Worshipping Together at Madison Square

We believe that deep inside us human beings there’s a yearning to touch and be touched by the Holy. That yearning may be pretty much asleep, drifting in the unconscious. Or it may be consciously ignored. But it’s there inside us. And when that yearning is conscious and becomes a compelling urgency, we find ourselves seeking a church sanctuary.

To be sure, we human beings can meet and experience the embrace of the Holy wherever we are out in the world. But there’s something about a church sanctuary that tugs on our hearts and stirs in our souls. Maybe we sense a sanctuary’s promise to be what Professor Marcus Borg describes as a “thin place,” a sacred space, where the veil between divine and mortal is thin, and we can see through it, to see what ordinarily defies human vision.

With that veil suddenly and exquisitely made thin, it’s as if we can stretch out our hand to touch God’s hand, and see God’s smile, and feel our hearts lifted into the heart of the Holy. That holy happening is what we sense can occur in a church sanctuary. And we Madison Square Presbyterians have discovered that the transformation of our sanctuary into sacred space oh so often comes through music; music is like a chariot come to carry our hearts where our hearts long to go, to worship God.

This longing we have for the Holy and for soul-deep worship, really it is a basic human need. It’s a need inextricably linked to our “creature-ness.” We human creatures have an innate need to be close to our Creator. Somehow we know that this profound intimacy, this touching and being touched by the Holy, is what provides the nurture we most need, the feeding without which we just cannot be fully alive. We know somehow that receiving this nurture is what transforms mere existence into life. And something deep inside of us knows that the well-spring which feeds and quenches thirst and truly satisfies flows in the living water of worship, in the thin place of worship.

So, we worship as individual children of God; we worship in our daily lives. But there’s something else, something (Someone!) leading us to more feeding, fuller feeding, leading us to a sanctuary, to sit alongside others on pews, to worship with other human beings.

Sometimes it seems that what leads us into a Sunday worship service is the nagging voice of a parent or spouse, or that bothersome inner voice of duty or conscience. But it’s more than that. It’s the Holy leading us to discover the awesome truth about the most awesome feeding: it happens “where two or three are gathered in the name of Christ.”

We may not be able to define it or describe it, to capture the experience within the limits of human thoughts and words. Nor may it make rational sense to us, but we feel it. In the presence of others sharing the pews with us, in the invisible presence of those who long ago sat on those pews, in the ethereal presence of the future generations who will find home on those same pews, we feel the presence of the Holy. The nurture we need – we cannot fathom why it is so, but the nurture we need is most powerfully ours to receive in the company of brothers and sister.

Presbyterian Worship in our Sanctuary

Like other Christian churches around the world, Madison Square Presbyterian Church provides a place which, in the presence and power of Holy Spirit, can become a sacred space. Like other Presbyterian churches, we structure our worship services with Bible passages, and a sermon based on those passages, at the center of our worship, both literally and figuratively.

Like other Presbyterians, we center ourselves in that center. We listen carefully for the voice of the Holy to come singing off the pages of the Bible and into our lives. But, while the Bible is at the center of our worship, we don’t worship the Bible itself, as if it were holding God within its covers.

Most of us at Madison Square don’t view the Bible as writings which were directly dictated by God to human scribes, whose writings, therefore, must be utterly factual and accurate historically, indeed, without any errors at all. We are aware that much in the Bible isn’t factual, but that awareness doesn’t spawn angst in us or lead us to disregard or throw our Bibles away. We know that what’s far more important than fact is truth, and we know that truth can be wondrously conveyed through myths, poems, and narratives born of imagination. We have discovered that there is divine truth in the Bible, though not every word is factual. And we have discovered that sometimes we have to work very hard to hear those truths. We have to dig deep beneath the collage of words and their cultural nuances because, in the Bible, divine truths are all mixed up in and sometimes obscured by the fallible words of very human writers.

So most of us at Madison Square approach the Bible with the open eyes of realists, and with the open minds of students, seeking to hear what our mothers and fathers of the faith had to say. But we come with open hearts, too; you see, we do believe that God did inspire those ancient storytellers. We believe that, by the inspiration of God’s own Spirit, the biblical writers wrote more than they themselves knew they were writing. In and among their human time-bound words are timeless truths – the Word.

