Frequently Asked Questions

What is a confessional church?

A confessional church believes that a historic confession of faith is an accurate summary of the Bible’s teaching. Subscribing to a confession (the 1689 London Baptist Confession in our case) provides an excellent way to teach theology and maintain unity. The confession has a catechism for helping children and new adult believers learn about God and the Gospel. While we believe the confession is accurate, we must insist on saying that the Bible is our final and infallible authority. A confessional church is intentionally making known their positions on various issues and connecting their faith with the historic church.

When and where will you meet?

Our home for the foreseeable future is an event venue called Palacio Maria, which is located at 21728 Highland Knolls Drive, Katy, TX, 77450. We are thrilled to have such a great space to meet together as a church. Our service is at 10am, but please come early for a cup of coffee and fellowship.

What is the plan for launch?

We have started meeting in small groups this September and we will begin meeting for weekly worship services on January 5th, 2025. We will also have fellowship opportunities leading up to the official launch. Check out our church calendar here.

What are worship services like?

Our desire is to worship God in the way that he has prescribed in his word. We want to worship in an orderly way, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:28-29). Our emphasis in the musical worship is congregational singing; the voice of the congregation is the most important instrument in the room. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper every week, have a time for the corporate confession of sin, Scripture readings, and a time each Sunday for a children’s catechism moment. We believe in the Regulative Principle of Worship, so our services contain only those elements that Scripture specifically prescribes for worship: prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, preaching and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, and occasional fasting. Our preaching style is exegetical, working through books of the Bible, with an emphasis on application. We believe that soft sermons make hard hearts and hard sermons make soft hearts. Check out our sermon archive if you want to hear our approach.

Why are you planting a church?

Why would you leave the comfort of GBC for the suburban edges of the western frontier? We want to plant a church in Katy for a number of reasons. First, while there are plenty of churches out here, there are also so many unreached people that even the many faithful churches are barely scratching the surface of the population. Secondly, a confessional church that emphasizes disciple-making (in the way we intend to) is hard to come by in Katy. We don’t at all think we are the only ones “doing it right” - we just think we are called be faithful with our section of the wall, so to speak. Third, and most importantly, we are convinced that this is something the Lord has called us to do.

What about kids?

Our vision for a thriving and healthy church means that we want a lot of children in our congregation. We believe they are a blessing from God and reject the worldly idea that they are a burden. At Providence Church, our goal is for children to grow up knowing how to worship the Lord as Christians, which in the context of a Sunday means attending our worship service in the sanctuary. We know that for some parents, keeping their kids from distracting them or others in a worship service is a tall order. With that in mind, we have an optional nursery for children aged 3 and under. If you choose to make use of the nursery, your child will “graduate” and join you in the sanctuary the Sunday after their 4th birthday. In the sanctuary, we teach our children catechism questions each Sunday from the Young Baptist’s Catechism. This book has a question-and-answer format with Scriptural texts supporting each answer. We encourage you to help your kids memorize them during the week. The children’s catechism moment happens during our service before the sermon. Not only do we hope for it to be spiritually nourishing for your kids, but we hope the timing is helpful. They are invited to get up, move around, and make noise before being expected to sit quietly through a sermon. The sermons will also intentionally address the children in the room with age-appropriate instruction and application (as Paul does in Ephesians 6:1-3). We also have a page with some tips for parents here and an email signup here so parents can help their kids prepare for the sermon.

Is this going to be like a “GBC West”?

While we will have many things in common and share similar theology and philosophy of ministry with GBC, Providence Church will be a fully autonomous congregation. To be clear, this is not because of any conflict at all between the churches, but because of unity: the leadership of both churches are convinced that this is the biblical pattern.

What are your small groups like?

We love Grace Bible Church and our model for small groups will be essentially based on their approach. First, everyone will go through an initial group called “Providence First Principles” which will be based on the 1689 Confession, and then we will study books of the Bible in a similar pattern to GBC. We started our first ever groups this fall. Because of our context, we have small (less than 10), gendered groups to allow those with larger families more flexibility. For example, one group might be 6-7 women that meet on Monday mornings at 10:30am. Another group might be 5 men that meet at 6am over breakfast on Saturday mornings. Both men and women (and boys and girls) have weekly opportunities most Thursdays and Fridays to gather for fellowship in larger groups in homes.

Should I move to Katy?

The short answer is “probably”. One of the reasons we are planting this church is so that many of us who attend GBC and live in Katy (or west of the Beltway) will have a disciple-making church in our neighborhood. We raise our kids together, meet for supper every week, and want to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the breaking of bread, to fellowship, and to prayer (Acts 2:42). We think this is easier to do when we live close to one another. Katy has a huge range of housing options, from low-cost apartments to lavish McMansions on acreage. Let us know if you have questions about specific neighborhoods in Katy. The restaurant scene here is incredible. Within a half-mile of my home (in Memorial Parkway), I have a food truck park, Indian food, an assortment of pizza and tacos, Thai, South African, Venezuelan, Danish, Vietnamese, and plenty more. Schools are better out here than in the city, although several of us homeschool together. Is Katy a type of the New Jerusalem? It seems likely.

Are you a part of a denomination?

We are a part of the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). Michael Brady is an approved church planter with the EFCA, and we align very closely with the EFCA’s emphasis on disciple-making. We wholeheartedly affirm their statement of faith and appreciate their “better together” approach to church association. We are definitely better together and benefit from relationships with other churches, including those who disagree with us on non-essentials.

Who are the leaders of Providence?

We believe that the Scriptures teach that there are two offices in the local church (elders and deacons) and that the local authority of each church rests in the congregation. We will be a “plural elder-led congregational” church if you’re into labels. Our confession addresses the issue of church government in Chapter 26 in paragraphs 8-11. That said, we are starting with a skeleton crew so that the congregation will be able to appoint their own leaders. Our elders are Michael Brady and L.J. Decker. Check out our Leadership page for more on them. Our wonderful ministry coordinator is Samatha Hoffart. Our awesome music director is Ben Sieben. We have also recruited an excellent treasurer (Todd Richards) and a first-class bookkeeper (Amy Cooper).

Is there anything I can do to help right now?

Please pray for Providence Church and our leadership. We are making what feels like a million decisions right now and need the Lord’s wisdom. Pray for God to send laborers into the field - we will need a lot of help. And join us as we pray that God would give us Katy for Christ. We are burdened for the lost in our community and are asking the Lord to bring reformation and revival here. If you are willing to commit to praying for us, let us know so we can send you prayer requests as they come up. You can also support us financially. More opportunities to help will come, so please sign up for updates on the home page.