Helpful Information about Faith Church
Sunday Mornings
Every Sunday morning we gather together as a community at 10:00am to worship God. We don't come because of religious duty or obligation, but so that we can proclaim God's worth and celebrate what he has done for us through Jesus Christ. During the service we usually sing several songs and hymns, one of our elders leads in prayer, and then our pastor teaches from the Bible. The service usually ends between 11:15 and 11:30. On the first Sunday of each month we also celebrate Communion during the worship service.
If you’re worried about not knowing anyone or not knowing what to do or not knowing what to wear – don’t. We’re very welcoming and love to meet new people. Also, we’re not going to ask you for money. We do take time during the service to collect an offering because it is one of the ways that we worship and respond to God and what he has done for us, but you are in no way expected to give.
Getting Here
The church is located on the corner of Franklin St. and Albion St., just down from Franklin Square (Main St.) in Melrose. We do have a small parking lot on the Albion St. side of the church, and an entrance right off the parking lot (once inside take the stairs up to the sanctuary). You may also use the main entrance on Franklin St. If the parking lot is full you can park on the church side of Franklin St. or on Albion St. There are also several side streets (Sargent, Pratt, Cliff) on the opposite side of Franklin that are just a short walk. Click here for a map and here if you need directions.
Other Need-to-Knows
We love having children worship with their parents during our services, so we encourage them to join us and participate as they are able. We do also offer a nursery during the service for children 0 to 2 that is staffed with screened volunteers. For children ages 3-10 we offer a teaching opportunity during the second half of the service (called Junior Church), but we still encourage parents to consider keeping their children with them for the whole service if they desire. One of the greeters would be glad to point you in the direction of the children’s classrooms (upstairs from the sanctuary). You can read more about our children’s ministry here.
Our bathrooms are tucked away downstairs (directly below the sanctuary), but they aren’t hard to find. Just go downstairs, through the big room, through the kitchen and take a left.
More than just Sundays
Our worship service on Sunday mornings is only one part of who we are and what we’re about. We value highly time spent together as the people of God and time spent studying the Bible and praying, so we schedule various opportunities throughout the week to do those things. Some of those opportunities are scheduled and announced, and others are more spontaneous. In either case, we do more than just meet on Sunday mornings, so if you’d like to find out more about what we do you can read the bulletin that is handed out on Sunday mornings, or you can check out our page on this website.
What we Believe
We are a Bible-believing church that stands in the evangelical Protestant tradition. Those words may or may not mean much to you, so let’s break it down briefly.
We are “Bible-believing” in the sense that we trust the Bible as the authoritative and inerrant Word of God, which means that we hold firmly to all that the Bible teaches. We are an “evangelical Protestant” church in that we believe and teach the gospel (“good news”) of Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man who came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, was raised to life, and now reigns eternally on God’s throne. The gospel is that the holy and just God became a human being in order to die in the place of sinful and rebellious humanity, thus bearing the penalty of sin for any who would repent of their sins and trust in Christ. We believe this truth, we proclaim this truth, and we orient our lives around this truth.
We do hold to other core convictions that align us with historic, orthodox Christianity, about things like the triune God, the Bible, humanity, the Church and the future, and we’d be glad to explain what we believe on those subjects. Beyond those core convictions there is a lot of room to “agree to disagree” on less important truths, as long as each position is formulated on the basis of solid Biblical truth.
Membership
We have membership at Faith Church, but there is no need for you to become a member in order to participate in most of what we do as a church. If you’re interested in membership please speak to one of the elders
