WHEN & WHERE WE MEET
Sunday Morning Gathering | 10:00AM
2825 North Main Street
Wednesday Night Prayer | 6:30PM
1786 Alamo Street
WHAT TO EXPECT
On Sundays at Grace, we gather as a people united by the glory of the gospel to worship the living God by incorporating the various elements of worship that we see in the Scriptures: reading and preaching the Bible, prayer, singing, the Lord's Supper, and stirring one another up to love and godliness.
LITURGY
From the moment our service begins, our desire is to exalt and make much of the triune God, which is why we seek to be deliberate when it comes to our liturgy. The word liturgy may sound strange or scary to some as it evokes images of dry, emotionless worship and dead religion, but the word simply refers to the way a worship gathering is ordered. Every church has some sort of liturgy or order in which they arrange their time of worship.
We want our liturgy to be as Scripture-saturated, gospel-centered, and Christ-exalting as possible. Working off the guidance Paul gave concerning church gatherings, that all things should be done decently and in order and for building up the church (1 Cor. 14:26, 40), we want to make the most of our time together so that Christians are built up, strengthened, and encouraged to continue fighting the good fight of the faith (1 Tim. 6:12). We also pray that the gospel is clearly communicated to the lost in our midst.
We begin our service by quieting our hearts in a moment of silence before God (Hab. 2:20), which is then broken by the reading of a portion of His Word that calls us to worship Him. This is followed by a prayer of praise, the singing of hymns, a responsive Scripture reading, a prayer of confession, more singing, and a corporate reading from our Confession of Faith or some other historic creed. We then partake of the Lord’s Supper just before moving into the time of hearing the preaching of the Word. After the sermon, we sing a final hymn and listen to a closing benediction from Scripture. Below is a front and back image of a typical Sunday morning bulletin.
PREACHING STYLE
We typically preach straight through books of the Bible in an expository fashion, which means that we seek to take the main point of the Biblical text and make it the main point of the sermon. If you're interested to know what our sermons are like, you can watch or listen to the following sermon: Adoring God for Our Great Salvation.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do you meet in the Las Cruces Home Builders Associaton Event Hall?
On Sunday mornings, yes. We don’t have our own building. However, our Wednesday night prayer meeting takes place in a home.
What should I wear?
Some people dress up while others show up in jeans and a t-shirt. Hardly anyone wears a suit and tie, except for our pastor on occasion. You’re welcome to dress casual or formal. God is more concerned with our inward clothing, as the following passages suggest:
Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Pet. 5:5)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Col. 3:12-14)
Do you offer childcare?
No. If we had the ability to offer a cry room for babies and nursing mothers, we would, but our current location doesn’t allow for it. In the event that parents need to tend to a needy child, they're able to step into the kitchen area at the back of the sanctuary where they can shut the door behind them.
Do you have a children's ministry or a youth group?
No. We’re not opposed to teaching children or youth together in a group setting, but when it comes to the Lord’s Day gathering, we believe it's best for families to worship together. The following article by John Piper helps to further communicate where we're coming from on this: The Family: Together in God's Presence.
We'd love to meet you and have you join us on Sunday morning! If you have any other questions, or would like to give us a heads up that you're planning on visiting, feel free to email us at gcclascruces@gmail.com.