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What to Expect at Maryville
A Bible-Based Church
We are a community of people who meet in Maryville, TN who are simply trying to live by what the Bible teaches. The Maryville church of Christ is part of a tradition of nondenominational Christians called the Restoration Movement. This is a movement dedicated to Jesus’ prayer for the unity of all believers. We come from all sorts of church backgrounds, but we worship together as one body. We believe this type of unity is possible by rejecting human creeds and denominational dogmas and simply using direct Bible teaching as our guide. We find that preachers, pastors, and priests can be wrong, but the Bible is always right. We are very much “a Bible-based church.” You can expect Bible classes and sermons to come straight from the Bible. We strive to be united in matters of faith, give one another freedom in matters of opinion, and always express love for one another. We admit that we never get this balance exactly perfect, but it is always our desire. We recognize that we are all recovering sin addicts, seeking to build up and support one-another as God works to rebuild our hearts to be devoted to him and to each other.
A Christ-Centered Community
We are a gathering of believers who come together for community, encouragement, and teaching. We realize the challenge of creating a sense of community and family in a church our size. It is easy to “slip in and out” and never get connected. For this reason, we are working hard to create environments where community and connection come naturally. We have “small groups” designed to create “a small-church-feel in a large church.” These community opportunities range from our monthly small group meetings, ladies ministry, men’s ministry, and youth ministry, to weekly Bible study groups. Our community is centered upon Christ. He is the head of this body. We feel this is demonstrated from the heart-felt spiritual discussion in our small groups to our weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper on Sunday.
Simple New Testament-Shaped Worship
Our worship is congregational in nature. For us, worship is a sharing event where we commune with God and each other. We see worship as a time to reverence God while encouraging one another. Everyone in the assembly is encouraged to join in the event of worship. Toward this end, we keep our worship simple and very organic. Our worship in song is neither performance-oriented nor requires skilled musicians. We believe that there is simplicity and power in simple, vocal only singing (a cappella). We all join together as “one voice” when we praise God. Vocal-only praise is unique in the religious landscape of our culture and we believe you will find it unassuming, yet strongly inspiring. We try and model the simple forms of worship exhibited in the New Testament. While working hard to make gatherings uplifting for everyone, we place our primary focus on God as the object of our worship.
A Mission-Minded People
The gospel is the good news of God’s grace. It is news we all desperately need. We are all spiritual beggars in need of the bread of life. When one of us finds the bread, we naturally want to share it with others. Thus, we are a people on a mission. Our primary focus is reflected in our mission statement: “To fulfill the Great Commission by teaching the Gospel to the lost, to encourage a never ending spiritual growth in God’s children, and to hold steadfastly to the Bible which we affirm is the inerrant and inspired word of God.” We believe that the mission of the church is to “make disciples of Jesus” through evangelism and spiritual development of all believers. Our focus is on people, not on programs. Our focus is on helping men, women and children to become more like Jesus, to spiritually develop and be equipped to lead and disciple others. We are personally invested in many mission efforts in foreign countries and are exploring new ways to share our faith with the rapidly changing culture in which we live.