Corporate Worship Services
At First Irving we believe the church’s gathering in worship is essential to the overall health of God’s people. As a church, we attempt to accomplish two main things in our corporate gatherings, we want to glorify God and we want to encourage one another. We glorify God by gathering weekly as a church and declaring our love for the Lord and our dependence upon Him. We encourage each other when we hear and respond to the preaching of God’s Word, participate in corporate singing, in praying for one another, and by observing the ordinances (Acts 2:42).
We view our Corporate Worship as a formative time to shape and disciple the people of God. This is why we plan and structure the elements of our Sunday services with careful thought in accordance with the Word of God. We believe that ‘what’ we do in our services and ‘how’ we do them matters, because it reveals and reinforces what we believe deeply about our God.
What are your service times?
Our current service times are English 10:45 AM and our Español (Spanish) meets at 12:30 PM
How long are your services?
Our services on Sunday (English & Spanish) generally last between 70 - 80 minutes
How are your services structured?
At First Irving, we value the Word of God, and we want to be a people marked by delighting in and meditating on God’s Word (Ps. 1:2). We believe that God has spoken through His Word (II Tim. 3:14; Heb. 1:1-2; Jam. 1:18; II Pet. 1:21), and it is the primary means He has chosen to reveal Himself to His people. It’s for this reason that the Word of God opens, directs, and leads all the elements of our services. Below are some of the elements of worship included in our services.
Call to Worship
- In our services we begin with a call to worship because God’s Word shows us that God Himself has always initiated
the gathering and worship of His people (Gen. 1-2; Ex. 24:1-11). Fundamentally worship
in the Scriptures is a response to God’s revelation of Himself or a response to His Word (Ex. 14:30-15:21). We believe as His Word and gospel dwell in our hearts it will overflow into thanksgiving and the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Col. 3:16).
Corporate Singing
- At First Irving, we sing a blend of hymns and newer songs and hymns. Our desire is to glorify God in all things, and this includes our song choices. Our church’s mission statement is to make disciples locally and globally for the glory of God. We believe we make disciples in our services through the lyrics we choose to sing in our songs – our songs shape our people spiritually. This means that we want to avoid inaccurate, misleading, or unclear lyrics in our songs. In John 4, Jesus teaches that the Father is seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Christian worship should be a beautiful balance of right thoughts about God and right affections for God (Matt. 22:37). We try to guard against the unhealthy tendency of leaning too far in one direction.
Corporate Prayer
- At First Irving, we follow the example of the early church by devoting time in our service to corporate prayer (Acts 2:42). We pray, so that as a church, we would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, so that we might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord’s call in our lives (Col. 3:9-10). These times of corporate prayer look different from week-to-week, and they include topics that deal with our hearts (repentance, dependence, confession, etc.), needs, or current events in our world (1 Tim. 2:1-3)
Reading and Preaching of God’s Word
- In our services we dedicate a time to hear the text of Scripture that will be preached that day read over us. This is because we believe “… faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17) We believe that God provides His Word to shape us into the likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit (II Tim. 3:17; II Pet. 1:3) and we want to be obedient to the exhortation to “devote [ourselves] to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:13).
- In our services, the preaching method for the Word of God is through Christ-Centered Expository preaching. This means we preach book by book, section by section, and verse by verse, and our topical series are exceptions and not the norm. We believe all Scripture is a testimony to Jesus Christ and His finished redemptive work on the cross. We maintain the unapologetic posture that the authoritative Word of God is inspired, inerrant, infallible, and sufficient (2 Tim. 3:16).
The Benediction
- In our services we end with a benediction (a short Scripture reading), because as we have received the Gospel through the preaching of God’s Word, we want to remind the church as a final encouragement to leave with the Gospel and with the promises of God’s Word. This benediction enforces the truth that we are sent in the power and grace of God and that we are not sufficient in our own strength (For biblical examples of benedictions: Jude 24-25; Eph. 1:17-19, 3:20; 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Thess. 5:23-24)
Ordinances in Corporate Worship
- At First Irving we observe the Lord’s Supper on the second Sunday of each month. We believe the Lord’s Supper is the obedient practice of the church where we commune with Christ and with one another to remember His death and resurrection. At this time, we also reaffirm our established commitment to Christ and His church as we await the hopeful return of Christ.
We also regularly baptize individuals in our Sunday services who have believed in Jesus for salvation and who are now committing themselves to our church in membership.
