What to Expect
You can expect the following:
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To hear biblical, expositional preaching
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To hear meaningful and affectionate hymns that aim to glorify God and edify the saints
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To see the love of Jesus in our members by feeling welcomed just as you are
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To have a nursery provided for 2-year-olds and under in the primary services
What Does a Service Look Like?
We aspire to worship God biblically, sincerely, corporately, and reverently.
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Biblical Worship? We worship God according to the Bible. This means we don’t get to make up what we think is acceptable for worship. We aim to reflect this commitment by structuring our services around a passage of Scripture. The music, prayers, readings, and preaching all orbit around a central truth from the Bible. You can expect people to have a Bible, to read from it, and to hear it explained and applied.
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Sincere Worship? We gather to worship with genuine devotion and affection. This expression of the heart can be exemplified in different ways. For example, some attend church dressed informally while others are dressed formally. Although external appearances vary, we gladly join together to hear the Word of God and fellowship with one another. Since God loves people, we love people. We take great delight in personally interacting with one another before and after a service. The pastor is always willing to meet with anyone to discuss any questions or concerns.
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Corporate Worship? Our church shares a common identity and community. Our identity is in Christ, our chief Shepherd. His flock, the church, is our community. To embody our unity with one another, we sing together. We pray together. Sometimes we share meals together. To aid corporate reading, the pastor preaches from the NKJV, which is also the pew translation. This is not because we believe this translation is superior to others, nor do we believe that alternative translations are unwelcome. This is a pragmatic step to help unite us in worshipping God on the same page.
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Reverent Worship? God is a consuming fire. While Christ is our friend and brother, He is also our Maker and Lord. Thus, we attempt to incorporate music in the church that distinguishes Christianity from our culture. The psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that we sing and hear are chosen to cultivate Christlike affections and stimulate congregational worship. Congregational singing is usually accompanied by a piano and organ. Sometimes we sing without instrumentation, and sometimes other instrumentalists play along. We normally use hymnals to promote textual and musical literacy, singing pieces that reflect the brilliance of both historic and modern Christianity.
What is a Regular Baptist?
Christianity is not practiced uniformly. Denominations abound, as do perversions of Christianity. Baptists can be a unique bunch. So what does it mean that we are Regular Baptists?
We embrace the label Baptist because it helps identify us. Although the label has been misused, we believe Baptists, properly defined, hold to historic orthodoxy, protestant evangelicalism, confessionalism (of both personal conversion and corporate covenant), and a theologically integrated separatist ecclesiology.
To say that we are Regular Baptists is to identify ourselves with a group that split from the Northern Baptist Convention over the Modernist Controversy back in the 1930s. The label “Regular” reflects the Latin word regula, meaning “rule or standard.” To say we are regular is to say we are orthodox – we believe, teach, and practice Christianity according to God’s standard: the Bible. We cling to God’s written Word, not a denominational tradition or private interpretation, as our rule for faith.
We are part of an association of churches that fellowship with one another voluntarily for worship and edification. We fellowship with churches in the Iowa Association of Regular Baptist Churches (IARBC) which is part of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC).