I was recently invited by my Baptist cousin to attend a church service in a couple of weeks time in which he will be giving the sermon. He claims he is not a pastor but his pastor has given him this honor because of his belief in him and his knowledge on the Bible. He is a fallen away Catholic. What can I expect from a Baptist Service as I have only attended his church for a funeral.
Good music, enthusiastic preaching, lots of emotion, no bodily presence of Jesus.
Services will usually start with prayer and congregational singing. Sometimes the choir and/or soloist will sing a special selection while the congregation just listens.This will be around a half hour. General church announcements will be followed by the sermon. As the cousin is doing this for the first time unless he is a public speaker he will probably rush so instead of 30 minutes to an hour the sermon will run relatively short
Most tend to wear Sunday’s Best, although some local churches may differ. Plan on jacket and tie or long skirt unless your cousin tells you differently. And don’t be shocked if someone rises to shout amen or to praise during the sermon emphasizing the speakers point. depending upon the local church they will probably have Holy Communion only on the First Sunday or even less often. Different baptist have different rules about who may join in
Honestly, there’s no telling. I’m a former Baptist. I’ve been to lots of Baptist churches. They all do things differently.
You can definitely expect a lot of Bible readings.
What kind of Baptist?
Some Baptists are extremely unemotional. I was raised in a Conference Baptist Church (Swedish Baptist), and emotional displays were discouraged. But other Baptist churches can be quite emotional.
Chances are you will notice (if you are thinking about it) that the Baptist service is, in essence, the Liturgy of the Word, expanded in length but comprising the same elements - some kind of collective prayer (sometimes offered by the choir), several readings from Scripture, generally including a Psalm, and then a reflection on the readings by the presider or designated speaker, in this case your cousin; including with the “pastoral prayer” and the Lord’s Prayer and the offertory and doxology.
If it is a Communion Sunday (generally, but not always, the first Sunday of the month) the Liturgy of the Word will be followed by a Liturgy of the Eucharist - except that the Baptist Communion service is, of course, purely symbolic, as indeed they teach that it is.
Some of the “non-denominational” churches have moved away from the ancient structure but most of the traditional Protestant denominations retain a great deal of the skeleton of the Mass they abandoned in the 16th century.
Hard to guess-- like others said, there’s a lot of variety from one Baptist church to another. What is the main demographic that it serves? For example, one Baptist church across the street from my old undergrad university primarily served an older, residential population. The primary part of the service seemed to be the sermon. Another Baptist church I visited was the one that attracted all the college students. Music was really emphasized there, with a lot of praise/worship singing— but the sermon again was the big focus. With my Catholic background, I’m used to homilies being about 15, 20, 25 minutes on Sunday… but I want to say at these churches, their sermons were about 45-60 minutes, and sometimes considerably more.
Don’t know how typical they are of Baptist churches in general, but where I usually block out about 60 minutes for a Catholic service, my experiences have been to expect a Baptist service to take about 2 hrs-- shorter if it’s an older population, longer if it’s really vibrant, energetic, and personality-driven.
Here is what happens at a usual worship service at my church:
Worship music/hymns: Some Baptists are hand raisers and dancers while praising God, some are not. Don’t feel you have to mimic what others are doing, but I would encourage you to participate. Baptists have really good music that’s both fun to sing and truth filled.
Welcome and announcements by pastor
Greeting time where we shake the hands and hug the necks of the people around us
More worship music/hymns
Pastor preaches the message: This usually takes the form of reading a passage of scripture then going through and explaining/analyzing it. The amount of amens and other exclamations from the congregation is going to vary greatly between churches. You should expect some so don’t be surprised. But don’t feel you have to chime in if you don’t want to.
Response time: The pastor invites people to come forward if they feel called. Usually people just come up to have the pastor pray about something with them or to pray as a family at prayer benches. People will also come up if they want to make a profession of faith or join the church. The rest of the congregation usually stays at their seat and sings while this happens.
Offering: Ushers pass around the collection plate. Visitors aren’t expected to give (that’s the responsibility of the Church Family). We just ask visitors to fill out a card with some information about themselves (if they want to) and drop it in the collection plate.
Benediction: My pastor uses the same one every week that I really like: “Let us go live like what we said and sang is true. Let’s go live like Jesus reigns over everything!!”
Other things that might happen
Lord’s Supper/ Communion: Generally grape juice and bread or crackers are passed around. Baptists believe that this is purely symbolic so most practice open communion. This means we believe it’s up to the individual to be right with God before they take the elements… so we won’t have a problem with a Catholic celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus with us. That being said, you probably shouldn’t participate due to rules of the Catholic Church about valid Eucharists. In that case just pass the plates with the elements to the next person or stay in your seat if people go to the front.
