“Forever Ancient. Forever New.”

raising the chalice

If you attend our service, you might find us both similar to and different from churches you have already attended. Although there are many kinds of churches, they fall into three major categories:

At Jesus Our Shepherd Anglican Church, we worship in the ancient tradition that is biblical, liturgical, and Spirit-filled. Forever Ancient. Forever New.

First Time Visit

I know—it’s not easy visiting a new church for the first time. Sometimes you feel like a non-citizen visiting a foreign country. Do I belong here? Am I really welcome? Will the people be unfriendly or too friendly? Will I be conspicuous? Will it be easy to leave if I don’t enjoy it? Will they ask me for money? Will my kids enjoy it? How should I dress? Am I welcome if I don’t believe?

As rector of this mission, I want to make visiting Jesus Our Shepherd an experience that will enable you to leave the cares of the world at the door and focus entirely upon Christ. In Him there is peace.

I’d like you to know what to expect, so here’s a brief overview.

When you arrive at the church, you will park in front of the church, and enter through the double glass doors. Directly to your left is the sanctuary. We find it best to speak in quiet tones when we enter the narthex (the area just inside the glass doors). We enter the sanctuary in silence to allow Christ to begin speaking to us.

When you come in the sanctuary, you'll be given a copy of “The Bulletin,” which contains today’s lessons from scripture, the songs & hymns to be used in the service, and the announcements for the week.

What About the Children?

Children are welcome to attend the service with you. We are sorry, but at the present time we are not able to offer a Sunday School program.

What Do I Wear?

You’ll notice that everyone is dressed comfortably, in anything from dressy to “office casual.” We want everyone to come as they are, so please be comfortable while remembering that you are going to visit a Very Important Person’s house—the God of the Universe!

How Long Is the Service?

I’ll close the morning service about 90 minutes after it began (and believe it or not, the time will fly). For those of you looking for some extended worship time, please come to our monthly healing services.

The service begins with us entering into worship with a few prayers that greet God, and as a church asking God to forgive us for any sins we have committed the past week. There is no reason to come to church feeling bad and staying that way for too long! Then we have some upbeat praise music followed by worship. Then there are readings from the Bible. Preaching from the Bible follows. The sermon lasts for about 30 minutes, and I do my best to make the messages interesting, enjoyable, and relevant to daily life. The message will be based on the Bible, and I will often include interesting quotes from contemporary people, songs, or movies. If I do my job right, you’ll hear solid Christian theology in intelligent, understandable, relevant terms. And hopefully, you’ll laugh at times and maybe feel a tug at your heart, too. We then have communion.

Holy Communion

Every week we celebrate Communion. Holy Communion (also known as the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper) is a Christian celebration that tells everyone the Gospel of the Jesus Christ and gives people the opportunity to offer God thanks and praise for sending Jesus to give us a new life and forgiveness.

If you are a baptized Christian believer who recognizes the bread & wine to be the full presence of Christ, you are welcome to share in communion with us. If you are not, you can sit back and worship as you enjoy the music—or better still, come forward, place your arms across your chest, and receive God's blessing. You may also request anointing and the laying on of hands for healing at that time, as well.

What Else Should I Know?

When you arrive, you will receive a visitor card that we’d like you to fill out and put in the offering plate. The visitor card is used to let us know who you are and how you found us, there are areas for you to check off concerning your needs & interests. We ask you to put the card in our offering basket as they are passed around. As for the offering basket all we want you to place in there is your visitor card, you are our special guest this morning.

After the Service

After the service, we hope you’ll stay around and meet some people. Church is about God and worship, but it’s also about community and compassion, so we hope people really experience warmth and friendliness at Jesus Our Shepherd. Then we get together for about 45 minutes of Bible study.

That’s about it. I hope you’ll stop by this Sunday. And if you do, please come and say hi.

We look forward to seeing you!

Liturgy

Sacraments

The Word