I'm New - What Should I Expect?

Concordia is a church that values 3 primary things: being connected to God and to each other, being equipped by God and one another to be able to live the Christian life with joy, and reaching out to one another in love and to those who don't know the love of Jesus.

Sunday Mornings

Worship Gathering

Sundays are a primary time when we are connected to God and one another, equipped by His gifts, and then sent out to reach the world with His grace.

You can expect to come to worship services that will be filled with God's gifts to us: His Word (the Bible) and the Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper), and that are filled with the faith-filled response of God's people (singing, prayer, praise). Following the ups-and-downs of the pandemic of 2020 (and following years), we solidified a new worship gathering that honours our historic Christian heritage while incorporating some newer expressions of our Christian faith. We now meet for worship at 10:30am on Sunday mornings.

Being that we're in the Okanagan, overall our atmosphere is fairly relaxed. Some will wear suits or dresses on Sunday morning; some will wear jeans, shorts, and t-shirts. While we seek to be respectful of God and those around us, the most important thing is not what you wear but that you come to receive God's good gifts and respond with thanksgiving. God's gifts don't depend on how well we are dressed or how well we sing; He serves us because He loves us.

Bible Study

When we moved from two morning services to one, it gave us the opportunity to gather once again for Bible study on Sunday morning. Pastor Michael leads a 45-minute study at 9:30am prior to our worship gathering. The approach is rather informal, and usually is a survey of the three appointed Bible readings for that Sunday. We focus on parts of those readings that we won't focus as much on during the worship gathering. All ages are welcome.

Coffee/Fellowship

Worship and study are the central activities of our congregation. Yet we also know that it's so important to connect with others. Part of how we do that is inviting everyone to stay around for a few (or many!) minutes after worship to enjoy some refreshments and conversation. All are welcome!

Vocation, Groups, Serving, and Giving

Another part of our life together as a congregation is the life we live outside of Sunday mornings. When people think of "church", they generally think of Sunday mornings (or whenever worship services are held). While that is the primary activity of a congregation, there are about 167 more hours in a week when we are the people of God. We can think of our congregational life in four really broad categories: vocation, groups, serving, and giving.

Vocation

The word vocation is a rather rare one in our society. Most people think of it as meaning "a job" or a career. But it's really the idea that wherever we are in life, God calls us to serve Him there. (The word comes from the Latin word vocare, which means "calling".) So vocation means serving God by being faithful moms, dads, children, employees, employers, teammates, etc. Often we think serving God is done by "going to church" or working as a pastor or something. But a good understanding of vocation helps us understand that no matter what our situation of life, we are called by God into serving in the midst of that.

It's really a freeing thing! Martin Luther once said that changing a baby's diaper was a holy calling, because it was part of the vocation of parenthood, caring for children and raising them well. What a great example! So we see vocation as very important in our congregation. We don't want to "over-program" ourselves at the church building, because that could actually hinder the fulfillment of our vocations; we want to allow our people to serve God where they are through their various vocations.

Groups

As important as vocation is, being together in groups within the church is beneficial too. So we have some larger groups—such as our Elements sessions led by our pastor—and some smaller groups, such as a women's group that meets for study and personal support and a men's breakfast group. Small groups are fluid and form as needed, and we are always seeking to grow the number of people in groups.

Serving

There are a lot of things that need to be done in a congregation, from ushering and music leading in worship, to accounting, to property care, to visiting, to setting up special events, and much more. We value serving in ways that will help others, and many times one way to do that is just to "get stuff done". There is always need for servants and serving.

Giving

Giving is last on the list not because it's least important, but because it comes as a result of the vitality of the rest of life. Finances are a reality of the church, just like any organization. But we see them also as a great blessing from God. He has given us all we have. We don't really own anything; we are just stewards—managers—of what God has entrusted to us to use. We encourage one another to give regularly and generously, so that we can do the work of God's kingdom together in ways that none of us could do on our own. We seek to give generously and cheerfully out of a heart of thankfulness to God, not out of guilt or compulsion. So we have a time for offerings in our worship services, and sometimes we'll do fundraising for specific efforts such as our Compassionate Care Fund or our school ministries.