What
to Expect
If
you are thinking about coming to visit Saint Barnabas, you
may be wondering what to expect. The first thing you should
know is that community is at the heart of who we are
because Christ dwells in the hearts of his people. We
believe that we will meet Christ's Spirit in each other as
we read scripture, pray and eat together...even in the act
of bearing with one another's faults (yes, we have them
too). Because of this, hospitality is at the heart of
everything we do.
When we meet, we gather in a home for roughly an hour of
teaching and prayer followed by dinner. As long as we're
able to fit everyone around the table, we'll follow the
earliest Christian practice of celebrating Communion
(Eucharist) as part of our meal. Then we eat dessert! Faith
and life are one and the same. When we outgrow the dinner
table, we'll do what early Christians did: hold a larger
corporate service and gather for prayer and hospitality in
intimate groups. Either way, hospitality will be at the
center.
Saint Barnabas is a liturgical church—which means that the
order of service that we follow is based on forms used by
the Christian church since its birth 2000 years ago (and
some of the forms come out of the Jewish tradition, which
is, of course, much older than that). So throughout the
service we will often recite prayers that have been used
for centuries as statements of core Christian truths. There
are also times, however, where the congregation is led in
more contemporary and spontaneous prayers for current
situations or needs. If this sounds confusing, don’t
worry—you'll have a bulletin which explains everything as
you go.
Just as we use both contemporary and traditional prayers,
our music also reflects the wide spectrum of Christian
experience. We value the great hymns of the church, but
also find much contemporary music to be helpful in our
worship. Whatever type of music, our aim is that people
will be able to fully enter in and will find the music
conducive to drawing near to God.
Part of the service is devoted to the reading of scripture
and reflecting on the words which are read. We believe that
scripture has important implications for our current lives
and so our teaching about the Bible always connects its
truths with the everyday matters we all
face.
We also celebrate communion together every Sunday. This is
a time to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection and His
work in our lives. We invite all those who are committed to
living for Christ and have been baptized to join us in this
celebration. If for some reason, you choose not to partake,
that's fine. You can come forward and cross your arms over
your chest. The minister will pray a short blessing for
you.
Our hope at Saint Barnabas is that you will experience us
as a welcoming place, but also a safe place to explore who
Christ is. You will not be pressured here in any way, but
we hope you will find that we are people who are
comfortable with questions and we give others time to
figure out for themselves what they
believe.
We hope you can make it for a visit.