If you are visiting for the first time, what can you expect when you come to a service of worship on Sunday morning?

Clothing: Do not be concerned about how you are dressed. People dress as they are comfortable. There is no air conditioning in the summer. We suggest that you take a shower in the morning and dress respectfully. And switch your phone to vibrate.

Entering: You will come in the front door on Euclid Avenue and enter the “narthex.” The church has an old but beautiful interior. You will see a large Celtic cross on the far wall. Pick up a bulletin on your way in— you will need it— and sit anywhere you please. You may sit in the back if you would like, but do not be afraid to sit in the front either. If you are late, do not hesitate to come in and sit down. You will notice that others are also late. As people gather, you will see that this is not a large congregation. There will be between ten and thirty people gathered. Another five to fifteen may come around 11:30 for worship in Spanish. You will also notice that the people who come are of different ages, genders, races, cultures, classes and backgrounds. Though the service is structured, the atmosphere is intimate and informal, relaxed and not pushy. Just be yourself. If it is uncomfortable to stand when others are standing, feel free to sit. No one will think less of you for it. If you need to leave early, feel free to do so, but if possible stay so everyone can at least greet you.

Bathrooms: The bathrooms are downstairs. You have to walk through a large room and go through the door to the right of the fireplace. There you will find the men’s and women’s bathrooms.

The Bulletin: During the service you will need to follow the bulletin. Someone can help you, but if you have trouble, don’t worry. You may miss the responses, but the hymns will be announced and you can just follow what everyone else is doing. However, if you come a few times, try to get used to using the bulletin.

The Music: Do not expect a band or projectors. We sing a mixture of old and new music (more old than new) to the accompaniment of a piano. Much of it may be unfamiliar to you. This is how we learn new tunes. You will find that usually the tunes are simple. Sometimes someone will make a special offering of music, but otherwise the singing is congregational. Do the best you can. Singing is offered to the Lord, not to the ears of those around you. Some songs are sung to God, some are sung to one another, and some are meditative and spoken to oneself. Pay attention to the words. If you are moved to tears, let the tears flow. Hymns and songs are meant to affect us emotionally.

The Preaching: Be prepared for an expository (teaching) sermon that explains and applies the text from the Gospel. Some people would say that the pastor does not “preach.” In any case, the messages are not moralistic nor spoken from the moral high ground but are meant to bring forth the living Christ so that He can be apprehended spiritually. If you do not understand some things, you are in good company. Struggle; let your brain be challenged; be patient; but most of all, let your heart be open to Christ. Let God speak to your innermost being, not just your mind. If on that level you are touched, that is enough.

The Offering: Money is collected before the Lord’s Supper. If you are a visitor, do not feel obligated to put anything in the plate! If you do not believe in Christ, then you should not. The collection of money is an offering; that is, it is an act of worship in which we offer to God ourselves first and our possessions second. Our money represents the labor and the time it took to earn it. We give it to God. It thus symbolizes the offering of ourselves and our whole week to the Lord. It behooves us to plan ahead and to offer to God a specific proportion of our income, something we have thought and prayed about, and not something that we end up doing on the spur of the moment. Unless designated, the money goes into the church’s general fund which pays the personnel expenses of the pastor, the pianist, the maintenance man, our liability insurance, office supplies, building maintenance and repairs, and things of that nature. A proportion of it goes to mission projects here and around the world which aid the poor and needy. These projects are sometimes described during our “minute for mission.”

Holy Communion: We have the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. If you are a Christian, no matter what your denomination (if you have one)— Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, you name it— or even if, after you hear the Gospel and you want to receive Christ as your Savior, if your faith in Christ is sincere, you may partake of the Lord’s Supper with us. Normally we signify our seriousness about Christ by being baptized, but this step is not to be undertaken lightly. In any case, the bread and the wine (it is actually grape juice) are distributed to you in your seat, unless the pastor calls everyone to gather around the table. Hold onto your piece of bread and your little cup, and eat and drink when the pastor gives the signal (when he eats his bread and drinks from the chalice). If you forget, don’t worry.

Discussion: If, during the service, the pastor invites discussion, you may participate like everyone else, only do not be rude, do not dominate, do not take advantage of the kindness of others, and do not spread gossip.

Prayer: There is an open time of prayer in which everyone may offer prayers. You may also participate. During this time we pray as one person: therefore your prayers should be directed towards God and not others; they do not need a special introduction or conclusion; and do not abuse your prayer as an opportunity to preach to others or to criticize the preaching (there is another time for that). Also, keep your prayer relatively short. It is not a repetition of your personal prayer at home but a time to share special prayer requests with others: matters that are pressing or weighing on you, matters concerning your family or loved ones, matters of common interest, and things like that.

Closing: We end the service by saying to one another, “The peace of the Lord be with you,” or just, “Peace be with you.” People greet one another in different ways. Feel free to stay within your comfort zone. Not everyone wants to be hugged; a handshake can suffice. Nonetheless, some people also welcome hugs and kisses. So just be yourself. Afterward this, we need to clear the sanctuary so the Spanish worship can get started. In the foyer there are some refreshments where people gather to linger and talk. Ask the pastor questions about his message.

