Worship at First CRC

One of the four points in our vision statement is “Celebrate in Worship”. “Celebrate” is a wonderful word intended to capture what we strive to do when we gather as a community of people who desire to glorify and praise God.

Almighty God is the focus of our worship - worship designed to reflect the fact that it is a dialogue with Him, meaning that in worship we interact with God; God speaks to us, we listen, and we respond.

We worship God because the triune nature of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is worthy of our worship, and we want to glorify His Holy Name!

Morning Worship Services
At First CRC, we normally gather for worship services twice on Sundays. Our morning service begins at 10:00 a.m., and in accord with Reformed tradition, we hold up the Word of God, contained in both Testaments of the Bible, as our primary focus in worship.

The Word, through which God speaks to us, is read and reflected on in sermons where “the whole council of God” is explored in various themes for the service. Often these are reflective of the various seasons of the church year.

We celebrate the seasons of Advent – Christmas and Lent – Easter; as well as other significant “Holy” days in the church calendar such as Pentecost.

Our morning worship services also contain a variety of prayers, a message for the children, congregational singing, and special elements such as responsive readings and litanies, special music and occasionally mini-dramas or dramatic readings that reinforce the worship theme of the day.

Our congregational singing is of a blended style, sometimes following more of a traditional form where our singing is led by one of our capable organists. Every third Sunday a team of musicians leads us in a more contemporary style of singing. We are also assisted in “celebrating in worship” through the use of multi-media technology.

Evening Worship Services
We gather for worship most Sunday evenings at 5:00 p.m. These worship services generally focus more on deeper teaching. We may explore church doctrine as we are guided by our denominational confessions, or explore aspects of God’s Word and Biblical topics assisted by video teachings followed by guided small group discussions. Evening services are held in the more intimate setting of the New Life Centre.

Occasionally we do not hold an evening service, or we may have a special service that may require a different time - so it is advisable to check our worship schedule to see when we are having regularly scheduled evening services.

Holy Communion
First CRC celebrates the sacrament of Holy Communion (the Lord’s Supper) up to 9 times per year. The sacrament is usually celebrated in the morning service on the first Sunday of the months of February, April, June, August, October, and December. We also celebrate Communion during our Good Friday service as well as New Year’s Day and Ascension Day services.

Other Services
In addition to worshipping together every Sunday of the year, First CRC regularly calls the congregation together for worship at 10:00 a.m. on Good Friday, at 7:00 p.m. on Ascension Day, at 10:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, at 10:00 a.m. on Christmas Day, and often on New Year’s Eve and/or New Year’s Day.

Of course, we love to have guests and visitors join us on these special services as well as at any of our regularly scheduled services where we come together as brothers and sisters united in Christ in order to “Celebrate in Worship”.