All of our Gatherings meet on Sundays at the Main Campus - located at 2950 W. Ray Road Chandler, AZ 85224. The musical style differs in each Gathering, however, the same Teaching Pastor teaches the same message content in all three Gatherings.
The First Gathering
9:00 am - Worship Center
The musical style of this Gathering is piano-driven and involves a team of singers. The songs include a mixture of contemporary choruses and hymns.
The Second Gathering
10:30 am - Worship Center
The musical style of this Gathering is guitar-driven with fewer singers. The songs mostly consist of contemporary choruses.
The Third Gathering
6:00 pm - Gym
This Gathering is uniquely different than the other two. The phrases that best describe this Gathering are: "Expect the unexpected." "Raw, casual." The musical style of this Gathering varies from week to week.
Why Do We Gather?
We believe that the corporate gatherings are a time for realigning people to God’s purposes, celebrating life in Christ, inspiring people to action, preparing people for service and uniting the body of Christ.
We believe that every Gathering should consist of 5 intentional elements:
PRAYER
PRAISE
SCRIPTURE READING
PREACHING
OFFERING
Other elements that are very important to us, but do not always take place in every Gathering are COMMUNION and BAPTISMS.
Upon Arrival
When you arrive at our main campus, you will find adequate parking spaces all around the perimeter of our campus.
If you have children, our Children's Building is located on the NW corner of our campus. We have a very safe and secure computerized check-in system for your children so you can go to The Gathering without worrying.
If you have babies, our Nursery is located in the same building as The Gathering. You are just steps away if your baby needs you. We also have a room for new moms adjacent to the Women's restroom.
If you have teens, our youth attend the 9:00 am Gathering. During the 10:30 am Gathering they either serve in ministry or meet in the Youth Building, located on the NE corner of our campus, with teachers and peers.
In the middle of our campus you will find an open courtyard where we offer light refreshments. Please feel free to help yourself to the array of juices, coffee, bagels, danishes, etc.
WELCOME CENTER
When you finally make your way into the lobby of our Worship Center, you will find several friendly faces at the Welcome Center. Please feel free to stop by and say hello or ask any questions you might have.
THE GATHERING
Our Gatherings are very relaxed. Usually highlighted by upbeat music, scripture reading, prayer, and teaching. If you are interested in listening to some of our teachings before you attend, simply click on the "TEACHINGS" tab at the top of this page. You will see most of our people wearing casual attire, such as jeans, shorts, slacks, etc. We start right on time, but if you are running late, please don't worry. We have plenty of friendly people that will be happy to assist you in whatever way they can.
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The Lenten season (Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Easter) is about participating in the journey of Christ leading up to his death and resurrection. The Christian Church has observed the weeks before Easter as a time of penitence and spiritual self-examination. Ash Wednesday begins the season by acknowledging the human condition and sin. Fasting throughout the 40 days of Lent unites the body and heart with the suffering of Jesus. Lent culminates in Holy Week rehearsing the days before Jesus’ death and celebrating Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Below is a host of other information about Lent and a small portion of what is involved in celebrating the season of Lent together, as a Church community. Clicking on an item will provide even more information. We hope this is helpful in your journey this Lenten Season.
Lent originated in the fourth century of the Church. The season of Lent spans 40 weekdays beginning on Ash Wednesday and peaks during Holy Week with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), Good Friday, and concluding Saturday before Easter. Sundays are considered Resurrection Sundays, and thus are not counted in the 40 days of fasting.
Originally, Lent was the time of preparation for those who were to be baptized; a time of concentrated study and prayer before their baptism at the Easter Vigil, the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord early on Easter Sunday. Since these new members were to be received into a living community of Faith, the entire community was called to preparation. This was also the time when those who had been separated from the Church would prepare to rejoin the community.
Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Some churches still observe a rigid schedule of fasting on certain days during Lent, especially the giving up of meat, alcohol, sweets, and other types of food. Other traditions do not place as great an emphasis on fasting, but focus on charitable deeds, especially helping those in physical need with food and clothing, or simply the giving of money to charities.
Most Christian churches, that observe Lent at all, focus on it as a time of prayer, especially penance, repenting for failures and sin as a way to focus on the need for God’s grace. It is really a preparation to celebrate God’s marvelous redemption at Easter, and the resurrected life that we live, and hope for, as Christians.
