What to Expect When You Visit

First, you are our honored guest.  We want you to feel comfortable when you visit with us.

Brief Background
We are people who believe, practice and hold to God's Holy Word.  Our objective is to serve and worship God as he would have us to do (John 4:24).  Below is a walk through of our service (on Sundays).

Sunday Morning Bible Class
On Sunday morning before we begin our worship, we have a Bible study.  In our Bible study, we go into age appropriate classes.  If you are an adult, you may stay out in the auditorium.  We also have adults who go into and teach classes for infants through college age.  If your child does not feel like they want to leave you and go to class, that is okay.  They are more than welcome to stay out in the adult class with you.  During our class, a teacher will get up and teach.  There may be questions asked.  Don't be nervous because you will not be called on to answer.  If you have a question, feel free to ask it while in class.

Singing
We sing praise to God to worship Him and to teach and admonish each other.  Something you will find is that we do not use any mechanical instruments in our worship to God.  We only use our voices.  This is not a preference, but a conviction.  It is us following after the will of God (Eph 5:19, Col 3:16).  The song leader will announce a number.  There will be a songbook in front of you.  Please feel free to pick it up and sing along with us.

Prayer
While in worship, we have several prayers.  Prayers are our way of talking to God and making our petitions known to Him.  We pray to God the Father in the name of God the Son (Eph 5:20, 1Thes 5:17).

Preaching
We also have a sermon that will be presented by the preacher.  You will notice that the preacher doesn't have a special title.  He will not be referred to as Pastor or Reverend.  He will be called brother, preacher, or even by his first or last name.  He won't be wearing any special clothing or robes; more than likely he will be in a suit and tie.  The sermon will be around 30 minutes in length.  It will be Bible based, and we hope you find it useful to you and scriptural in nature (2Tim 4:1-5).
At the end of each sermon, the preacher will extend an invitation.  There is a time after the sermon that someone who heard the message and feels that they are subject to respond may do so.  Don't feel out of place during this.  A song will be sung to encourage those who need to respond to do so.  You will not be singled out in any way.  There may be someone, or nobody, who responds.  Some may respond to be baptized, confess their wrong as erring children of God, or maybe to place membership with us at Coldwater.  If someone responds, the preacher will talk with this person.  If they are coming to be baptized, you will witness the baptism during our service.  Baptism will be immersion (Col 2:12) and for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38).

Lord's Supper
The Lord's supper will be included in our worship to God each and every Sunday (Acts 20:7).  This is our way of remembering the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  In this memorial, plates will be passed around.  Four men will go to the front of the building to do this.  The first plate will contain unleavened bread which is to remember the body of Christ (Matt 26:26).  Each Christian will break a piece of bread and eat it.  The next tray that will be passed will have small cups filled with the fruit of the vine, grape juice.  This symbolizes the blood of Christ (Matt 26:27-28).  Each Christian will take one cup and drink the contents of it.  If you do not participate, don't be embarrassed.  Just pass the plates down to the next person, or to one of the men who are passing them out.

Offering
Also part of our worship is the weekly collection, or offering (1Cor 16:1-2).  For convenience, this is done right after the Lord's supper by the same four men.  Plates will be passed in the same manner that the Lord's supper was.  As our guest, you are not expected to give.  Feel perfectly comfortable just passing the collection plate to the next person or to one of the four men serving.

What is Expected of You?
Absolutely nothing at all!  You might be asked to fill out a visitors card.  This is just so we can send you a thank you card for visiting us, and to let us know if you are interested in a study or anything of this nature.  You will not be harassed in any way.  Feel free to decline to fill this out if you want.  Our members will probably come up to introduce themselves and talk to you. They are just trying to be friendly and to let you know how much we enjoyed having you as our guest. 
If you have any questions, just let us know.  You can find our contact information under the contact info tab.