Articles

Worship is Response

Dec 20, 2007

At Providence Church, we teach that worship is a response. It is a response to the character of God and to the work of the Gospel in our lives. We cannot worship what we do not know and for this reason we hold the Scriptures very highly in our worship services. You will find that we sing songs that are rich in meaning and full of Scripture. We take great care in crafting every single service. The songs we sing are very deliberate. In fact, the whole of our service is deliberate, from singing, to praying, to the reading of Scripture, to communion, to confession and repentance. More »

Posted by Paul Goebel



Small Groups in the Bible

Dec 20, 2007

The Biblical basis for small groups is very strong. There are plenty of accounts in the Bible of them existing in the early church (Acts 2:46, 12:12, 20:8, 20:20; Rom. 16:4-5; I Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:5; Philemon 2). And many Biblical commands given to the church seem to require them. These especially include commands for Christians to minister to one another (Heb. 3:13, 10:24-25; Gal. 6:2; Col. 3:16; James 5:16; I Peter 4:8-9; Eph. 4:32). The very "one anotherness" of these commands necessitates Christian fellowship contexts small enough for our ministry to one another to be truly mutual. Combining this strong Biblical basis -- with our own experiences in the effectiveness of small group ministry -- gives a very strong rationale for us to pursue small groups. More »

Posted by Trevor Joy



Talking With Your Children About God

Dec 20, 2007

One of my greatest passions and desires in my ministry to the children here at Providence is preparing and equipping teachers and parents to talk with their children about God. From infancy through preschool and into elementary, children can begin hearing, understanding and retaining fundamental truths of the Scriptures. Everything we do in the preschool we do with a view to that end. Our games, songs, crafts, and of course stories and memory verses serve to lay a foundation that highlights the truth and worth of Christ. More »

Posted by Amanda Shelton



Sharing Christ at Christmas

Dec 20, 2007

My passion is seeing children love and trust Jesus and the best people to introduce a child to Christ are his or her parents. I asked a mother of 3 children between the ages of 3 and 10 what her greatest deterrent was in sharing the gospel with her family. She replied that she simply didn’t know the language to use in order to present the gospel in a way that her children could understand. More »

Posted by Amanda Shelton



Communion at Providence

Dec 20, 2007

I would like to take a couple of minutes and explain why we recently stopped taking communion each week to close our services. From the inception of Providence Church we have gathered together to sing to Jesus (worship), hear about Jesus (preaching) and then join Jesus by partaking of communion. We quickly found that our practice of communion distinguished us as a church. Few had ever been to a church that called husbands to pray over their wives before partaking of the elements each week. For many of us this weekly practice acted as the birthplace of familial spirituality. I can’t keep count of how many men prayed with their wives for the first time sitting in one of our services and I count this as one of the richest blessings I have ever received in ministry. So why would we ever stop such a beautiful and fruitful practice? More »

Posted by Barry Keldie