Sunday Mornings at Barabbas Road Church in San Diego

Every church has its own culture and tradition, as does Barabbas Road Church in San Diego. The purpose of Sunday morning church at Barabbas is to worship God and to hear from God’s word. There are a lot of different elements to a Sunday morning service at Barabbas; however, the main element is focusing on God. Therefore, everything done on a Sunday morning at Barabbas Road Church is geared to help the congregation focus on God. Even for visitors, the goal is to help them focus on God. This is why when you first approach the church campus you will see many signs and greeters around the church. These signs and greeters are important as they help direct people to where they need to be so that they can get into the church on time and get to the right area of the church.

The atmosphere of the church is very comfortable, as you will see people dressed in suits to people wearing flip flops. Modesty is also encouraged as the focus should not be on anyone’s body but on the Lord. Therefore, the atmosphere is very comfortable, but still modest and respectable. At 10 am church begins and the doors of the sanctuary are closed to respect the worshipers inside. Worship starts with three songs and everyone stands up to sing together to the Lord. It’s a very simple service as the main components are songs, praying, preaching, offering and communion.

The bulk of the service is the preaching of the word of God. Pastor Matt Smith goes verse by verse through the selected Bible passages, so everyone is encouraged to bring their Bibles so they can follow along. If you do not have a Bible then a Bible will be provided, so that you can read the scriptures with the rest of the church. The scriptures are not put up on a screen because the church wants to encourage and emphasize the importance of having and reading your own Bible.

The whole flow of the service is not broken up. The goal is to not be liturgical, but to include the important elements that will help the congregation focus on God. Therefore, something like the giving of the announcements is done after the service, so there are no interruptions to the flow. The point of this is that by not having distractions it helps promote weightiness to the service. The weightiness is establishing that the service is a time of worship and a time of focusing on God. Every element of the service is there to help the congregation worship God and focus on God. From the opening song set to communion, every element of the service is there to elevate God and his word so that the attention can all be on God.

After the service, the congregation is dismissed and the foyer and courtyard are opened for everyone to fellowship in. The church provides coffee and donuts to help encourage everyone to stick around after the service and hang out.While the church does do things to help make everyone’s experience comfortable, comfort and entertainment are not the main focuses. Maybe other churches look and feel like a movie theater, but that’s not the focus at Barabbas. At Barabbas Road Church in San Diego, the focus is on God. The focus is on hearing about God and hearing from his word.The desire is for you to see Barabbas Road Church as a normal church that is not focused on a certain demographic or genre, the focus will always be on God.