I attended the Presbyterian Church on a Sunday morning at 8:30 am and during the beginning of the service, for about ten minutes we began to worship together. Their worship band has only a few guitarists and a drummer and they sing to contemporary Christian music. The period of the "Christian movement" (http://christianmusic.about.com/) brought about great change to the style of music played in the protestant churches. The church would once sing hymns to God and would be rather quite boring until 1970 it all changed. This had a great affect on the Presbyterian church in Creek Rd seeing as they use contemporary music that was introduced around 1970 in the time of the Christian movement (John, M. 1997, p.2).
After this there are announcements, reminding the people of the upcoming events in the church. There is then a bible reading and a prayer, most of the time it was related to the scripture just read out to the congregation. This clearly showed a part of the governance of the church. The pastor preaching was the minister, "the teaching elder" (http://mb-soft.com/) of the church. The minister or teaching elder is chosen by the local congregation. There is a "session" (http://mb-soft.com/) that is also elected by the local congregation that handles the church's affairs. Although Presbyterian churches are independent from one another the minister is ordained by the Presbytery that consists of teaching and ruling elders which is a congregation that exercises jurisdiction (http://mb-soft.com/). Above this congrigation of teaching and ruling elders is the General Assembly which consists of the main leaders of Presbyterianism (http://mb-soft.com/). The governance of the Presbyterian church is complicating, stating that they are independent from one another yet are ruled by a congregation of teaching and ruling elders and a General Assembly.
A 'children's talk' follows after the prayer and all the children under grade seven go to Sunday school. Everyone that is year seven to twelve can go to a discipleship/cell groups. The pamphlet below, the evidence I had acquired, was a card as a reminder that the Presbyterian church is organising a study group where they study the bible for ten weeks. They mention that the younger congregation of the church can join too, the Sunday school.
While this is happening there is a break in the service where people can have time to talk and greet each other. More praise and worship follows at the same time as the offering bucket is taken around and this is known as tithing. Tithes are very important in the church as they believe in giving 10% of what they earn to God (http://www.hpchurch.org/). This is, in return, is a thanks to God for all he has done and as an act of obedience to God (http://www.hp.church.org/).
The pastor then took the podium and started his sermon which went on for twenty to thirty minutes. Baptisms are very important and if there is any baptisms, they happen before the sermon begins. The Theology behind the pastor's preaching was interesting since they beleive in the Trinity (Olsen, R. 2002, p.5), which is the father, son and the holy spirit which is God expressed in each of these distinctions and not three separate parts (http://www.hpchurch.org/). The liturgy they follow that states the beliefs of the trinity is the, Doctrine of the Trinity. In the Doctrine it is stated "Anyone believer who denies the trinity is in danger of losing their salvation" (Olsen, R. 2002, p.1).
They beleive that Jesus died for our sins and that Christ will forgive your sins through your faith and his salvation alone (http://www.hpchurch.org/). This is shown in the doctrine of original sin that states that we can "only be forgiven through salvation" (http://www.allaboutcreation.org/). Therefore, the pastor applies his sermons to the theological understandings of the doctrine of Original Sin and the Doctrine of the Trinity.
The pastor then closes with a prayer that is related to the sermon. There is one last praise and worship time before the service is over. After leaving the church it had me wandering, when did this movement of Presbyterianism begin? The origins of their theological understandings and core beliefs and their historical denomination dates back to John Calvin, an early French reformer in the sixteenth century (http://christianity.about.com/). In 1690 the National Church of Scotland officially adopted the Presbyterian church government and their reformed theology (http://christianity.about.com/). In conclusion, unto this date the Presbyterian church still has the same core beliefs and theological understandings with little difference in governance.
This is a small card that is given as a reminder that there is a study group that is going to study the bible and the book of Philipians in ten weeks.
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