ERC meets each week to worship the LORD in acts of Divine worship. We believe that there is no higher activity in which man may be engaged. Our services are therefore conducted in a reverent way as we seek, by His grace, to honour God and to worship Him as He so desires and as He has revealed to us in His Word the Holy Bible, not adding to it or subtracting from it for to do so would be an act of will-worship which is idolatry.

It is right therefore that we examine our motives in gathering together to worship.  Consider these wise words:

"It can hardly be denied that in their worship services God's children sometimes have evil aims. Not infrequently their aim centers on themselves, not on God. That makes their aim evil. Perhaps they go to church to have their craving for theatricals or entertainment satisfied. They want to see "a good show" and have "a good laugh" or, still better, "a good cry". For the minister the temptation is ever present to seek his own glory. All too often he looks forward to the plaudits of men rather than the divine approval. To put it popularly, he is out to "make a hit" for himself. Such worship is worship of self, not of God. It can only be an abomination in God's sight.

The danger is no less real that the aim of the worshiping church will be distorted. What should be secondary is made primary. What should be a means is regarded as the end. Christians go to church to enjoy the communion of saints. That certainly is good, but only so far as it goes, and it does not go nearly far enough. They should go to church to have communion with God. Worship services are conducted in the hope that sinners may be saved through the preaching of the Word. Most assuredly that is good, but it may never be forgotten that the salvation of men is a means to the glory of God. Saints go to church that they may be built up in faith, hope and love. That, too, is excellent, but it again is only a means to the highest of all ends - the honour of God.

Corporate worship must be unto God. When properly performed, it is unto God. It is oriented to the glory of God rather than the blessedness of man, and it aims at man's blessedness only as a means to the end of God's glory.

All that the Christian does must be done to the glory of God. That holds even of his eating or drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31). But in nothing does he glorify God as directly as in worship, and in nothing does the church glorify God as immediately as in its corporate worship. It stands in the very presence of God".*

OUR SERVICES

Sunday: 10:45am

Wednesday: 6:45pm (for Bible Study and Prayer)

Our Lord's Day meeting takes place in Rauceby Village Hall (Directions).

In our services of worship we use the Authorized Version of the Bible only (KJV), and Metrical Psalms.

"Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness"

Psalm 48:1

*R. B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ, The Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted 1987, p350-351