Where do you meet for Sunday church?
We currently rent the Seventh Day Adventist Center at 5302 Elgin Ave. (the old Second Baptist building) for worship on Sunday mornings. The service begins at 10:30 a.m. On Sundays, we put out a big sign in front of the church parking lot that says “Providence Presbyterian Church.”
Where do we enter?
Come into the main entrance of the church building – a large set of glass doors. A few paces inside, there will be a welcome table with literature about our church and the bulletin for worship. We staff the welcome table with greeters that will be happy to answer any questions and help settle you in.
Do you have a nursery?
We offer a fully staffed nursery for children from birth to three or four years old. It is off behind and to the right of our welcome table; our greeters are glad to show you in.
What about children too old for nursery?
At Providence, we understand the worship of our God to be something for the whole covenant community and family. We encourage parents to bring along their children into worship and to explain the different parts of the service to them both during and afterwards, that they would come to appreciate and participate in corporate worship from a young age.
Is there Sunday School?
Except for a break in August, Sunday School begins at 9:30 a.m. every Sunday morning. There are classes for the youngest children on up through adults. These Sunday School classes are an integral part of the teaching ministry of Providence. Our greeters will help direct you to the proper Sunday School classrooms for every age.
What’s your worship service itself like?
For a good place to look for information about the service, click over to our Sermons page where you’ll find a copy of the bulletins from past Sunday mornings. (In addition to learning about the service, looking over the bulletin also gives good information about what’s going on at church – small groups, events, etc.) From the bulletin, you’ll see that we include on Sunday mornings many “liturgical” elements, like a prayer of invocation, corporate confession of sin, assurance of pardon, Scripture readings, confessional readings, doxology, and benediction. The Bible itself includes many of these items both as historical record and as command.
What is the feel of the worship service?
On Sundays, we seek to cultivate a relaxed atmosphere that’s down-to-earth, friendly, and warm.
What style of music is found at Providence?
Again, look over some old bulletins from the Sermons page for an indication of what songs to expect. Providence tends to use in worship a combination of hymns from our Trinity Hymnal and songs from our RUF college ministry, a sampling of which is found at igracemusic.com. We use an array of instruments in the service including piano, acoustic guitar, djembe, and stringed instruments. However, we believe that more important than the style of worship is the substance of worship. Are the songs that we sing and the way in which we play them suitable for the worship of our triune God? Is He properly glorified, according to what is set forth in Scripture? These are the guiding principles of our worship.
What’s the preaching like?
Providence is committed, whether through the regular preaching of Pastor Jim or through guest speakers, to offering sermons every Sunday that are expositional and gospel-centered. “Expositional” means that the preacher will have as the basis of his sermon a specific text from the Bible and by the end of the sermon will have “covered” the text both in its contours and content. Only rarely will you hear a sermon at Providence that is “topical,” i.e., a sermon that is organized around a topic instead of a passage of Scripture, and even those sermons will have plenty of Bible in them. Additionally, every sermon at Providence will, by grace, center upon the good news of Christ crucified and resurrected. Week in and week out, Christ is what needs to be preached and is the only One to be proclaimed and enjoyed.
Why do you have communion every Sunday?
Why shouldn’t we? If we truly believe the traditional, Protestant understanding of the Lord’s Supper – that when we take communion we truly and spiritually feast upon Christ and that it is one of God’s chief means of grace to us – then the Supper, in our opinion, shouldn’t be restricted to once a month or less.
See photographs of Providence and our people.