Worship with First United Methodist of Westfield

FUMC Worship Services

First United Methodist Church - Westfield, NJ

Traditional Worship

Seekers Service

Seekers Service Notes

Sunday Morning Schedule

9:15      Seekers Service (also Church School for all ages)

9:30      Sanctuary Choir Rehearsal

10:10    Wesley Choir Rehearsal

10:15    Coffee and Fellowship

10:45    Traditional Worship Service

Traditional Worship

The traditional Sunday worship experience is a time of celebration within our community of faith. The service is always shaped around scripture, and includes hymns and songs, both old and new, a “Children’s Time” in which the younger people are invited forward to share in stories and Bible lessons, choir anthems and special music, prayer time, and a meaningful sermon ‘handled with care’.

Child care is available for young children (infants-age 2) in a professionally staffed nursery during both the Seekers and Traditional Worship services. Older children, after participating in the service through the Children’s Time, have the opportunity to go to “New Dimensions” child care. Here, caring members volunteer to share Bible stories, singing, and often do crafts or special age-appropriate activities to care for the children until the service is over.

A Service of Word and Table (Communion) is celebrated the first Sunday of each month and the invitation is offered to everyone who is willing to receive the grace of Jesus Christ first, and then share it with others.

The Church seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter are special times of celebration, reflection, anticipation, and deeper meaning.

Seekers Service

Sharing our experience, deeply considering the biblical witness, thinking and feeling as a community of faith, all make Seekers Service come alive. Seekers is designed for everyone, familiar with “church” or not, who is thoughtful about integrating God’s Word and his/her own life. Our informal style invites relaxation, participation, and engagement as we grapple with ideas and feelings--the raw materials of faith. Seekers Service is all about stimulation and growth of faith and living out that faith in one’s life.

Each week we sing hymns with strong texts, create a prayer, and explore who we are and who we can be. We use the Revised Common Lectionary as our biblical guide through the church year to pick up the major themes of the Bible. Since everyone is invited to share his or her experience related to the subject drawn from the Gospel Lesson, a sense of shared and divergent meanings develops.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, wrote about the four foundations for building one’s faith--scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Traditional worship, through its liturgical structure, usually emphasizes scripture and tradition. The Seekers Service, through its interactive structure, emphasizes experience complemented by reason as we consider what the Bible says.   I am confident that when you join us, you will be warmly greeted and quickly feel so comfortable that you will want to participate too.

To read the Seekers Notes from a recent service, please click here.

Back to top

Website design donated by Dark Horse Design

Promoted by Submit Away Website Promotion