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Times of Worship

You are invited to attend the worship services of the Maple City church of Christ in LaPorte, Indiana.

   The Maple City church of Christ is a small group of baptized believers in Jesus Christ. We believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God, and that it is fully sufficient to provide all that one needs to know in order to serve God acceptably (II Peter 1:3; II Timothy 3:16-17; II John 9).

  Our worship is simple, consisting of only five basic elements as outlined in the New Testament of Jesus Christ:
  (1) Bible study, which takes the form of preaching, teaching and scripture reading.
  (2) Singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs which is done without the instrumental accompaniment.
  (3) Eating the Lord's Supper every first day of the week as a memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary for the remission of the sins of men.
  (4) Prayer, which is by definition, a communication with God the Father through the intercession of Jesus Christ, His Son.
  (5) A voluntary Laying By In Store, or Giving of our Means by members of the church upon the first day of the week. This is the only means by which we raise the funds to carry on the work of the church. Visitors are neither asked nor expected to contribute.

  From time to time throughout the year, special Bible study periods may be arranged such as the "Gospel Meeting" at which time a visiting evangelist will preach for us for a few evening.

  Members of churches of Christ are organized only on the local level since the New Testament describes no organizational ties between churches in different communities. We recognize Christians in other localities, however, we are not organically tied together with them through synods, assemblies, conferences, etc.

  Our members are known simply as "Christians" or disciples of Christ, after the New Testament order. The New Testament also refers to faithful Christians as "saints" which means people who are "holy" or "sanctified", that is, "set apart from the world." In the New Testament, saints are living Christians, not people who have been dead for 25 years and then "canonized" by some human religious organization.

  Our "ministers" or "evangelists" are not called by flattering titles such as "Reverend" since we reserve that name for Jehovah (Psalm 111:9). Minister means "servant." Evangelist means "proclaimer of glad tidings." Neither are ministers referred to as "father" since Jesus expressly forbade or prohibited such (Matthew 23:9). Nor are they called "pastor," since that term was used by the Holy Spirit in scripture to refer to the "Elders" of the church.

  We recognize each other as "brethren", since all are children of the same spiritual Father (Romans 8:16).

  Faithful churches of Christ strive to do Bible things in Bible ways, and call spiritual things by Bible names (Colossians 3:17).