Reaching up is one of the central means of reaching the fullness God intends the church to be. We at Slicer Street seek ways of reaching up to God so that he is glorified in us and we are made more like him. It is our awe of him that motivates us to give him praise. And it is through our praise and worship that we are made more into his image.
There are three primary ways we reach up. The first is in our study of Scripture. Bible classes are important to us. We provide two times each week for members to participate in Bible classes as a group. Sunday at
Prayer is a means of adapting our will to meet God’s. Through prayer we resign ourselves to accept God’s will in all things. We offer him our will and request that he respect and consider it, but ultimately prayer is about discerning and accepting and furthering his will. Prayer is part of nearly all we do and we encourage people to be active in prayer in their private lives.
Worship is another means of reaching up to God. He promises to draw near to us as we draw near to him (Hebrews 10). So worship is primarily about Christians voicing praise and adoration to God for what he has done. A secondary purpose is for non-Christians to be able to understand and come to knowledge about God. We worship every Sunday, the Lord’s Day. We begin His day with worship (9:00) and we end His day with worship (5:00). Then on Wednesday we have a short worship service following a Bible study.
In our worship, we communicate with God through prayer. We offer up to God our praise in direct communication in prayer. We petition God for blessings and for health and strength. Many people request prayer and we strive to make those requests known to God.
We participate in the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. The weekly observance fits the apostolic example (Acts 20.7) as well as the pattern seen in early church history. It is our time to examine ourselves and remember the Lord’s death until he comes. We renew the covenant made in baptism and try to maintain the intensity of our “first love,? which is being faithful to our Lord.
We sing praises to God every Sunday. Singing is one of the distinctive things about Slicer Street. While all congregations sing, we sing a lot! We have good song leaders and people who love to sing. Our singing is a capella, meaning we do not have instrumental accompaniment. While instruments often make appearances in the Old Testament, they are strangely silent and even absent in the New Testament. We are told to sing and to sing a melody that comes from the heart. But we are not told to play. This intentional silence of the New Testament, along with the testimony of early church history, causes us to believe that church worship should be without the instrument. It is considered part of the shadow of the Old Testament that passed away with the coming of the reality in Christ. In addition, it contributes nothing of value to our edification in worship (1 Corinthians 14). So we seek to please the Lord and we know a capella singing does that.
We give of our means each week as well. This grace of giving is part of our worship to God, so our giving is an act of worship. We are really giving to God even more than giving to the church. We entrust the elders to be accountable and faithful with our contributions. We give each week as Paul admonished the New Testament church (1 Corinthians 16), providing members with a chance to both worship God and free themselves from the love of money.
Preaching is heard every week at Slicer Street. We usually have expository preaching, where a particular text is read and then expounded in the sermon. The Word is the source of our authority and by preaching the Word we seek to understand and submit to it in our lives. Currently our preacher is Spencer Furby, who has been with us since 1995. He and his wife, Melissa, have two children, Noah and Abby.
