When you walk in, you'll be greeted by someone from our congregation. They'll give you a copy of our newsletter "The Beacon" and might ask for your name if you're new or visiting. If it is your first time, we would love for you to sign our guest book as a record of your visit. Of course, this is optional and you don't have to give us your name if you'd rather stay anonymous.

Wherever you like is the short answer. If you know someone, you might like to sit with them. If you think you might wanna duck out or don't want people to see you, you can stay up the back. If you really want, you can sit right in the front row! Nothing's reserved.

We like to open our service with a 'praise session'. During this time, we'll sing a few songs that give praise to God. Generally it's a combination of modern Christian music (set to piano, drums, guitar and bass) and more traditional style hymns. We're lucky to have a cool old school pipe organ that's just perfect for singing along to. The words to the songs are all shown on an overhead projector and we've got 'praise leaders' up the front. Their job is to sing really loud in the microphones so no one else gets embarrassed!

The purpose of the music and singing is to focus us back on God. The daily week can be distracting! Singing helps to open our hearts back to what's important in life. If you don't feel like singing out loud, that's OK. Some of the songs are sung standing up and some sitting down but if you're not a fan of standing, then it's OK to stay sitting. We have regular folks who stay sitting so you won't need to worry about looking out of place.

You may have heard of the term "Christian karaoke" or seen the article a while back about a church in Queensland that was blaring their music too loud for residents. Lucky for us, our church building is right in the middle of the shops and they aren't open that early on a Sunday!

It's always nice to have visitors or new faces, so during this bit, we might announce that you're here with us if you gave us your name when you came in. Don't worry, we won't make you stand up! Some people love being acknowledged, especially if they're friends or family of someone who comes regularly. If you'd rather not have your name announced, just mention that to the person who greeted you when you came in.

Someone will then talk about upcoming events, important things that have happened during the week and general 'housekeeping' issues. It's so people who regularly attend are reminded of what's happening in our church family.

This is the heart of our service. Churches who are part of the association of the Churches of Christ in Australia will celebrate this every week. Communion has many other names including: the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the Sacraments, the Elements or the Bread and Wine.

If you believe that Jesus is your personal Lord and Saviour, you are invited to take part.

This ceremony symbolises the key message of what Christianity is all about, that by Jesus dying on the Cross, He took the punishment that was meant for us and that the act makes us appear clean us in the eyes of God, 'forgiveness of sins'. We do this because there are records* in the Bible that Jesus asked us to do so. Jesus didn't specify the details of what was required. Rather, it's what we're thinking about when we're doing it that's important.

Helpers will bring around broken pieces of dry wafers. This is the 'bread' that symbolises Jesus' body that was broken on the cross.
Helpers will then bring around individual cups of grape juice. This is the 'wine' that symbolises Jesus' blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

There are some different views about what communion is. What we believe is that the bread and wine are symbols and aren't actually special in themselves. That's why it doesn't matter if we use bread or wafers, wine or grape juice. What is important is that we understand the abstract concept it is representing. It also doesn't matter if you do this ceremony every day, every week, every month or every year. We choose to do this every week so it is the highlight of our service.

*Records of Jesus telling His disciples about communion can be found in Matthew 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-26 and Luke 22:7-23. Click on the links to read the passages from the New International Version or from there, you can choose another version or read the whole chapter and get the context of when this event occurred.

This is the part of the service where our regular attenders and members have an opportunity to give a financial offering back to God. If you are new or visiting, you are our guest so please do not feel that you have to give. The money collected is used to pay our pastors and administration staff and to fund ministries at the local community level (such as Streetwork), national level (such as the Australian Christian and Indigenous Ministries) and international level (such as Global Mission Partners).

During this part of the service, a member will speak into the microphone and 'lead' the congregation in prayer. We believe that when we pray, we are speaking directly to God. Some people like to bow their heads or close their eyes to help them focus and concentrate but it is not a necessary part of prayer. Neither is speaking out loud! During prayer, we thank God for all the blessings that He has given to us, we pray that the money given in the offering will be used wisely and we pray for people and special events that may be happening. The prayer ends with "Amen" which means "That's the truth". Some people in the congregation will respond by also saying "Amen", which means they agree with the prayer that has been said out loud.

Before the sermon or message, we will have a passage from the Bible read out. The words will be up on the overhead projector. We believe that the Bible is the word of God, that is, His instruction booklet to us for life. We also know that we have to be cautious in how we interpret His instructions. In particular, not to take parts of it out of context, or not to take parts literally when they were meant to be figures of speech.

The sermon or message generally follows the Bible reading. During this time, our pastor (or guest speaker) will speak to us about a key aspect of Christianity and help us to understand the Bible passage that was just read. We encourage everyone who listens to make sure that we are communicating the right message about what God wants and not distorting it based on our own biased judgements. The Bible actually warns us not to blindly accept everything we're told but to critically evaluate and test it to make sure it comes from God.

At the end, we'll probably have a brief closing prayer and maybe sing another song.

After that, the service is finished and it's a more casual time for tea, coffee, biscuits and a chat!