It is certainly the duty of a Christian man to ascend higher than merely to seek and secure the salvation of his own soul . . . If we wish to belong to Christ, let no man be anything for himself. But let us all be whatever we are for each other.

- John Calvin

Sermon of the Week

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our liturgy

User's Guide to the Liturgy

Pastor Lusk's "User's Guide to the Liturgy" will be available soon.

Notes on the Liturgy

Worship bulletins are archived on the TPC member's website, www.trinityconnection.net.

Audio teaching on worship by Pastor Lusk from the Dabney Center, Spring 2003:

Brief essays on aspects of the liturgy and liturgical theology (pdf files; more articles forthcoming):

Preparation, Call, and Procession
The Venite
A Short Philosophy of Worship Music
Liturgy and the Least of These: Children in Worship
Baptism and Liturgy
Absolution
The Sursum Corda
The Te Deum
The Public Reading of Scripture and Liturgical Use of the Lectionary
Preaching as a Means of Grace
The Collection of Tithes and Offerings as a Liturgical Element
Principles of Liturgical Prayer
Liturgical Use of Creeds and Confessions
The Kyrie
The Agnus Dei
The Magnificat
The Song of Simeon
The Gloria
The Pax
The Sanctus
A Place at the Table: Some Notes on Paedocommunion
The Benediction
The Amen
The Lord's Supper in the Liturgy
Eucharistic Prayer
Eucharistic Sacrifice
Bodily Posture
The Sign of the Cross
Anointing with Oil
Ordination
Repetition and the Value of Liturgy
Liturgy and the Gospel
"All I Need to Know About Jesus, I Learned in the Liturgy"
Towards a Reformed Liturgical Spirituality
The Use of Tradition in Liturgy
Recent Liturgical Movements and Contemporary Liturgical Developments
An Annotated Liturgical Bibliography

Church Calendar

Advent and Christmas
Epiphany
Transfiguration
Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday
Lent [1] [2]
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Easter
Ascension
Pentecost
Trinity
Reformation Sunday [1] [2]
All Saints Sunday
Christ the King Sunday [1] [2]

Sunday School Teaching on Liturgy from Auburn Avenue Presbyterian, 2003 (Forthcoming)

Prelude to the Psalter (August 10 and 17, 2003 from Auburn Avenue Presbyterian)

Music

Dabney Center Lecture Notes, Spring 2007 (pdf)

Children and Worship at TPC

We welcome children into our worship service. We know that small children often make noise. While we ask parents to be sensitive to the needs of others, as a congregation, we have a very high tolerance for the presence of children in the assembly. After all, entrance into the presence of God and participation in the liturgy are "baptismal" rights that belong to them as members of the royal priesthood. We encourage you to train your children to not simply sit still through the service, but to actually engage the service as much as possible. That's one of the advantages of a liturgical pattern of worship -- there is enough repetition in the responses and service music that even pre-literate children can be taught rapidly how to participate, at least in bits and pieces. They also quickly learn to enjoy the bodily gestures and postures we use, learning when to sit, stand, kneel, raise their hands, and shout "Amen!" If your children cause a bit of commotion, please do not feel the need to immediately take them out or to the nursery. The rest of the TPC family is willing to bear with your children, so you can too. Children were no different in Jesus' day, and yet he invited them to himself, without regard for the distractions they might present (Mt. 18-19). The psalmist insisted that children have an important role to play in the church's liturgical "holy war," silencing the foe and the accuser (Ps. 8).

Here are a couple of documents that further delineate the way in which we view children, especially their presence in the worship service:

Our paedocommunion/credocommunion cooperative agreement statement.

Our nursery philosophy.