Scenic Bay Baptist Church

What to Expect Upon Visiting.

Song Service: When visiting at Scenic Bay Baptist Church, you will notice that the song service focuses on the hymns of the faith. Believing that the music in the church should reflect the new song (Ps. 40:5), in the sense of new from the songs of the world, the style of our music could be defined as being distinctively Christian. You won’t find this style of music on secular radio stations with secular words.

Praise Time: After a couple of hymns, we pause for a few moments in every service for what we call, “Praise Time”. Praise is not working up a feeling about the Lord, but responding to what the Word of God says about the God of the Word and praising Him for what we read about Him. Scripture speaks of three primary themes of praise in that He desires from us praise for His Ways, His Word and His Works. A particular attribute of God is mentioned from the pulpit and why we should praise Him for it, and then folks in the congregation have opportunity to mention more reasons for praise, based upon what they have read in His Word or seen from His Hand.

Offering: Envelopes are provided on a shelf under the box. Instead of passing around the offering plate, we have a box located at the back of the auditorium for God’s people to give according to His leading in their lives. Giving is a private matter, so we trust God to move in His people to provide for the needs of His work. We will not attempt to apply pressure on anyone to give; that is between each individual and their Savior. Envelopes are provided for those who desire a personal record of their giving at the end of the year. So anyone can give for His work before or after the service in the box provided.

Perusing Thru Proverbs: God has provided great wisdom for His children throughout His Word, but especially in the book of Proverbs. Before every morning message, we select a verse or thought from the chapter that corresponds to the day’s date, and seek to learn from His wisdom in Proverbs.

Morning Message: In the effort to manifest his Word through preaching (Titus 1:3), we focus on the expository method of preaching. God’s people do not need to be entertained or coerced; but we all need the food of the Word of God. The sermon is designed to create decisions, but those decisions must be because of “thus saith the Lord”, not thus saith the preacher.

Closing Hymn: During the closing prayer, opportunity is given for decisions, but we do not ask for anyone to make a show of their decisions. This is a time when God’s people need to consider what He has said and what He wants them to do about it. This is between each individual and their God. Thus, we do not call for folks to walk forward, but we do sing a closing hymn with a message that weaves into the sermon. During this closing hymn, anyone who would be strengthened in their decision by coming forward to pray is certainly welcome to do so, but we do not call for it.

Fellowship Dinner: Once a month we celebrate our fellowship together with a dinner in the fellowship hall. The other Sundays, families often bring their meals and eat in the fellowship hall or go out to eat and return for the afternoon service at 2:00.

Afternoon Service: Many in our fellowship live 10 or more miles from the church, some as far as 40 or more. We facilitate them by having the service in the early afternoon instead of evening.

Scripture Songs: Our song service and praise time is similar to the morning service, but one thing we do differently is sing Scripture Songs accompanied by a guitar. A number of gifted musicians have written tunes to various Scriptures, so after the song service we sing a number of them. Singing God’s Word has been a great source of blessing and an encouragement for our children to learn His Word. The guitar facilitates transposing to lower keys and adds a nice variety to our music. The acoustical guitar is not played in a contemporary style, but more of a hint of a classic country flavor.