WELCOME TO WAYSIDE CHURCH!
At Wayside Presbyterian Church, we believe that God saves and grows His people through the simple and historic means of grace: His Word, prayer, the sacraments, worship, service, and gospel community. By His grace, God is renewing individuals, families, cities, and cultures through the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ. We invite you to come to join us in this mission. We are an intergenerational community with a wide variety of professions and backgrounds. I'd love to meet you and hope to see you soon!
—Brian Cosby, Senior Pastor
{ COME AS YOU ARE }
We are a community of people who are in process. We have imperfect messy lives, but we are pursuing and experiencing a transforming relationship with Jesus and with each other. Everybody is welcome here whatever your story, your questions, doubts, or struggles.
We want to invite you to join us for Lord's Day worship—to engage with God's people in Word-centered, Christ-exalting, and soul-enriching praise to our God.
Sundays at Wayside
Morning Worship 9:00am & 10:45am
Meets in the main sanctuary. Overflow spaces are available in the upstairs overflow room (with audio/video feed) and in the Fellowship Hall downstairs.
Infant Nursery Available @ the 9:00am, 10:45am, and 6:00pm worship services. Next to the sanctuary for infants through 3 years. We also have a mother's nursing room and a family room with audio of the service.
Evening Worship 6:00pm
We enjoy closing the Lord's Day together in a time of singing and hearing the preaching of God's Word.
Text for this week's sermon
Week: 6/29/2025 | John 19:17-27
37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
What We Believe
We are a "confessional" church, which means that we enjoy a rich heritage of Reformed theology, ministry, and worship—stemming from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. In particular, we affirm the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the 1640s. Below is a summary of what we believe:
The Bible: We believe the Bible is the written word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error in the original manuscripts. The Bible is the revelation of God’s truth and is infallible and authoritative in all matters of faith and practice.
God: We believe in the Holy Trinity. There is one God, who exists eternally in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In himself, he is perfectly holy and powerful, altogether just and wise, and utterly good and loving.
Humanity: We believe that all people are created in the image of God with dignity as they were made to reflect God’s character in all of life. Yet, we believe that all people are born as sinners, totally depraved and totally unable to save themselves from God’s displeasure, except by his mercy.
Salvation: We believe that salvation is by God alone as he sovereignly chooses those he will save. We believe his choice is based on his grace, not on any human individual merit, or foreseen faith. We believe that salvation is through Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone.
Jesus Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who through his perfect life and sacrificial death atoned for the sins of all who will trust in him, alone, for salvation. We believe that Jesus, our Redeemer, was raised again for our justification, and ascended into the heavens, where he sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty, continually making intercession for his people, and governing the whole world as head over all things for his church. We believe that Jesus will return, bodily and visibly, to judge all mankind, to receive his people to himself, and to renew all things.
Holy Spirit: We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells God’s people and gives them the strength and wisdom to trust Christ and follow him. We believe that the Holy Spirit refreshes, remakes, restores, reforms, and revives. We are never alone because he is in us and with us.
Church and Kingdom: We believe that as the living God renews all things, he has been gathering a people, called the church, from every nation, race, class, and culture. He instructs us as his people to become actively invested in the world’s people and problems in productive ways by bringing his truth and values to bear on all of life. Jesus has power and authority to right what is wrong with the world and he chooses the church as his primary instrument for making disciples of all nations. Thus, the church's mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ through the means of grace that God has provided; ordinarily, God's Word, the sacraments, and prayer.
(With thanks to Lookout Mountain PCA for parts of this summary)