than 6 months, we ask you to speak to the elders regarding membership before taking communion.
Music
Because our music is directed at God, we search out songs with solid doctrine and good lyrics matched up with the appropriate music. We want to sing with skill and joy to our Lord!
Every Lord’s Day service, you will hear us sing some songs a capella. We do this for several reasons. First, the Old Testament church and New Testament church spent at least a good portion of their singing a cappella. Second, singing a cappella in parts shows the beauty of the complementary voices of the body! Third, if you sing a cappella, you can sing anywhere. God gave us all musical instruments in our vocal chords! And finally, we come from a heritage of Scottish Covenantors. Psalm-singing a cappella was the fabric of life for them. It gave them the courage to stay strong for Jesus and to rejoice no matter where they were.
We use the Book of Psalms for Worship for our psalms and we use the Treasury for our hymns.
