What happens in a church service?
Worship at the Tapton is fairly straightforward and informal. Our services are typical of that found in 'free' churches in that they are basically a 'hymn sandwich' - this means that in between singing hymns there will be prayers led by the preacher, readings from the bible and a message or sermon.
When do services take place?
We worship every Sunday at 2.45pm, there are also other services on special days such as Remembrance Day, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday for example. Sunday worship lasts for about an hour, special services are often shorter.
Who leads the worship?
Our pastor, Frank Elliot-Wright leads worship every third Sunday. On other weeks the services are led by visiting preachers from other churches and sometimes by other church members. From January 2011 Frank will lead worship on the 1st and 5th Sunday of each month, weeks 2 to 4 will be led by visiting preachers or church members.
What does the congregation have to say or do?
During the prayers we close our eyes and bow our heads, listening to the words that are being prayed by the preacher. At the end of the prayers at the beginning of the service we all say the words of the Lord's prayer together. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the words of this prayer, they’re written on a laminated sheet that will be given to you as you come into church.
At the end of any other prayers we just say 'Amen' which means 'so be it'. There are not any scripted responses from the congregation.
At the very end of the service we say 'The Grace' together as follows:
The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all ever more, Amen.
We turn and look at each other as we say this. (The words to the Grace are also on the sheet you will be given on the way in)
Hymns
We are accompanied on the organ. We don't generally bounce up and down or wave our arms about but feel free to do this if that's how you feel! The hymns are a collection of old favourites and more modern ones. Everyone is given a hymn book with the words in on the way in (it's nearly always Mission Praise). It doesn't matter if you don't know the tune - we sometimes find that we are unfamiliar with one or more of the hymns and it's no big deal. We give it a go and laugh about it if it sounds terrible!
The Collection
There is a collection for the work of the church during the service and a bowl will be passed along. If you are a visitor feel free to contribute or not, it's up to you and we won't take offence if you don't. It doesn't matter how little or how much you put in the plate - no one is looking and no one will make any assumptions about you if they do.
Communion
Communion is when we take bread and wine in rememberance of what Jesus told his disciples to do at his last supper with them. We have communion on the first sunday of the month and at other special occasions. Unlike some churches we welcome everyone to take communion. It doesn’t matter whether you are a member of the church or not, or whether you have been baptised, christened or anything else. If you are attracted to Jesus and his message, and would be moved by him then you are welcome to take part. Please don’t exclude yourself because of some idea that you are not allowed to or you are not good enough. It doesn't matter if you’re not a ‘committed’ Christian, as long as you have a positive view of Jesus, and an open mind we want you to share communion with us. Jesus welcomed everybody and so do we.
We stay in our seats and the preacher (either our pastor, another church member or a visitor) will say a few words before handing plates of breads to two other church members who will pass these round to everybody. Don't eat yours as soon as you get it, we all take the bread together at the same time once it's been handed out (this includes the preacher). The same thing then happens with tiny glasses of wine.
At the end of the service
After we've said the grace together we all sing these words, accompanied by the Organ ‘May God’s blessing surround you each day, as you trust him and walk in his way. May his presence within guard and keep you from sin, go in peace, go in joy, go in love.’
This is no. 460 in the hymn book (All the hymns usually come from Mission Praise). Once we’ve sung this the service is over. Sometimes our organist, John, plays a piece for us straight after the service which we all listen to.
Generally people stay around for a bit of a chat and sometimes there's a cup of tea or coffee on offer as well. Sometimes people have to leave straight away and that's no problem.
Welcoming new faces
We will do our very best to make you feel welcome.
We will always talk to new faces in a friendly way and we never quiz people about their beliefs or their plans. But we also recognise that some people when they visit a church for the first time don't really want to talk too much so we try to get the balance right. No one is ever put under any pressure though of course please don't think that this means that we wouldn't be pleased to see you next week!Some people only attend services occasionally and this too is fine. No one ever gets told off for not coming to church often enough! | 
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