What's going on?

Introduction

A member of the church will welcome everyone to the service and introduce themselves. A short Bible passage may be read to help us focus our minds on why we are meeting together.

Singing

Christians love to sing! At YEC, we generally sing four songs on a Sunday morning, and three in an evening service. We stand to sing (unless clearly told not to!) and the words will be on the projector screen. Feel free to join in or just stand and listen if you’re not sure!

Notices

We share church family news and notices towards the start of every service. This generally consists of events coming up, ways in which you can get involved or help and people to pray for.

Children’s talk

This is a short section of the morning service specifically geared towards children in primary school and younger. Children will be invited to go and sit at the front if they would like to and a member of the YEC kids team will do a short and interactive talk on the Bible theme the children will be exploring in their groups. The talk is followed by a children’s song, often with actions or Makaton signing, that you are welcome to join in with in whichever way you feel comfortable. A short prayer will be said for the children, and they then leave to go to their groups. If you are bringing children for the first time, please go out with them and you will be directed to the appropriate group. You are welcome to stay with your child or keep them in the service if you would prefer.

Bible reading

A member of YEC will read a passage from the NIV Bible translation. This is the passage that the teaching will be on later in the service. Bibles are available on the welcome table by the door to the hall, and you will be told the page number for the bit we’re reading.

Prayer

Prayer is just talking to God, and we like to do this together before we get stuck into learning from the Bible. We believe that praying is really important, so you may hear us pray for things happening in the world, for our government and leaders, for York and for specific things in YEC.

Sermon

The sermon is the time of the service where one of our church leaders will explain a Bible passage or theme to us. Lots of people like to take notes, and we encourage everyone to have their Bible open to see for themselves what it says. The sermon is generally 20-30 minutes long.

Benediction or Blessing

The final bit of the service is called the benediction or blessing. This comes after the final song and can be a quick prayer or a verse from the Bible. It is given from the front by the service leader and you will be told whether to stay standing or sit down after the final song.

What next?

Directly after the benediction we generally take a minute or two to think or pray over what we’ve heard so we can remember it throughout the week. People may bow their heads or just stay quiet for a bit. The music group will start to play and people will start to chat to each other and move around.

Refreshments

We provide tea, coffee and a wonderful array of baked goods after the service. These are served in a classroom off the main corridor. We ask parents to go and collect their children from the groups before getting stuck into tea and cake and to supervise them during this time. We stick around and chat to each other for up to an hour after the morning service, and 20 minutes or so after the evening service. This is a great opportunity to catch up with how friends are doing, how everyone’s week has been and what you may have on this week. It may seem scary but we are all very friendly, and if you’d like to stay you are very welcome.