Lunch: Do not be surprised if you are invited out to lunch. You are under no obligation to go. On the other hand, it would be an opportunity for you to get to know us better. It is very casual. We talk about everything. This is the best time to ask questions and maybe even make criticisms. If possible, schedule a little time in your afternoon to join us!

Originally, when hostilities did not prevail, the church worshiped alongside the synagogue. In other words, the Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) who believed in Jesus as the Messiah attended synagogue on the Sabbath (the Gentiles did so as “God-fearers”; see Acts 15:21) and had their own assembly on the Lord’s Day. Worship in the synagogue centered on the reading of the Scriptures and prayers and was not repugnant to Christians. Everywhere Paul assumed that Gentile Christians were familiar with the Scriptures of Israel. Since it was unlikely that the infant churches could afford their own collection of Scripture scrolls, they undoubtedly learned the Scriptures in the synagogue.

Since the church and synagogue did unfortunately separate, Christians have had to accommodate for what they lost in their own gatherings for worship. In fact, the Christian liturgy readily reflects its kinship to the synagogue down to this day. We are conscious of this in our own worship.

James compares Christian worship to the “tabernacle of David” (Acts 15:16), which was the tent that David set up for the Ark of the Covenant which he had brought to Jerusalem while worship at the “tabernacle of Moses” continued in Shiloh. For Christians, Christ is the Ark of the Covenant. On the Lord’s Day (the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, the first day of the week, that is, Sunday), the church gathered to remember the Lord by the breaking of bread. They remembered the Lord by hearing the reminiscences of eyewitnesses, these eyewitness testimonies becoming stabilized in the form of our four gospels. Through this “remembrance”— there taking place a spiritual recognition of the Lord— the Lord became present in their midst, and by faith they received Him in the form of the bread and the cup. Our worship centers on the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Day, however, was not the only time the believers gathered. They gathered in their homes during the week. They gathered for meals, for singing and prayers, for the fellowship of the apostles’ teachings, and for mutual encouragement and edification through the sharing of each one’s spiritual harvest by means of their spiritual gifts. We gather in someone’s home during the week for this purpose. However, for the benefit of those who can only come out on Sunday, after we seal our faith by sharing in the Lord’s Supper, we listen to a sample of the teaching of the apostles, share in a mutual “exhortation” based on it, and pray for one another and for our common concerns.

We sing often during our worship.

• Lev plays the piano before worship begins.
• We sing a Hymn of Praise after our moment of silence.
• Before we confess our sins we sing, “Lord, Have Mercy,” by Swee Hong Lim (1995).
• After we hear the assurance of pardon, we sing an  Invitation Hymn in preparation for the Lord’s Supper.
• As the offering is gathered, Lev will play the piano or a few people or an individual will offer a song. Sometimes Guillermo sings a song as he plays the guitar.
• Then as the offering is brought forward, we sing, “Give Thanks,” by Henry Smith (1978).
• During the prayer of thanksgiving, we sing a version of the Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy”).
• As the bread and wine are distributed we sing a meditative or reflective Communion Hymn.
• After we receive the bread and wine, we sing the first verse of, “O God Our Father,” by W. B. Dick.
• Then after the prayers, we sing a sending off or Closing Hymn.
• When we disperse, after the peace, Lev plays a piano postlude.

The four hymns that are underlined change each week. They are usually taken from the two hymnals we have in the pews. Otherwise they are printed in the bulletin.

• The main hymnal that we use is The Hymnbook, published in 1955 by the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the United Presbyterian Church in the USA, and the Reformed Church in America.
• We also purchased a few Sing the Faith songbooks, published in 2003 by Geneva Press.
• For our home gathering on Wednesday, we use Hymns, published in 1965/1980, and the supplement published in 2002, by Living Stream Ministry. We sometimes choose hymns from this for our worship on the Lord’s Day.
• Another hymnal from which we sometimes take hymns is Hymns for the Living Church, published in 1974 by Hope Publishing Company.
• We also sing hymns that we find in the Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist and Episcopal hymns and in the hymn collections on the internet.

Our hymns are traditional and contemporary, evangelical and ancient, lively and meditative.

A few times a year the children will rehearse and sing for the congregation, and sometimes the adults actually put together a choir.

At our home gathering, we usually sing about four hymns, and when have a social gathering, Guillermo will play his guitar and sing and sometimes we will sing along and dance.

We follow a four year calendar that permits the reading of an entire gospel each year.

