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
Sunday School 9:15am
Classes for all ages, from nursery through adults.
Morning Worship 10:30am
Meets in the main sanctuary. Overflow space is available in the Fellowship Hall downstairs.
Infant Nursery Available @ the 10:30am and 6:00pm worship services. At the end of the hall to the right of the sanctuary. We also have a mother's nursing 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: 9/20/2026 | Romans 13:1-7
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
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)