We are honored that you are considering joining us for one of our worship services or community events! We cannot tell you how excited we are to meet you! This page is dedicated to helping you feel comfortable as you plan your visit. I know that I feel much more comfortable heading into a new environment when I have an idea of what to expect. This page helps you get a picture of what to expect when walking through our church's doors so that your visit will be as comfortable as possible.
Where to park?
Whether you are planning on joining us for a Sunday morning worship service or a community event, you will enter our parking lot off Route 340, which will bring you to the left side of the building when viewing it from 340. Guests are invited to use one of the parking spots closest to the building or, if necessary, the handicap spaces directly beside the doors. The entrance to our church's sanctuary is pretty straightforward; once you find your parking place, you will see a porch with double doors below stained-glass windows that read "Pequea EC Church." These are the doors which we use for our worship services.
Entering the building
Upon entering the building, you will see six-steps that take you to our sanctuary, upstairs restrooms, and classrooms. If you have difficulty with steps, don't let that stop you from joining us from worship. Our upper level is entirely handicap accessible via our elevator located to the right just inside our main entrance. If you need assistance using the lift, one of our greeters will be happy to assist you.
That is the next thing to expect once you reach the main level, to be greeted by a friendly face! One of our greeters will be there to welcome you, answer your questions, make sure you have your bulletin and show you to your seats. However, allow me to attempt to answer some of your questions before you even come upon the church property.
Everything you need to access for a Sunday morning worship service is located directly off our lobby, where you have just entered. Two family restrooms (including a handicap accessible restroom) are directly off of our lobby. Looking from right to left as you enter the doors you will see our elevator, a coat rack to store your belongings, our church office, two restrooms that sandwich where our greeter is located, and then the entrance to our upper Sunday School rooms and finally large double doors which lead into our sanctuary. Do not worry; it is more straightforward than it may appear in real life versus reading it on "paper."
Once you have entered the sanctuary, you are free to find the place where you feel you would be most comfortable to worship the Lord freely. Once you have taken your seat, you will see a blue hymnal before you and a red NIV Bible. You will be invited throughout the service to use these two items to participate in our worship service.
As the Service Begins
Our services start at 9 am; however, if you are running late, do not let that stop you from joining us. We often have attendees arriving after the service has already begun, so we are used to that! :) As the clock approaches 9 am, you can expect to see our video announcements playing on a screen in the left corner of the sanctuary and music playing softly in the background.
Once 9 am has come, you can expect to hear our organist Mary Jane prepare our hearts for worship with a selection she has developed. This is known as our "prelude" to worship.
After our prelude, you can expect our worship leader (the person who leads our service) to share our call to worship. The call to worship is a short passage of Scripture that begins the "theme" of our worship service for the morning.
After the reading of the call to worship, you will be invited to rise and participate in our first worship set. This initial worship set is when we worship through what many know as "contemporary" worship. This will include selections that those who listen to contemporary Christian radio will be familiar with, artists like Hillsong Worship, Chris Tomlin, Passion, Bethel Music, (think WJTL) are featured during this portion of the service.
After this worship set, you will be invited to retake your seat as our worship leader will highlight any announcements that the church needs to be aware of, as well as extend greetings and a warm welcome to our worship service. Once this has been done, our worship leader will lead us in our opening prayer.
Now is the point in the service which those who love to sing those timeless traditional hymns led by the organ should get excited. Here we sing our first traditional hymn led by our organist and found in your blue hymnal. Hymn numbers will be announced and found in your bulletin, and this is another point in the service where you will be invited to stand and join us in worship.
Once we have completed our worship, you can retake your seat as our worship leader will invite the congregation to share any praises and prayer concerns that they might have and update us of anything that we need to be in prayer for from the previous week. As our guests, you are free to share anything that might be on your heart and in need of prayer, or you are just as free to remain quiet. No one will force you to share!
Once all praises and prayer requests have been shared, our pastor will lead us in our morning invocation and bring our requests and petitions before God's throne of Grace.
After this prayer, we will worship through our second hymn found in our blue hymnal, and again you will be invited to stand in worship with us.
Next, we will begin to prepare for our morning message. Our worship leader will lead us in the morning Scripture reading, in which the pastor will share his weekly sermon. You are invited to follow along through your personal Bible, device, or the Bible available in your pew.
After our worship leader has shared our morning Scripture passage, he will turn the service over to our pastor to share what God has laid upon his heart for that week. You can expect our morning message to be rooted in the truth of God's Word, with invitations and applications for the world in which we live. God's Word will be presented in a way that is faithful to its truth, yet understandable to the Bible scholar just as much as the "beginner" Bible reader. The Bible has something for everyone. It is our mission that our Sunday morning message through the aide of the Holy Spirit, you walk away with a better understanding of the heart of our Savior Jesus Christ than when they entered our worship service.
After the morning message, we will worship through one more song. This song can be either a contemporary or traditional selection depending on what song our pastor feels best "responds" to the message he has just delivered. At the end of this song, we will sing the Doxology (#556 in your blue hymnal "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow), and our service will conclude with our pastor's closing thoughts. Then he will pronounce the Benediction (think of a Scriptural good-bye and blessing). Our service will be completed after a short postlude by our organists.
After our service, you are invited to join us in the classroom immediately off the sanctuary for coffee and a morning snack. This is a great time to get to know more of our church members and for us to get to know you! '
Sunday School
After both our worship service and our "coffee connect" time at approximately 10:30 am, we have Sunday School. As our guest, you are welcome to stay and join us for a more in-depth and personal dive into God's Word, and we would love to have you join us. Yet, our feelings will not be hurt if you decide only to join us for our worship service. We have people who do both.
If you choose to stay for Sunday School, you can expect another Bible lesson, as I said in a more intimate space than our worship service allows. This is an excellent space for discussion and for you to participate in our lesson.
Service Length- You can expect our Worship Services and Sunday School to each last about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.
What to wear?- That question is really up to you to answer. Right now, we have individuals who enjoy wearing their suit and tie and those who keep it much more casual. No matter what you wear, we will be excited to have you join us, and you will be able to worship the Lord, and that is what is essential!
What about an offering? Right now, we are not passing an offering plate. However, if you are able and feel led to give to the mission of Pequea EC Church, an offering plate can be found right inside the entrance to the sanctuary.
