GOD-CENTERED, CHRIST-CENTERED,
AND REGULATED BY THE SCRIPTURES

At Grace, our worship is God-centered, Christ-centered and regulated by the Scriptures. God desires and enables his people to worship Him. Therefore, the way we worship God, matters to God. As Terry Johnson said, “The Reformers and Puritans believed that how we worship is just as important as how we are saved.” Our worship is committed to three core values: Holiness, Obedience, and Joy. The three paintings shown below were donated to Grace and represent these values. They are hand-painted reproductions of
 
“Moses Before the Burning Bush,” Domenico Fetti (1613),
"The Sacrifice of Isaac,” Juan de Valdes Leal (1657), and
"David Bringing the Ark into Jerusalem,” William Brassey Hole (late 1800's).

Please scroll to learn about our fundamental values and download the Grace Worship Guide PDF to understand how these are expressed through our Liturgy, Preaching, and Music.

Holiness

Exodus 3:1-6
 
R.C. Sproul writes, “What Moses experienced at the burning bush is what God’s people experience today: a holy, transcendent, all-consuming God who comes down to dwell with His people.” When we worship, God has come to be with us, and we give Him praise for His power and glory.

We worship in His holiness.

Obedience

Genesis 22:1-13

Abraham obeyed God. God is telling Abraham to sacrifice his son, to kill his son, the son whom he loves, the son of the promise.  The supreme test for Abraham, after building that dreadful altar, after tying up his teenage son and laying him on the altar must have been that moment he raised the knife in his hand to plunge it into the heart of his son. Tradition says, the altar that Abraham built, to sacrifice his son, is located on the same spot, that 2,000 years later, would be named Mount Calvary - where God took his son, his only son, the son whom he loved, and tied him up, and laid him on a cross, and killed him.  But the death of God’s son was a substitute, a substitute for us, and for Isaac, because Abraham passed the test, and Isaac was spared - so that Isaac could have a son, and that Isaac’s son could have a son, and so that through this descendancy the promises of the covenant would come to pass.

We Worship in Obedience to the commands of God.

Joy

2nd Samuel 6:12-15
 
We tend to equate the words Happy and Joy. Happiness depends upon circumstances. When life is good, we are happy. But joy depends upon much more than just circumstances. True joy results in peace in the midst of difficult circumstances. The word translated "joy" in scripture is "blessed," and refers to an "exuberant gladness." And what are we glad for in our worship? We are glad that we can rejoice in the Lord, because he will never abandon us.

We Worship with Joy