Our Worship Style

What's your idea of a Presbyterian? A really religious guy that wears a robe and a collar. (We respect that but it's not us) A compromising theological liberal who justifies sin? (Definitely not us!) When it comes to worship - Ames Community Church (pca) is a conservative, nontraditional kind of Presbyterian church. Gospel centered doctrinally and non-traditional in worship? Why that's counter intuitive! Do you know what's great about the PCA? On one hand there is grace and liberty in style and on the other there is uncompromising substance and essentials.

A Few Thoughts About How We Worship.

Have you ever noticed how often we use adjectives to describe our worship? There is traditional worship, contemporary worship, liturgical worship, seeker sensitive worship, postmodern worship. All of the above styles of worship are very important to the people who embrace them. Those styles meet the needs of the folks who embrace them. At Ames Community Church we are not afraid of a new song, a hymn, an electric guitar, an organ, a trombone, accapella voices, extended silence, a creed, a confession of sin, hand bells, the doxology, or Marshall amplifiers. Soulful, thoughtful, real, intellectual, a variety of worship styles from the gut. That's us. We value diversity (I'm not afraid to use that word) as well as our reformed history and heritage. We embrace our neighbors and culture, especially if they are different from us. We value the liberty of worship within the PCA. We like African style worship, northern European style worship, folk style, bluegrass worship, choirs, and solos (no country western). Whatever the style, we like it when worship is done with excellence.

Our Worship is Centered on Jesus.

It is held together with Scripture and His Holy Spirit. You can't have Godly worship without the Holy Spirit. He is over us, in us and we worship through Him. Our worship is not something we can create or manufacture. It is not always easy to come to worship, so we understand that sometimes it requires an emotional sacrifice to praise God. That's OK. Sometimes you just want to sing out for joy. That's great too. We worship in His Spirit, authentic and true.

We Value Worship.

We value reverence in worship, preparing for worship, the distinctions between praise and worship, unity in worship and corporate worship. We will never treat worship as a spectator sport!

We Won't be Shy.

We'll sing about His death and His resurrection. We'll sing about heaven, hell, joy, suffering, blood, victory, sin and the devil. We'll sing about grace, mercy, justice, holiness, repentance and love. We'll sing about His first coming and His final coming. And we promise not to be shy about any of it.

The Big Picture.

Jesus is not our lover, our banker, or our therapist. He is our King, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Comforter and our Hope. We want a Christian to feel like they can bring their friends to church and have them see a big picture of God. We want the worship of our God to impact those who are skeptical or seeking.

So how would we describe our worship? How about reformed, relevant and real? That works. Come to get to know us! We invite you to Worship Him with us.