Laying on of Hands: Sometimes we as a church commission people out to do missions in the community or abroad. When we do this, we usually have them come to the front and those who know them well go up to the front and pray for them while laying hands on them. The pastor usually offers a collective prayer for them. If this happens you can just hang out at your seat unless it’s your cousin and you want to go up and pray for him/her.
One important thing to know is that all Baptists churches are different in some way so you just need to be ready to roll with what happens. Just try and enjoy the different experience of worshiping God in a different way. 
If it’s anything like the one I went to, you might be sitting there at the end of it wondering when (now that the choir rehearsal and the Sunday School is finished) they will finally start the service of worship. :shrug: 
Just remember that as a Catholic in a Baptist service, you cannot receive communion there if they offer it.
PRaise and worship music…which is usually quite good! Strong, energetic sermons.
Alter call, where people walk up (if htey feel inclined) to accept Jesus as their savior)
You should meet some very nice people there too, as they emphasize fellowship. SOmething the catholic church does NOT do.
yes , a catholic CAN receive communion at a baptist service.
Lord’s Supper/ Communion: Generally grape juice and bread or crackers are passed around. Baptists believe that this is purely symbolic so most practice open communion. This means we believe it’s up to the individual to be right with God before they take the elements… so we won’t have a problem with a Catholic celebrating the sacrifice of Jesus with us.
No, a Catholic CAN NOT receive a fake communion at a protestant church. Catholics (those who know their faith anyway) believe in the True Pesence. Protestants DO NOT. Taking a protestant communion which is considered symbolic (and a slap in the face to Christ!), is a mortal sin. That would be acknowledging a protestant belief, and not what Christ taught.
And the Catholic Church does encourage fellowship, just not during Mass. There is time for fellowship AFTER Mass. My parish has Coffee and Rolls after Mass once a month. We have a parish picnic in October.
Just one thing… I read in an article (by a priest) that Catholics should not actively participate in Protestant services… it might not even be encouraged to attend the services especially if you think it might make you doubt your faith. If you have to attend, out of charity, for example, then try to just observe this is nothing against Protestants. It’s just a reflection of the reality in which we are sadly not in communion with one another, and worship should reflect this reality.
In a Baptist service, - there seem to be two types… one is a really sort of formal service, with hymns and a maybe a sermon. The other type is more emotional/modern music/enthusiastic preaching/etc. And then you get ones that vary in between those extremes. They’re not liturgical… and each is different.
They might also have Communion but Catholics are not allowed to receive it, because Protestants are not in communion with the Church and also because the views on Communion are very different. You can fellowship, etc, there are just limitations on these things.
God bless
They CAN take communion without pain of sin because as the poster posted, Baptists have open communion.
And just for the record, I know of a protestant whose church beleives that their communion IS the body of christ and NOT symbolic.
And the catholic churches that I have attended for over 40 years DO NOT promote fellowship. In the region I live any way.
No, they can not. Protestants believe communion to be merely symbolic and Catholics believe it to be the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. Even if Protestants did believe in the real presence, they wouldn’t have the real presence because they do not have apostolic succession. It is a mortal sin for a Catholic to receive communion in a Protestant church.
I respectfully disagree. I know protestants who DO beleive in the Real presence at their church.
Baptists would allow you to, but the Catholic Church would not, because we see Communion differently and we’re not in communion with each other.
And just for the record, I know of a protestant whose church beleives that their communion IS the body of christ and NOT symbolic.
even so, they’re not in communion with the Church and have no apostolic succession and therefore no priesthood and no consecration
there needs to be the Sacrifice of the Mass with a valid priest, and a valid bishop from the Apostles. It all goes back to Christ giving this power to the Apostles, no one else has it but their successors.(bishops, and priests). This is important… you can imagine what would happen if anyone could consecrate the Eucharist 
since the Eucharist is really Christ, that would be a disaster because there’s no way to see if He is being shown respect. Also, the Church is one and God wants it to be one in terms of teaching as well… one in mind… “One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church”.
And the catholic churches that I have attended for over 40 years DO NOT promote fellowship. In the region I live any way.
it depends on the parish, - mine does… but the fellowship happens after Mass, not during.
In any case the center of our faith is the Eucharist take away that, and we have lost the reality of Christ being substantially present with us. He is everywhere spiritually, but not everywhere in His Body…
This has NOTHING to do with the catholic view on the Real presence.
The question was asked if a catholic could take communion at a baptist service.
The Baptist church does not seem to have a problem with it, as stated by a baptist.
So they CAN take communion.
That is what the question was. AND the answer.