There isn’t much written about what Jesus did on Holy Wednesday. The gospel of Luke says, “Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.” (Luke 21:37-38) However, scripture doesn’t give us a lot of detail about this specific day of the week.
Traditionally, this is a day when we remember the fact that Judas betrayed Jesus. Many traditions highlight the contrast between Mary, who lavishes much love through anointing Jesus with expensive perfume, and the betrayal of Judas. The disciples erupt with questions about how the perfume could have been used for better purposes, or sold and the money given to the poor. Judas, on the other hand, agrees to betray Jesus for a only little bit of money. These stories remind us of the priceless sacrifice that Christ made for us.
Some traditions on Wednesday of Holy Week include a foot-washing service. Some churches incorporate this into their Maundy Thursday worship time. However, with the rise of celebrating and observing the seder feast, foot-washing services have become more common on Wednesday of Holy Week. This can be another gathering time for the community during Holy week where the community looks at the life and mission of Jesus, and how it is lived out through the washing of feet. This is a call for the community to not only prepare for Good Friday, but also a reminder about how one should live daily: humbly and with the attitude of a servant.
According to a common theory, the English word Maundy is derived through Middle English, from the Old French word mandé. The word mandé is found in the Latin mandatum, "Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos" ("A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you"), the statement made by Jesus in the Gospel of John (13:34) by which Jesus explained to the Apostles the significance of his action of washing their feet. Some celebrate foot-washing during a gathering time with the community on Maundy Thursday.
When Jesus and his disciples got together in the upper room, they were getting together to celebrate Passover. Jews would gather once a year to remember that their ancestors were slaves in Egypt. God sent 10 plagues on the Egyptians and freed the Israelites from slavery. When the 10th plague happened, they were commanded to eat a certain meal so that they could get out quickly when Pharaoh told them to leave. The Passover Festival was a time to remember that night when they were freed from the oppression of the Egyptians.
There is now a meal known as the seder meal that many Christians partake in today. It is a remembrance of the meal that the Jews ate and the meal that Jesus celebrated with his disciples on the night he was betrayed. Many Christians partake in a seder feast to learn and be a part of the symbols which are present in the feast. Our church will be having a seder meal gathering time on Maundy Thursday. The date is Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 7:00 pm. We encourage you to come and be a part as Rabbi Jack teaches us the symbolism in the meal and helps lead us closer to the cross.
The Friday of Holy Week has traditionally been called Good Friday. It is on this day that the church remembers the arrest, trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus. There are many ways in which the church remembers these events that took place on this day. The point of most of the gatherings is to feel the emotions of loneliness, pain, humiliation and suffering that Christ must have felt on this day as he went to the cross.
Some churches do a service called a Tenebrae service. Tenebrae is latin for “shadows” or “darkness.” Throughout this service, candles are continually extinguished and lights are dimmed, eventually leaving the room in darkness. This symbolizes the road Christ took to the cross, as well as how dark the world would be without God. The Christ candle is extinguished at the end and carried out, representing his death and burial. Worshippers are asked to leave in silence, and the service is never concluded. Sunday is the conclusion of this gathering time.
Our church will be having a Tenebrae gathering time on Good Friday. The gathering will be on Friday, April 2nd starting at 7:00 pm and will include Scripture and hymns. Please plan on attending with your family. It is hard to celebrate a resurrection if you have not first experienced death. Your Easter experience will be much more enjoyable if you are able to join us on Good Friday.
Traditionally, Holy Saturday is a day of contemplation and sadness. Christians have often reflected on the night before and what the world would be like without God and His grace. This day has also been called “Silent Saturday.” Traditionally Christians have abstained from speaking to anyone to help in the reflecting process. Christians have also traditionally fasted all day from food.
We acknowledge how difficult it is for families to remain silent and do a complete fast, especially families with children. We encourage you to do whatever you are able to do to remember and think through the events of the week. What would it have been like to be a disciple during this week? You would have gone from a triumphal entry to a death on a cross. Everything they had put their hopes in was placed in a tomb. This was probably the worst day of their lives.
As Christians, we know the rest of the story. So, another aspect of the day is starting to build expectation for what will take place on Sunday. If you have journeyed through the Lenten season, prepare to journey to the grave tomorrow morning. Expect to see a Savior in a grave and get ready to be astonished to see it empty!
