Early | College Place Church

The Praise-and-Worship Service

What It's Like:

The contemporary praise service attracts worshippers who enjoy live, soft-rock-style music played from a lit stage, and love to sing about their faith in Christ. Much of the praise music is based on scripture; some comes directly from Psalms.

Early-morning congregants also hear a biblically based sermon focused on topics we all contemplate in our Christian walk. With the exception of The Lord’s Prayer, the Early Service does not feature any other traditional creeds and confessions.

Worship Walkthrough:

The Early Service launches at 8:45 a.m. on Sundays in the Christian Life Center, an auditorium-size room with a stage at one end. The pastor welcomes worshippers and describes the week’s engagement opportunities.

The praise team performs a three-song set, leading us into worship. The musicians include guitarist and vocalist Matt Walsh (yes, he does have a great musician name). Matt is joined by Dale Merritt on rhythm guitar, Pete Jock on keyboards, Jacob Jock on bass, and Scott Bachman on drums.

From the sound booth, the tech team projects lyrics to twin big screens, and the congregation is encouraged to stand and sing along (hands raised or not).

Praise songs include favorites such as Good, Good Father by Chris Tomlin, Graves into Gardens by Brandon Lake, 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman, and The Lion and The Lamb by Big Daddy Weave.

After the congregation has sung praises to our Lord and Savior, our pastor dismisses all children who want to attend Kidz Church down the hall. (Child care is available for toddlers and babies for the entire service.)

The pastor offers prayers for our community and for our offering. The sermon begins with a scripture passage; the scripture is also projected so the congregation can read along. The pastor reads from the New Revised Standard Version.

The pastor delivers a 30-minute sermon followed either by Communion (the first Sunday of the month) or by the benediction. Everyone is welcome at the Lord’s table; we serve Communion by intinction (dipping of the bread into the juice).

The service ends at 9:45 a.m., and Sunday Clubs follow at 10 a.m. (See our Sermons page for recent topics and excerpts.)

The tech team streams the service live to the church’s YouTube channel. Sunday afternoons, a link is posted to the CPMC Facebook page. Social links are below.