Worship

“The more we get on with celebrating who and what we are in Christ, the less consumed we will be by chaos and the more committed we will be to Christ-likeness in the world and for the world.”Brad Kohring, 2017

Worship is not confined to formal church services. All the activities of the church aim to be worshipful and to glorify God. More formal worship takes place in services on a Sunday as well as throughout the week in prayer meetings, house groups, and children and young people's groups. Special services — including circuit services, healing services and times of quiet reflection — take place from time to time as well.

Sunday services

9:00 am — first and third Sundays

A more traditional service with hymns accompanied by the organ. The structure will vary but usually begins with a hymn, followed by bible readings, hymns, the sermon and prayers, before ending with a final hymn around 10:00 am. Coffee is served in the hall afterwards — an opportunity to meet other worshippers and people arriving for the 10:30 am service.

10:30 am — every week

Less formal and more contemporary, with a worship band including piano, guitars and drums, and a longer time of teaching. The service begins with the children present for a worship song before they are blessed and leave for their own session in King's Kids. There follows the bible reading, a time of teaching, worship songs, prayer and conversation with the children, ending around 12:00 noon. Coffee is served afterwards.

During this service King's Kids (for children of primary school age and younger) has teaching and activities that follow the theme of the main service. A crèche is also available. Leaders will speak to you if you're new or visiting with children — of course, children are welcome to remain in the service if you, or they, prefer.

From time to time there may be a Sunday evening service, shown on the preaching plan and publicised ahead of time on the Stokesley Methodist Circuit website.

A bit about holy communion

For two thousand years, the Church has continued a practice called communion — or, depending on tradition, the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist. Communion uses bread as a symbol for Jesus' body and wine as a symbol for His blood. Jesus started the tradition, instructing His followers to use bread and wine to remember the sacrifice He made when He died for our sins on the cross (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

We want this special ceremony to be available to everybody. Everyone is welcome to take part; there are no restrictions and nobody is ‘not good enough’. The bread we use is gluten free and we use alcohol-free wine, so anyone with a dietary need or a problem with alcohol can safely join us. It's all about us being a church for everyone. A service of holy communion is held a number of times a quarter in each of the two services.

House groups

House groups are run by individuals in their own homes. They tend to follow a set programme of topics, sometimes following the themes preached on in the previous Sunday's sermon. House groups vary greatly in their composition and style, but all are friendly, supportive and a great way of getting to know people and finding your place within the church. Ideas and visions arising from house groups are a major source of the mission work undertaken by the church.

For more information about house groups, contact the worship portfolio leaders Chris Stokeld or Jeanette Hardy via gamc.secretary@gmail.com, who will put you in touch with someone who can help.