Annually the church calendar is divided into two halves:

• One half consists of more than twenty-four Sundays, from Christ the Victor Sunday (also known as “Christ the King”) to Trinity Sunday. Christ the Victor Sunday is regarded as the last Sunday of the year, preceding the Season of Advent. Advent, when looking forward to the second advent (or coming) of Christ and announced by Christ the Victor Sunday, may also be regarded as heralding the End. Thus this half of the year begins with the end and revolves around two foci, the Incarnation and the Resurrection:
   
• Christ the Victor (the Sunday before Advent, marking the end of the year)
   
• Advent (consisting of the four Sundays before Christmas)
   
• Christmas (consisting of December 25 and the Sunday following)
   
• Epiphany (the Sunday following the Sunday after Christmas, and January 6)
   
• The Lord’s Baptism (the Sunday after Epiphany Sunday)
   
• The Galilean Ministry (of variable length; for this we choose a few readings from the “other” half of the year that represent the time before the Transfiguration)
   
• Transfiguration Sunday (the Sunday before Lent begins)
   
• Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent; we use ashes to signify the
  futility of our life “in Adam” and the judgment under which we live)
   
• Lent (consisting of five Sundays when we read the story of the crucifixion)
   
• Palm Sunday
   
• Maundy Thursday (the night of Jesus’ last supper and arrest;
  we celebrate the Lord’s Supper after a communal meal)
   
• Good Friday (we reread the entire story of
  our Lord’s Passion from one of the Gospels)
   
• Easter (consisting of seven Sundays)
   
• Ascension Thursday (during Easter, forty days after Easter Sunday)
   
• Pentecost Sunday
   
• Trinity Sunday (celebrating the Church’s Confession)
   
• The other half consists of less than twenty-eight Sundays. These Sundays are simply designated by their ordinal succession after Trinity Sunday (for example, first, second, or third Sunday after Trinity). During these Sundays we read the remainder of the gospel that we have been reading, the parts that we skipped over during the other half of the year.

It seems that the early church, when they were no longer able to attend the synagogue,  still followed the practice of the synagogue and gathered together for the public reading of the Scriptures. They met, in other words, as essentially messianic synagogues consisting of Jews and Gentiles. Unlike synagogues, however, “churches” are assemblies of the ‘polis,’ laying claim to the earth on behalf of the kingdom of God yet to come. Thus, from an apostolic point of view, there never was nor could ever be more than one church in a city, though there can be and often are many gatherings. This is not so for synagogues. To be more precise, then, these messianic “synagogues” corresponded to the gatherings of the church, rather than to the church itself. Nevertheless, like in the synagogue, the church gathered for the public reading of the Scriptures.

The four gospels, apparently, were written for this purpose— to be read publicly as Scripture, each in the course of a year, along with, and corresponding to, the annual cycle of readings that were ordinarily read in traditional synagogues. Since this practice of reading the gospels was established by the evangelists and apostles, we would like to submit to their intention. For this purpose we also keep to the order in which they were written, Matthew first, then Luke followed by Mark, and last John.

The celebration of Easter Sunday goes back at least to the early part of the second century when its date was already controversial. This was when a few people still had a the living memory of the some of the original disciples and apostles (such as the author of the fourth gospel). If the lectionary theory of the gospels is correct, then the celebration of Easter goes back all the way to the beginning.

The Revised Common Lectionary, in our opinion, omits too much that is in the gospels and does not provide a balanced reading of their contents. Therefore, do not attempt to follow it.

Nevertheless, though the apostles are not responsible for the full traditional church calendar, many of our brothers and sisters in traditional churches follow it and we do not wish to be unnecessarily contrary. Thus, we attempt to join them in its celebrations and, at the same time, honor the apostles’ intention for the public reading of the gospels— by arranging the readings to fit both.

Thus we have divided the Gospels of Matthew and Luke into 53 sections each— one for each Sunday and another for Maundy Thursday (we expect everyone in the congregation to attend!). Other days, for example, Christmas Day, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Ascension Thursday have readings that follow their own logic. We have also divided the five books of the Psalter to match the gospels.

On Sundays we keep a full spectrum of readings from the Scriptures to signify the necessity of their canonical interdependence: selections from the Old Testament (Jesus did not appear in the Gospel out of thin air but came as the fulfillment of the Old Testament), the entire Psalter, the whole of each gospel, and selections from the apostles (the Apostolikon: meaning, everything from Acts to Revelation). We are not left to interpret the Old Testament on our own but are to interpret it according to the Gospel. Nor are we left to interpret the Gospel on our own, but we are to interpret it and apply it to our lives according to the apostolic teaching.

Since we consider the New Testament apostles to be our very own apostles, we consider their writings— written to the churches for our instruction— too important to sideline. Therefore, we would like to divide the writings of the apostles, Acts to Revelation, into two hundred sections, fifty for each year (omitting the two weeks when Christmas Day and Holy Week fall), to be studied in home groups each week.

At this point the Old Testament seems too vast for consecutive reading and must be left for special treatment. On the side, it might be noted that a correspondence seems to exist between the teaching of Jesus on patience in Matthew and the Book of the Twelve (the Minor Prophets); the orientation of Jesus in Luke towards mission (foreshadowing the mission among the nations) and the exilic prophet Ezekiel; Mark’s emphasis on crisis and  Jeremiah; and John’s emphasis on grace and Isaiah (these four are the Later Prophets of the Jewish canon; Daniel is considered part of the Writings). This correspondence may merely be perceptual, but paying attention to it may aid the task of teaching.

Our church calendar is simply our schedule for reading the Scriptures.