Frequently Asked Questions

New Visitors

  • We are in Greenwood, just south of Indianapolis.

    We are conveniently located for communities, including Bargersville, Mooresville, Franklin, Whiteland, and White River Township.

    Our address is 2340 S. State Road 135, Greenwood, IN 46143

    WHERE’S THE FRONT DOOR?

    It’s actually on the back of the building, which is also where our main parking lot is located. It’s just hard to see when you’re driving up.

    Come on in!

  • We meet in person each Sunday for worship at 10 a.m.

    On the first Sunday of the month, we provide a more-traditional type of service with congregational readings, hymns, and sometimes a choir.

    On the other Sundays, we provide a contemporary type of service with a worship band.

    We also provide online worship via Facebook. View our live services.

  • In each service, we follow these practices:

    • Worship through music

    • Prayer, both silent and spoken

    • Reading of God’s Word

    • Biblically based preaching

    • Tithes and Offering

    • Monthly practice of communion

  • We are a friendly community of people who are eager to worship God together. Members of our welcome team will greet you at the door. They will be happy to give you direction and answer any questions you might have.

    We invite you to experience a gathering of people where you can engage in your faith journey in an authentic way.

About CGC

  • In short, we believe that every aspect of a Christian life should be lived giving glory to God.

    We believe:

    • In the Trinity that is revealed to us in the Bible: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each is distinct, but they share perfect unity in love.

    • Eternal life (what is known as “salvation”) is a free gift from God. It is given by God’s grace alone and not through any merit on our part. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in Him in our hearts, we will be saved.

    • The Bible is the authoritative Word of God. It contains all that people of any age need to know for their salvation. We call the Bible “God’s Word,” believing that through the Holy Spirit, God speaks to us through this book.

  • Our vision and mission is to be a place where:

    Strangers become friends. At Center Grove Church, we value relationships with God and with others. We believe that while we live much of our lives like strangers to others, what most of us want are meaningful relationships with genuine friends. But we are more than just a “friendly” church. God created us to be in a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

    Friends become disciples. God wants more than friendship from us. God wants disciples who know, love, and serve Jesus. The CGC family is committed to a lifelong process of spiritual growth for all ages. We are a learning, praying, worshipping, and serving community.

    Disciples change the world. At Center Grove Church, we don’t just tell people about the good news of Jesus Christ – we live it out in the real world. We proclaim and demonstrate to the world that God is alive and rules on Earth through local and global missional work.

  • We belong to a denomination known as the Christian Reformed Church, which is categorized as Protestant in its beliefs. In general terms, we believe we hold beliefs in common with the Christian church around the world and throughout the ages.

    The Reformed highlights three themes about God that we see repeated throughout the Bible: Sovereign, Covenant, Kingdom

    Learn more about The CRC at https://www.crcna.org/

  • We are a friendly community of people who are eager to worship God together.

    Members of our welcome team will greet you at the door. They will share the essentials, such as the location of the sanctuary, the bathrooms, the children’s check-in, and most importantly, where to get coffee!

    We encourage you to ask questions, and the welcome team will also find you during the service to see if you need anything. But we also recognize that it is hard to visit a church for the first time, so we won’t deploy a “full court press.”

    Take your time, look around, and check us out.

    If it looks and feels like a gathering of people where you can engage in your faith journey in an authentic way, let’s talk more.

Baptism & Communion

  • It’s a church word that means sacred things. In the faith, we understand the idea of “sacred” as being dedicated and set apart as special and worthy. If we were to use non-church words to describe the sacraments, there are a couple of different ways to understand them.

    First, they are best understood as encouragements, not as an equation or a formula. We believe that Jesus gave us the sacraments to encourage us in our faith, not as a “check the box” requirement. The sacraments are made for us, not the other way around.

    Next, the sacraments are symbols. They are tangible and visible reminders of invisible and intangible spiritual realities. They provide a touchstone moment in time that always points us toward a continual presence of God’s love and grace. It is God’s way of connecting with us in a substantial way.

    Finally, sacraments are an act of worship. They are done in the context of a congregation of God's people. They are expressions of faith by both the individual and the larger congregation. This is why we celebrate the sacraments together.

    The two sacraments that were given to us by Jesus are baptism and communion (sometimes called the “Lord’s supper” or “eucharist.”)

  • Baptism is a sacred sign and seal of God's unbreakable promise of grace to us. It is symbolic of God’s word to us, that through baptism, we are “cleansed” in Jesus. In the same way that Jesus died for us and our sins, but then rose again to new life, baptism reflects that spiritual reality. When we receive Christ, our old self is buried with him in death, and we rise with him and walk in newness of life. Because Jesus calls himself the “Living Water,” we recognize the symbolic cleansing and refreshing characteristics of water, and we affirm sprinkling, immersion, and pouring as methods of baptism.

  • In baptism, God promises by grace alone to...

    • forgive our sins;

    • adopt us into the Body of Christ, the church;

    • send the Holy Spirit daily to renew and cleanse us; and

    • resurrect us to eternal life.

    Through baptism, Christ calls us to

    • have new obedience;

    • love and trust God completely;

    • forsake the evil of the world; and

    • live a new and holy life.

  • We recognize that there are two significant moments in a person’s faith journey: The first is when a congregation makes a commitment to collectively raise up a child in the faith; the second is when the child claims their faith as their own.

    We recognize, as do all Christians, that in the midst of both moments, the Holy Spirit is moving in the life of the person. The question remaining is, “What words do we use to capture these pivotal, touchstone moments?”

    Because we believe that baptism signifies the receiving of the Holy Spirit, and that he is present and active long before the child recognizes or is aware of it, we call that first moment “baptism.” We place our hope and trust in the belief that, above all else, the Holy Spirit is the initiator of the faith.

  • Communion is Jesus’ gift of encouragement and sustenance to the church. We take seriously the words of Jesus, who, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and then shared it with his disciples. He spoke powerful and affirming words: "This is my body that is for you," he said. "Do this in remembrance of me." He also took a cup of wine and said, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

  • When we engage in communion, we receive gifts of bread and wine, and we then give thanks to God. As we eat and drink the gifts, we believe there is a profound mystery of Christ’s presence in the bread and wine, and that his life passes into us and is made ours. The Lord's Supper is a way by which Jesus continually nourishes, strengthens, and comforts us.

    Through our prayers and the sharing of bread and wine, we experience unity with each other through the sacrifice of Jesus. His death, resurrection, and ascension comes into the present so that its power once again touches us, changes us, and heals us. We gather at the table with joy. It is a celebration of our risen Lord, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, He is present with us at the table, and so we give joyful thanks for what God has done—and is doing—in our lives and in the world.

  • Our rhythm is to celebrate communion on the first Sunday of each month, as well on our Fifth Sunday worship service. The method of communion alternates between being served in the pew (called “passing”) and coming forward and dipping the bread in the wine (called “intinction.”) We offer bread and gluten-free bread, and the wine is unfermented grape juice.

  • Jesus is the host of communion and invites us to his table. All who proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior are welcome to participate in the Lord's Supper.