Worship Services
Hope PRC meets every Sunday at 9:30 AM and 5:00 PM.
Special worship services take place on New Year’s Day, Prayer Day, Good Friday, Ascension Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Old Year’s Day.
Elements of Worship
We believe the elements of worship recorded in the Bible are:
- Preaching & Reading of Scripture
- Praying
- Singing
- Sacraments
- Giving of Alms
We believe that both the reading and preaching of the Bible must be the central part of our worship services. The importance of preaching is made clear in Acts 10:42, Romans 10:13-15, I Corithians 9:16, and II Timothy 4:1 & 2.
Through the preaching we receive the life of God. The Holy Spirit works through the Word to fill our weary souls. In the preaching God convicts us, corrects us, commands us, and comforts us. It is only when we know God as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, and when we know ourselves as nothing in His sight yet redeemed by His grace, that we come ready humbly to worship Him, especially in the hearing of His Word.
Luke records prayer as part of the worshiping life of the New Testament church in Acts 2:42: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” In I Timothy 2, Paul gives Timothy commands for the church and says, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men” (vs. 1).
We find that singing is commanded in Colosians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19. The psalmist also instructs us in Psalm 111:1 with these words: “I will praise God with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.”
Singing is a poetic form of communicating to God that combines beauty and power in praise to Him. We sing versifications of the Psalms which reveal to us a God who has given Himself to us in all of His wonderful works. Therefore our singing must be a giving of ourselves to Him in response.
We believe that Jesus has instituted two sacraments. These are holy signs of the death of Christ and they seal to believers the righteousness which is by faith (Romans 4:11-13).
The sacrament of BAPTISM pictures the initial work of God in salvation. He washes away all sin and makes perfectly clean. Most frequently, the sacrament is administered to infants of godly parents. Infants of believers are baptized on the basis of God’s covenant promise to save the elect children of believers. This promise we find in passages such as Genesis 17:7-8 and Acts 2:39.
The sacrament of the LORD’S SUPPER pictures God’s work of sustaining salvation in His people. He shows them their union with Christ and constant need for the saving power of Jesus’ death. The sacrament is administered four times during the year. Those non-members who wish to partake with the congregation must request permission from the elders.
We find that the giving of alms is a commanded element of New Testament worship in I Corinthians 16:1-2, where Paul instructs the Corinthian church to collect alms for the church at Jerusalem on the Lord’s Day.