And we believe that same Spirit continues to inspire today. We believe that the Spirit is inspiring biblical scholars, and all the rest of us as we read the Bible, to encounter and be encountered by the Word.

Therefore, every Sunday one or more Bible passages is at the center of our worship service. Surrounding that center is Presbyterian liturgy, composed of a Call to Worship, prayers, an Affirmation of Faith, an Offering of our financial gifts, a Benediction, all interspersed with music. More about music in a moment, but first there’s something we want you to know about our worship services.

Our worship services are shaped generally by “The Directory for Worship,” which our denomination provides. But, while some churches use materials “canned and copied” from the numerous books of liturgical resources which are available, we usually don’t. Most of what you’ll find written in our bulletins (programs) has been composed by our own creative writers. The content of each Sunday’s liturgy is created especially for that Sunday. Simply put, while our services of worship are indeed Presbyterian, they are flavored by the particular spice of Madison Square Presbyterians. So, if you’ve visited or been a member of another Presbyterian church, our worship services may feel familiar but also quite different.

Music at Madison Square

Surely the most glorious music and singing awaits us in the eternal tomorrow, that heavenly music which fills the eternal home in which we’ll be living someday. But we need music’s gift now, while yet we live in these flesh and blood bodies.

There’s something about music which can take us further than even the most eloquent words, to experience the presence of the Holy. But, while we are all human, each of us also is unique. We may all need a chariot of music to lift our hearts to worship and soar, but we need different chariots. Since we are an inclusive and therefore incredibly diverse faith family, we offer a variety of music styles in our worship services.

But you may ask: Doesn’t that much variety in music engender a disjointed, even jarring, worship service? Doesn’t trying to provide something musical for everybody result in a watered down mish mash that really can’t satisfy anybody?

Well, it is true that many churches have tried to provide “blended” worship services, and can’t. We have an amazing choir, and there are other very, very gifted musicians in our midst, and so, off we go together, with grand and grandly diverse music lifting our hearts. And somehow, even those of us who can’t carry a tune in a bucket, are carried along to sing along! Somehow, what might be a wild ride elsewhere, in the sanctuary of Madison Square is wildly beautiful.

Every Sunday worship service contains a mixture of that which is familiar and comfortable along with that which is new and spiritually challenging, mixtures of music and creative liturgies and sermons designed to stir mind and heart. And every Sunday morning is a family reunion – brother and sister members and brother and sister guests in worship together. Every Sunday worship service begins with the words, “Bienvenidos; people of God, welcome home!”

Sunday Worship and the Sacraments

The Lord’s Supper and Baptism

Worship begins at 10:50 each Sunday morning. On the first Sunday of the month, our worship service includes the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, sometimes called “Communion,” or “Holy Eucharist.” Each of us receives a little bit of bread and a little bit of grape juice, but a big helping of God’s own love! We remember Jesus’ birth, his life of preaching and teaching and healing, his last supper with his disciples (on which this sacramental feast is founded), his death and resurrection. And we remember his promise to be with us always. As we share the feast, we feel that promise feeding our lives. As in other Presbyterian churches, this feasting in God’s grace which nurtures our living is open to all, not just to Presbyterians, though Presbyterians are surely among those most in need of it!

On various Sundays we celebrate the other Sacrament, Baptism. We baptize those the Spirit brings to be new Christians, babies, youth, adults. Do you have to be a member of Madison Square to be baptized in our sanctuary? No, but you do have to become a member of a Christian church somewhere. Why? It’s because of what Presbyterians believe about Baptism.

We do not believe that Baptism is the way to heaven; we believe it’s the way into the here and now living of Christianity. That baby or youth or adult was already completely loved by God before his or her Baptism, and would continue to be held in that absolute love all the way to the heavenly home, whether or not he or she ever were to be baptized. To us, Baptism is God calling a beloved son or daughter, calling that son or daughter to be a Christian disciple, to walk the walk of Jesus Christ. Baptism is God washing that person’s life clean to be ready for discipleship, and placing that person in a Christian church family, entrusting to that family the person’s need to be taught and nurtured into discipleship. So, if the person is not going to be living within a church family, isn’t going to be involved in discipleship, what’s would be the point of getting baptized? It wouldn’t make any sense, would it?

