Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m.
Sunday afternoon at 5:00 p.m.
2. Arriving at Friendship:
Arriving 10 minutes before the service should give you enough time for parking and seating. You may want to arrive a few minutes earlier if you will be using the nursery. Greeters are available to assist you in locating the nursery.
The main entrance is marked with the pillars and drive through canopy. (A picture of our main entrance is shown to the left).
As you enter through the main doors, there will be greeters to assist you. There is also a Welcome Center in the lobby directly in front of the main doors -- information and literature is available there. A view of our floor plan is available by clicking here.
3. Go to the sanctuary for the service.
There is seating on the main floor of the sanctuary and in the balcony. The sanctuary will be directly in front of you when you enter the church building through the main entrance. There are balcony stairs located to the left and to the right. There is also an elevator to the balcony located to the right, after coming in the main entrance. Greeters are available to get you pointed in the right direction, if needed.
Ushers will be available to help you find seating, or you may choose to seat yourself. Printed worship service bulletins and children's bulletins are available from the ushers.
4. What does a service at Friendship typically include?
There will be instrumental music (usually an organist) prior to the start of the worship service.
The minister will begin the worship service with words of welcome and a greeting; he will then ask everyone to take a moment to informally greet one another.
We will sing some opening songs of worship. The words to the songs will be projected on the walls; there are also song books available for most of the songs we sing if you would prefer this. During some worship services, there will also be a Praise Team to lead us in the singing. We typically sing to the accompaniment of the organ and piano; we also like to use other instruments from time to time (violin, flute, horns, drums, guitar, keyboard, etc.). We are a church that loves to sing!
There is often a children's message, where the children come forward and the minister (or a member of the congregation) provides a short message just for the children (but often applicable to adults as well!). The children (up to age 4) are then dismissed to the Children's Worship (which is located in rooms 13 through 16), or children may return to their seats and stay with their parents for the service.
Other elements of service, prior to the sermon will include: a call to confession, announcements, prayer, and an offering.
For the offering, our deacons will pass baskets down the rows. In the morning service, there are two offerings -- the first one for the church's general operating expenses, the second one is often for our building fund, missions, Christian education, benevolence, or another special cause; in the afternoon service, there is one offering -- usually for a special cause (either within our church or for an organization outside of our church). As our guest, our service is our gift to you -- please feel free to pass the baskets by.
The pastor will share a Bible-based message (sermon). Bibles are provided in the pews for you to follow along, if desired. An outline for the message is often included in the printed worship bulletin. The message is ended with a prayer led by the pastor.
After the message, we often sing another song. The service ends with the minister offering a word of encouragement, a blessing (benediction), and with the congregation singing a final song.
The organ will play instrumental music as we exit the sanctuary.
5. After the service ...
Members and visitors usually stay briefly after the service to enjoy a cup of coffee and fellowship.
Coffee is served out of the main kitchen -- this area is located to the right as you exit the sanctuary.
You can visit the Welcome Center at this time. There will be a church member staffing the center. Please feel free to take any of the materials available at the Welcome Center.
After the Sunday morning service, the children (grades K-12) have a Sunday School or Catechism program. There is also an Adult Forum for the grown ups to attend while their children are in Sunday School. We can assist you, if necessary, with finding the appropriate Sunday School room for you or your children.
We want our guests to feel comfortable and welcome when they visit us.
