Sunday Worship

11am & 6pm

Sunday Morning

View Worship Bulletins and watch the Act of Worship here.

The Service

Sunday morning is when we gather for our principal service of the week. It lasts an hour and we approach its planning as we would a feast. Our main goal is to meet with God by recounting and enacting his mighty deeds of salvation. We typically begin with a time of ascent led by an entrance hymn, prayers of invocation and confession, words of Scripture calling us to God, and the congregation joining in an acclamation and hymn of praise.

Then we spend a good part of our time hearing God speak to us in his Word, responding with songs of assurance and dedication. We read a lot of Scripture, usually dramatically, sometimes responsively, and we sing or chant a Psalm almost every week. The service reaches a climax at the reading from the Holy Gospel and a 15-20 minute sermon impressing one of the passages that has been read onto our lives with gospel truths. In conclusion to each sermon, there is an invitation to discipleship and an opportunity to respond to Jesus.

When we don’t receive Communion, the service ends with an alternative way of giving thanks and celebrating God’s living presence. We pray for guidance and needs in our lives, in our church, and in the world; we express our self-dedication; and we dismiss into the world with a blessing and a charge.

[A list of dates for the LORD’S SUPPER and how we celebrate it]

The Christian Calendar

We are distinctively Baptist, but in this we seek the unity with all Christians for which Jesus prayed. We observe the seasons in perceptible, sensorial ways on Sunday mornings (though every Sunday is in its own right a celebration of Christ’s resurrection). Not only does the calendar provide a real means of unity with believers worshiping all over the world, but by its cycle it forms us spiritually as we order our lives after the story of Christ and his wondrous saving acts.

The atmosphere of the Sunday celebration takes its cue from the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. We find this to be a powerful, ancient, and sustainable tool for discipleship and evangelism.

The Scripture readings for each week follow the RCL, though we feel no restraint from taking liberties when the special needs of our church and our cultural setting seem to call for them.

The Welcome

Every type of person is welcome to enter and participate in the worship at Brookview — just as she or he comes. Come as you are! Weekly church attendance is a discipline you have to commit to, meaning that it’s not always the most helpful question to ask, “What did I get out of the service today?” But we believe the way Brookview is choosing to worship offers a way of meeting with God and being formed as Christ’s disciples that communicates with all generations, classes, and cultures. We are not a niche-church, programmed to reach a particular group. We welcome the Spirit, and we welcome you.

Sunday Evening

Sunday evening is more informal, but no less fervent. It is completely separate in its content from Sunday morning. The structure is usually a few hymns with a couple Scripture readings and a longer sermon. At times, the service loosely follows An Order of Worship for the Evening from The Book of Common Prayer, but normally is simply music and preaching. It lasts about an hour. Though the sermon delivery in this service seems traditional, there is liberty given to the congregation and to guests to interrupt and interact.