What to Expect

Sunday Morning

The Atmosphere
When you walk in the door on Sunday Morning Immanuel Baptist Church feels like a family reunion where strangers are welcome. Our family and our visitors come from all walks of life. Some of us are students, some of us are homeless, some of us are professionals, and some of us are working ‘blue collar’ jobs. You’ll see a few guys wearing suits, a few more people wearing t-shirts and jeans, and most people will be somewhere in between. So feel free to come as you are. We think you’ll find the atmosphere welcoming but if the people sitting beside you don’t introduce themselves it might be because they’re new here too. On any given Sunday about 40% of the people at Immanuel are visitors so please take the initiative and introduce yourself to the people around you.

The Music
The musical style varies from week to week. Some weeks we are led by an acoustic trio, most weeks we are led by full band with a wide variety of instruments (from electric guitar to an African Djembe). It is our goal to see our congregational music increasingly reflect the diversity of our urban congregation.
While our musical styles change the theme of the songs we sing always remains the same. We always sing about God the Father and the great redemption story he has unfolded through His Son Jesus Christ. This great theme has been inspiring incredible lyrics for thousands of years now so we try to sing Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs from throughout the history of the Church. Not only do we try to sing songs that are old and new but we try to choose music that speaks to Christians in all of the seasons of life. In light of this we seek to sing to Him in songs that weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.

The Message
Each week we give the best part of our time together to expositional preaching. This kind of preaching is committed to explaining what the verses of scripture teach and how they apply to our daily lives. This is not a time for the preacher to vent his own opinions or preferences. Rather it is an opportunity for all of us to hear from God as His word is faithfully explained, illustrated, and applied. However, having said this, we would not want to give you the impression that this is just an academic Bible lecture. We believe that at its best preaching comes with the power and presence of Almighty God Himself. It is knowing God himself that we are seeking as we listen to the preaching.

The Ministry
Sunday morning is also a time to serve at Immanuel. If you are exploring Christianity we want to serve you by welcoming you and being the kinds of humble people you would feel comfortable asking questions about Jesus. If you are looking to join Immanuel we encourage you to get a feel for how we begin to serve one another each week during our time together on Sunday morning. We listen to announcements to see the opportunities we have to serve. We encourage one another in the service we are already doing. We ask each other how we are doing so we can better learn how to serve each other. We hope that when you visit Immanuel you will feel this heart of service.