We Meet on Sundays from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
People tend to start arriving around 9:45 AM to connect before the service. We try to start on time at 10, and our services last between an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half.
When You Arrive
When you drive in, you’ll see our Mercy Hill sign in the front of the driveway at 750 Mendocino Avenue across the street from Joey’s Pizza. The church is located in the front part of the office complex where you can also find Bridges Pregnancy Care Clinic and the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.
When you walk in through the gate, there will be a lighted patio garden and table with snacks and coffee just for you. As you enter, on your left is our meeting room and on your right is our nursery. When you walk into the meeting room, there will be a friendly person at the door to greet you and give you the bulletin. You’re welcome to take a seat or hang out and chat until the service starts.
Our Church Service
We begin with a time of singing. We enjoy joyful singing, but we also include some more contemplative songs. We include modern worship songs as well as some of the great hymns of the church. The greatness of God, His Son and the good news of salvation through the cross of Christ are the messages that permeate our singing time. The order of service goes like this:
- Singing
- Dismiss Kids to Children’s Church
- Sermon
- Singing
Nursery and Children’s Church
You are welcome to keep children of any age with you in service. However, we do offer childcare for ages 0-3 in the nursery starting at 9:45 am and continuing until 11:30 am.
Older children ages 4-12 are included in the main service for the singing time. After the singing, we dismiss these kids to line up at the back door and follow their teachers to Children’s Church. Again, all children are welcome to stay in the main service the entire time if that is your preference. We leave that decision up to the parents.
For children’s church, we use The Gospel Project curriculum. Church leaders and parents have been very happy with this curriculum. It’s engaging, the teaching level is appropriate, the kids are learning a lot, and there is a gospel-Jesus focus throughout the curriculum.
After the sermon, the kids return from Children’s Church and join their parents during the singing at the end of the service.
The Teaching Time
The sermon time is where Pastor John teaches a message from the Bible. We value expository biblical teaching, where the pastor’s job is to engage the church body in a winsome way, clearly explain the message of the text and apply the teaching of the Bible to our daily lives. Pastor John generally teaches through a book of the Bible, but occasionally he will do a topical sermon or a topical series. Even when preaching topically, his aim is to preach expositorily unpacking what the scriptures have to say about that topic.
