At Golden Bay Baptist, we love having new people join us as we celebrate God and encourage each other to live as His apprentices.
There are people at the church building from about 8am setting up for the service. Most people arrive sometime after 9:15am, for a 9:30am service. When you come in, someone at the welcome table will greet you and offer you a church newsletter. We love to chat, so feel free to come in as early as you like! If you’d rather just sit quietly, that’s also perfectly fine by us – just let the person at the welcome table know!
At 9:30, the church service itself will start. Typically, our services start with a few songs led by the worship director for the day. We tend to sing a variety of songs – from new worship songs to old hymns.
At some point, the worship leader will often allow a time for people in the congregation to share a word from God, some way that God has blessed them, or a need that they have or know about. There will usually also be a time for the congregation to spend in prayer. Visitors are welcome and invited to participate in this, but shouldn’t feel any pressure to do so.
During school terms, about half way through the service, the kids will be invited to attend Kid’s church or crèche. While the kids are out, a message drawn from the Bible will be presented. We aim for this message to last about 30 minutes.
Usually, thought not always, we finish with another song.
On the second and fourth Sundays of every month, at some point in the morning we’ll share Communion together. At communion, we invite all those who trust in Jesus to eat bread and drink grape juice in remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. If you love Jesus, you’re absolutely invited to join in. If you would like to know more about this, we’d love to chat.
On the first and third and fifth Sunday of every month, we finish our service with small group discussions about the content of the sermon. Feel free to just listen in!
After the service, we spend some time over a cuppa and some snacks. It’s a great time for us to get to know you – and you us!
You might notice that after a little while some people start packing up the chairs and equipment in the hall. Please don’t feel like that’s your cue to leave – there are always a few people around who’d love to keep chatting.
Quite often, we head down to the local café after everything has been packed away to just hang out a bit more.
We’d love to have you join us!
If you have any questions about what Sunday services look like, please don’t hesitate to contact us.