In our church as in other Presbyterian churches, Baptisms are not private occasions of worship. Unless mitigated by very unusual circumstances, Baptisms are held during Sunday morning worship services because Baptisms involve the whole church family. In some Christian churches, the Baptismal Liturgy includes vows to be spoken by “God Parents,” but in the Presbyterian church, all in the church family are God parents. The whole church family speaks holy vows, pledging to teach and to support this new Christian disciple.

On Fifth Sundays (when a month contains more than four Sundays), worship is planned and led by the children and youth of our congregation, with the assistance of their pastors and teachers and parents. And, yes, those young people can preach!

As in most Presbyterian churches, usually one of our own pastors delivers the sermon. But, just as there is variety in other parts of our worship services, there’s variety in our preaching. Our pastors are not “jealous of the pulpit,” but gladly share it – with visiting clergy, with retired pastors who’ve made their church home with us, sometimes with youth and children. And out of the mouths of babes…

Other Worship Occasions During the Year

We worship together on Sunday mornings, but on other occasions, too. Our Christmas Eve service is always glorious, full of choral Christmas anthems and as many of the old and treasured Christmas carols we can fit into the service to sing! The Christmas tree is bedecked with white lights and “Chrismons” (ornaments which are Christian symbols), and, as the old but ever new Christmas story is told, the candles on our candelabras are lit to shine. And, with the Christ candle lit in the center of the Advent wreath, we share together the Lord’s Supper.

We know that some folks are not accustomed to celebrating the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on Christmas Eve, but we believe that Christmas and Easter are inextricably tied together. We remember that the One who was born is the same One who died and was resurrected, whose love carries us all the way home.

Toward the end of the service, the sanctuary lights are dimmed, and the light of the Christ candle is carried to be passed along the pews. Holding our lit candles, we sing “Silent Night.” And then, we carry the light outside; we take our lit candles and stand on the church steps, singing to the world the good news of Christ’s birth.

Similarly beautiful worship services are held on Ash Wednesday, and on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday during Holy Week, as we prepare for the glorious celebration on Easter morning. And we worship on other occasions as well, to celebrate the beginning of another church season, or when something has happened in the world, or simply because the Spirit has nudged our spiritual longing to touch and be touched by the Holy together.

Worshipping on the Occasions

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Weddings, Services of Holy Blessing, and Funerals

Our sanctuary is open for weddings, holy blessing services, and funerals, both for members and non-members. However, the liturgies for these services must express Presbyterian theology. It is not that we are disrespectful of the liturgies and beliefs of others within the Christian family. But we know that visitors to these worship services may assume that, simply because the service is in a Presbyterian church, it reflects what Presbyterians believe, and we want that to be true. So these services usually are led by one of our own pastors or by another pastor of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

To know more about dates of availability, policies and fees, please call the church office: 210/226-6254.

Come Worship With Us

Maybe you are a Presbyterian who has recently moved to our city, and you are looking for a new church home. We would be delighted, elated really, were you to visit us, but please be assured that you will not be pressured to join. We believe that searching for the church family which is right for you is the right thing to do.

But maybe you haven’t darkened the doors of a church for a long, long time – that’s okay. Many of us who are now members of Madison Square know well what that’s like; we’ve been there, too.

Maybe you don’t have “Sunday go to meeting clothes” – neither do we. We wear ordinary clothes, like what we’d wear to school or work.

Maybe you don’t think you’re smart enough, or know the Bible enough, or are good enough, or believe the right beliefs. Be at peace: all you need to be is a child of God.

Maybe you’re afraid you won’t know what to do or how to do it – don’t worry. There’s a printed program to follow (we call it the “bulletin”), and there’s somebody sitting on a pew near you who’d gladly help you, too.

But what if you make a mistake? Lord knows, we all do. We - and our pastors! - are known to stumble all over ourselves sometimes, right in the middle of a worship service, and we just laugh at our human foibles, and go on.

However, if you’re looking for a church that preaches hell fire and damnation, with worship services that poke at your sins and accentuate your guilt, with a congregation that frowns a lot, worshipping with us probably wouldn’t satisfy you. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a church that preaches “grace” (God’s all inclusive and unconditional love), with worship services to lift your heart, whether your heart is heavy or light, and with a congregation that smiles a lot, laughs out loud a lot, really has a lot of fun together, come visit next Sunday.

Don’t expect something staid and stuffy – you just might hear clapping hands and out loud “Amens!”