When you visit us at Brown Trail, we believe you’ll find a welcoming group of friendly folks. We do our best to be a loving congregation of devoted Christians who seek to honor God, learn and follow His Word, encourage each other and get to know our guests. Come worship with us – we’d love to get to know you!
As for the service itself, Jesus revealed God’s expectations for worship with these words, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). While worship assemblies in some churches today consist of elaborate and confusing rituals, and in other churches one might confuse the worship for a rock-n-roll concert, we at Brown Trail seek to follow the simple, meaningful and spiritual pattern of worship revealed in the New Testament.
When we assemble on Sundays you can expect to see the following:
The Lord’s Supper. The church in the New Testament observed the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7) to commemorate the death of Christ. We follow their Divinely guided example. This memorial observance consists of eating unleavened bread and drinking grape juice (sometimes referred to as “the fruit of the vine”). These were the emblems Jesus used when He established this practice in Matthew 26:26, 28. Observing this memorial follows the teaching of the Lord, the teaching of His apostles and the example of the New Testament church (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
Congregational Singing. Paul instructed Christians to sing songs of praise and exhortation in worship (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). This, you will quickly notice, we do without any accompaniment of musical instruments. In these passages there is no authority given for using any instruments except the voice and the heart. Because we desire to do only what is biblically authorized, we simply sing – no more, no less.
Bible Preaching. In order to encourage, inform, build faith and rebuke if necessary, time will be spent in the presentation of simple and understandable studies from God’s word (1 Peter 2:2; 1 Corinthians 1:18-21).
Contribution. Our guests are not expected to contribute money. Please feel perfectly free just to pass the collection plate to your neighbor. This time is set aside, in accordance with Bible teaching (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), for the members of the Brown Trail church to give money that will enable us to carry out the church’s work.
These are the things you will observe in a Sunday assembly of the Brown Trail Church of Christ. As was stated above, these are expressions of worship that can be clearly seen in the New Testament. Our desire is not to add or take from God’s word (Revelation 22:18-19), but to do only that for which we have authority. By approaching our worship with the understanding that God is the only audience and all of us are participants, we are confident that He is pleased – and nothing makes us happier than that.
“Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!” 1 Chronicles 16:29
Wednesday Night Bible Study
Our Wednesday evening service begins at 7:00pm with Bible classes for all ages until 7:40pm. We then meet in the auditorium for a brief 15-minute worship.
In all of our classes, you can expect to open the Bible so we can all study and grow in our faith. During these times we also encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25) and help one another maintain that Christian light (Matthew 5:16) to shine for others during our work week.