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is beginning point, and the ending point, of our relationship with God. It is only through Him that we are saved and only through Him do we find life. The symbol of the cross is a reminder of the greatest act of love by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The cross is highlighted during Lent as we journey with Christ to His death and resurrection during the season. The cross is brought to a focal point of the worship Gathering so that it cannot be avoided reminding us that we are called to a greater life with Christ.
The Christ candle is used by many churches, from all demoninations, year round. The flame represents Christ's constant presence and His eternal life. It is emphasized during the season of Advent and the season of Lent.
In Advent it is used to celebrate the birth of Jesus, after a four week progression of candles symbolizing hope, preparation, joy, and peace. The Christ candle is lit on Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Christ the following day on Christmas morning.
The presence of the flame is emphasized during Lent, but the flame is put out on Good Friday as we rehearse the crucifixion of Jesus. The extinguishment of the flame symbolizes Christ's death. The flame flickering throughout the year, is suddenly extinguished. This light, now gone, leaves a void much like the void in our lives when Christ (The Light) is not present. At the end of the Good Friday service the unlit Christ candle is removed from the people, walked out of their presence to symbolize the absence of Christ in our lives. Silent Saturday is observed without the Christ candle being lit as we mourn the death of Christ.
However, on Easter morning a lit Christ candle is paraded into the worship Gathering as we all celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The color used in the sanctuary for most of Lent is purple, red violet, or dark violet. These colors symbolize both the pain and suffering leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus as well as the suffering of humanity and the world under sin. But purple is also the color of royalty, and so anticipates through the suffering and death of Jesus the coming resurrection and hope of newness that will be celebrated in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.*
Decide on Lenten sacrifices appropriate to the age of each child, reminding them that our souls need this spiritual exercise to gain strength for living as Christians, just as our bodies need exercise to remain healthy. Our sacrifices are like a gift offered to God, and all real gifts "cost" the giver something. (No fair "giving up" hitting your sister for Lent!)
Our Lenten spiritual preparation should not be confined only to "giving up" things; we should "take on" things, also extra prayers, for example, especially family prayers. If your family has not already established some form of family prayer, Lent is a good time to begin. We are prepared to do something special during this season. Praying together as a family, in our busy times, is difficult, so do set aside some time this Lent to do it. Fathers and mothers can plan together what form this will take whether as simple as saying the Angelus every night at dinner, or as elaborate as saying the Daily Office together in the evening.
Make a "Journey of the Cross" poster for keeping tack of the sacrifices children make during Lent. For each child, on a sheet of poster paper, draw a crooked path leading to a cross at the top of the path . Mark the path into 46 sections representing the forty days of Lent plus the Sundays; marking the Sunday spaces to distinguish them from the other days. (Or you may Click here for our design to print out for each child.) After the children have done their task or sacrifice for each Lenten day, they place a star or sticker (or color with crayons) on the space representing that day on the "journey" to Easter Day. The posters can be taped to the refrigerator door.
Click here to see another list created for CrossRoads.
Armstrong, Susan. Ash Wednesday Service of Covenant Renewel. Northwest Nazarene University Wesley Center. Accessed 02.04.09 at http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/covenant/Ash%20Wednesday%20Service%20of%20Covenant%20Renewal.pdf.
Bratcher, Dennis. The Voice: CRI/Voice Institute. “The Season of Lent.” Accessed 02.04.09 at http://www.cresourcei.org/cylent.html.
Hampton, Pastor Johnny. Notes and sermon from Ash Wednesday Service delivered on March 1, 2005. College Church of the Nazarene. Nampa, Idaho.
Hampton, Pastor Johnny. Notes and sermon from Ash Wednesday Service delivered on February 21, 2007. College Church of the Nazarene. Nampa, Idaho.
Hampton, Pastor Johnny. Notes and sermon from Ash Wednesday Service delivered on February 6, 2008. College Church of the Nazarene. Nampa, Idaho.
Peterson, Brent. Ash Wednesday Service delivered on February 6, 2008. Nampa First Church of the Nazarene. Nampa, Idaho.
Waller, Gary. Celebrations and Observances of the Church Year: Leading Meaningful Services from Advent to All Saints' Day. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 2009.
