Why We Worship

What Is Worship?

Worship engages the faithful and the hesitant from diverse personal pilgrimages in their relationship with God, with one another, and with God’s creation through the joyful and expectant act of prayer. Whether praise or petition, lament or longing, prayer in worship seeks God’s voice and movement through silence, song, sacrament, and sermon.

Why Do We Worship?

To acknowledge that God alone is sovereign over creation
To acknowledge that we are not God; and therefore,
To listen to God’s call to us in and through our lives.

Toward that end: We gather together as a community of faith

to give praise in all things to our God of grace in all things
to share our confessions and petitions, our joys and concerns, with God and one another
to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, that the commonwealth (kingdom) of God is among us
to respond in trust to the Good News sacramentally, by reaffirming our baptisms, breaking the bread of new life, and sharing the cup of forgiveness
to respond in trust to the Good News socially, by committing to bear it anew to God’s hurting world.

What Makes Worship at BPC Happen?

The Holy Spirit -- through the people, the space, the light, the ritual, the movement, the familiar prayers, the new prayers, the music, the silence, the sharing, the words, and the Word.

Regardless of who or where you are on life’s journey, you are always welcome to worship with us at Bethesda Presbyterian Church!

Last updated by Chuck Booker-Hirsch Mar 7.

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Blog Posts

Sermon, 7/25: "Our Church: Vision Is Everything"

... and so it is! As we focus on God's grand framework of "Personal, Passionate, Progressive" for us, we will do so by worshiping as one in an informal summer fashion: gathering together in one of our two transepts (side sections of pews). Join us at 10!

Posted by Chuck Booker-Hirsch on July 23, 2010 at 5:46am

Summer Social Justice Cinema: July Fridays, 7:30p!

Our Community Theater (details: BPC Film Force More Powerful.doc) benefitting Bethesda Cares Outreach for the Homeless continues Friday, July 16, 23 & 30. Two 30-minute clips shown each week from A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent… Continue

Posted by Chuck Booker-Hirsch on June 23, 2010 at 11:30am

This Sunday's Worship (7/11): Sermon on the Mount continues!

Topics this Sunday include anger, lust, divorce, retaliation, enemies ... life's simple stuff. "Love your enemy": Oh, really?! And doesn't "Turn the other cheek" mean "Get hit with the other fist"? Scripture: Matthew 5:21-48. Come join us at 10a this Sunday!

Posted by Chuck Booker-Hirsch on July 9, 2010 at 11:30pm

Our New Statement of Welcome!

Opposite on this page, you will note our brief, clear Statement of Welcome approved on June 15 by our Session (church board). Most mainline Protestant churches such as our own -- never exempt from the human condition -- have played a particularly bigoted role in rejecting our lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender sisters & brothers from full participation in our congregations. We at BPC -- noted for our personal hospitality to all -- feel it our faithful responsibility to counter such an… Continue

Posted by Chuck Booker-Hirsch on June 16, 2010 at 6:00pm