What You Can Expect
As friendly as most churches hope to be, it still can be a little frightening visiting a church for the first time. Will everyone know what's going on but me? Will people be nice to me? Will my kids like it (and be well-cared for in a safe environment)? Will they ask me for money? How should I dress? Is it okay if I don't believe what everyone else seems to believe?
We've done our best to make Morris Community Church as "user-friendly" for people as possible, whatever your background, whether you're a longtime church attendee or this is your first time of giving it a try. In fact, a health percentage of the people you'll see if you visit were not regular church attendees before joining in with us
Your program will give you a rundown of what to expect in the service, along with the day's announcements. One of the first things you'll notice is that everyone is dressed comfortable, most often quite casually. After the opening song, we'll greet everyone, and then open in prayer. After that, we'll worship for another 20 minutes or so.
Worship
Ours is a style of lively worship of God in song led by some gifted musicians, many of them trained at the local music schools. Our music is known for being contemporary and dynamic so, for instance, we have a band rather than a choir and an organ. While most of our music has a pop/rock feel, we do sing some hymns. One way or another, you should have some catch tunes to hum all week long.
Sermon and Prayer
After the share time and offering, one of our pastors will being to speak. The messages last about 30 minutes, and we get a lot of encouraging feedback about how vibrant and relevant people typically find them to be. Sharing from the Word of God, we emphasize personal growth in walking with God, discipleship, and outreach oftentimes in what is shared.
After the message, whoever's speaking usually prays for the congregation along the lines of what's just been said and, if you're interested, you'll have the opportunity to receive further prayer up front. Services typically conclude by 11:30am.
Communion and Offering
Every second Sunday service of the month, we'll take communion together. This takes place during the worship time of our service. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're invited to join in, or you can sit back and enjoy a song from the band. We get told that those tend to be powerful times, whether you take communion or not. Right before the sermon, we do take an offering, though our hope is that our visitors won't give, but will regard themselves as our guests.
After the Services
Our services run about an hour and a half, concluding by 11:30 usually. After the service, many people stick around and make new friends and catch up with old ones around coffee and bagels and the like. If you have children, that's when you'll pick them up from children's church.
We hope you'll stop by for a visit and, if you do, please come up and say, "hi" to one of the pastors. We'd love to meet you. And, one way or another, may you find a spiritual home that works well for you. We're for you, and we're for you finding a meaningful and transforming connection with God.