Mid-Week Service
‘An Tarsaing’ (pronounced ‘Un Tar Sing’) – defn Gaelic, ‘a crossing’
A week can be a long and busy period of time, don’t you find? There are many pressures and deadlines to meet, things to do and expectations to deliver. The pace can be relentless, like a torrent, and it’s not surprising that so many people feel weighed down and stressed out. Sometimes we feel we just need to pause, to stop what we’re doing, and to rest in the presence of God.
At St Columba’s Church we are very aware of the speed of modern life and the way in which the burdens of each day can bear down on us, sometimes with crushing force. Because of that, we run a 30-minute, mid-week service for anyone in the area who would like to drop by. We like to think of it as a spiritual crossing point in the middle of the weekly stream of life. We call this service ‘An Tarsaing.’
We warmly invite you to take some time out in your mid-week to come to our service, held every Wednesday at St Columba's Church, Braehead Way, Bridge of Don, from 1.00-1.30pm. You’ll find an informal worship time made up of prayers, songs and Bible readings. We’d love you to come, to enjoy the presence of God and experience His peace halfway through a busy week.
Why do we worship? Well, the Bible instructs us to worship. It tells us to worship. In its pages we are told to focus our thoughts on God and to praise and thank him for the wonderful being he is and for the marvellous things he has done.
‘Give to the LORD the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come to worship him. Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor’
(1 Chronicles chapter 16 verse 29).
At St. Columba’s Church we worship God with gladness and joy. Because the heart of the Christian faith is freedom from sin and death, rejoicing is central to our worship and praise. Songs of gladness characterise Sunday services in our church. Joyful songs will be a main feature of life in heaven, so we are really only practicing for the main event yet to come. Worship is a dress rehearsal for worship there, and what worship that will be!
| Our services usually involve a number of people, all taking some part or other in leading the services. Children have an important place in our church and in our services. We are well-used to the sound of babies and small children and never break stride when younger ones make their presence vocally known. |
Our congregational singing is accompanied by an excellent praise band, and we sing everything from John Wesley to Reuben Morgan, John Newton to Darlene Zschech, Frances Ridley Havergal to Chris Tomlin.
Recently, we have taken steps to communicate the Good News about Jesus through Christian Arts. We are still at an early stage, but we have started a dance workshop for children, with hopes that dance and music will gain a strong foothold in our church and become a powerful media for the communication of the Gospel.
Our vision of worship is of a foretaste of heaven itself:
Remember, worship is going on all the time in heaven, and when we worship we are joining that which is already happening, what has been called the communion of the saints.
-John Wimber, from Worship: Intimacy with God, quoted in Discerning the Spirits
