Worship

The Communion Rail | The season

Come worship with us!

Sunday Morning worship at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday school for all ages at 10:30 a.m.
Evening worship service at 6:00 p.m.
Hispanic Service at 7:00 p.m.


Our worship style is "upbeat traditional". That is, we use both praise choruses and hymns from the United Methodist Hymnal. We have a choir, not a praise team. The pastor sometimes wears a robe and stole, and the pulpit and lectern and Lord's table have seasonally-colored paraments ("altar cloths"). We get excited, but the pace is that of traditional rather than contemporary worship.

 Our Lord's table

The communion rail

In the United Methodist Church the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion) is open to anyone who will come. You do not have to be a member of our congregation, or of the United Methodist Church, to receive the sacrament. John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, saw the Lord's Supper as a "converting ordinance", an opportunity for folks to meet God through Jesus.

At Garden City United Methodist Church we usually offer the Lord's Supper on the first Sunday of the month. This reflects our heritage as a church on the frontier, when the ordained minister was riding a circuit and not available to every congregation every Sunday.

At Garden City you will see folks leave money at the communion rail. This is not required of those who come! Money left at the rail goes in our "poor fund", a pastor's discretionary fund used for those who seek help from us.

For more about the Lord's Supper in the United Methodist Church click on this link.


Advent symbol

PENTECOST

 

PENTECOST, a Greek word meaning, “fiftieth day,” was originally a celebration at the end of the harvest.   It was later associated with the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai and in a sense the founding of the Jewish nation.  This parallels with the birth of the Christian Church when the Lord poured out his Holy Spirit upon the faithful on the day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter (Acts, chapter 2). 

 

PENTECOST is the longest season of the church year, beginning on the day of Pentecost and ending on the first Sunday in Advent.  While the color red is used until Trinity Sunday, green is displayed the rest of the period, except for special days.

 

Two common symbols of this season are: the dove, which symbolized the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus at his baptism (Luke 3: 21-22); and fire, for John the Baptist declared Jesus would baptize us with “the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3: 17) and “tongues of fire” appeared and came to rest on each Christian on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 3).

 

The Holy Spirit of the Triune God has come to give us new life, to open our eyes to the Truth and to empower us to be effective witnesses for the glory of our risen Savior.

The indwelling Spirit enables each receptive heart as well as every body of believers to become a holy temple of God.