Baptist Music

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Hi I am Donovan,
My father (a convert) comes from a baptist family. To see what Protestant Christianity is like I went with my aunt one day. When I was looking at the interior of the church I saw that the pinnacle of the architecture was a large pipe organ (the reason my grandmother will not convert) it was preceded by several rows of choir chairs and a stage with two podiums. When I went to my pew it was difficult not to genuflect and even odder when there were not kneelers. For about 5-10 minutes everyone was standing up and socializing. The choir came in and there was a slow dimming of noise when everyone noticed. They sung a song that seemed to be based off of a Catholic one and sang for a long while. A woman got up and stood at the front, invited some children along with her and engaged in an awkward semi-conversational homily-like speech. After the man I assumed to be the pastor walked up and invited everyone to open their bibles to Malachi. He read a few lines and went into a large sermon. That was the single reading for the service and after his speech there was a song and it was over. People got up and socialized again then slowly filed out the door.

The whole experience was odd and uncomfortable, it seemed too much like a social gathering than a service to God.
 
I used to be Baptist. They put a lot of emphasis on the singing (praise to th Lord), preaching and the social aspects. Communion doesn’t happen that often. In my family’s church, it is just once a month.

When Catholics walk into church, we genufluct to the Tabernacle because the Lord is physically present there. Baptists don’t have a Tabernacle or the Eucharist. They don’t believe the Lord is physically present in the church (hence no need to kneel before him). They do believe he is there in the form of the Holy Spirit. They view communion as a spiritual act only. These are some of the reasons for the differences you are describing.
 
Well, you pretty much described a typical Baptist Church service which would be a shock to a Catholic like yourself. Sounds like you will appreciate even further the fullness and richness of the Mass. Likewise, how much scripture there is in the liturgy than what you saw at this Church, with the Pastor just picking out some verse and talking about it.
 
What you described is fairly typical of Baptists services (I’m a former Baptist).
When I was looking at the interior of the church I saw that the pinnacle of the architecture was a large pipe organ (the reason my grandmother will not convert)
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I’m intrigued. Can you explain this further?
 
I think the preaching thing is kind of funny. I grew up Baptist. When I became Catholic, I was not used to such short sermons. I guess going the other way, it does seem like the sermon goes on and on and on.
 
Sunday morning services in the Baptist church where I grew up would normally have seven songs. The Sunday night service would have five. The order for Sunday morning was often as follows:

Choir hymn - all standing
Prayer from the pastor
Welcome and announcements
Congregational hymn
Welcome to visitors
Welcome chorus while shaking hands
Offering with a congregational song
Special music - usually a trio from the choir
Congregational hymn
Sermon
Invitation - a time of closed eyes and bowed heads with a hymn or two and people were invited to the front to say they had been saved and to ask for baptism. Others went forward to say they were repenting for backsliding.
Prayer and dismissal
 
Ya beat me to it Georgia. 😃
Here’s mine:😉

Typical Baptist church ritual:
Greeting.
Opening song.
Announcments.
2nd Song.
Offering (with song).
Special music.
Sermon.
Final song with invitation (a very sacramental and liturgical practice I might add).
Closing prayer.
Gossip in the parking lot.😃
 
And the hymns? Verse 1,2,4. We used to joke that the missing verse was the “unholy third”.
 
pnewton said:
I think the preaching thing is kind of funny. I grew up Baptist. When I became Catholic, I was not used to such short sermons. I guess going the other way, it does seem like the sermon goes on and on and on.
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Most people’s attention spans don’t last longer than 20 minutes. After that, they start thinking about lunch…😃
 
pnewton said:
I do remember rolling back to verse 1 on occassion.
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Oh yeah, especially if there was a visiting evangelist. If not enough people (or no people) went forward for the invitation, they would keep it going until someone did. The invitation would be longer than the sermon.
I think a lot of people went forward just to shut him up. :cool:
 
JustaServant said:
Most people’s attention spans don’t last longer than 20 minutes. After that, they start thinking about lunch…😃
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On the contrary. Baptists and other Evangelicals revel in preaching from the Bible. They love it! I and many others would take notes. And if the sermons were shorter than a half-hour, people used to speculate on the possibility that the pastor was “struggling with a besetting sin” or “going carnal.” A good, long sermon was EXPECTED, and people honestly liked it.

Remember, the babies and small children are usually safe and having fun in a wonderful church nursery staffed by volunteers who love caring for little ones. So no distractions for the parents or anyone else in the worship service. (In the Evangelical Protestant churches that I attended, the ushers would approach people who had noisy children and ask them if they would like someone to show them where the nursery was. It just wasn’t considered appropriate to keep a crying baby or noisy child with you during the worship service.)

Have you ever noticed the difference between cradle Catholics and Catholic converts (from Evangelical Protestantism) at Catholic conferences? The cradle Catholics are restless and squirming in the pews after ten minutes, while the converts are completely engaged body and mind in the long lecture by the speaker. 😃

As for lunch–Baptists/Evangelicals often have coffee and donuts right BEFORE the Sunday morning worship service. We always did. In fact, many older Baptists/Evangelicals “sneak out” for breakfast during the Sunday school hour while their children are being taught and cared for. My husband and I did this all the time, and we always met up with dozens of other couples from our church (and other churches) at the various restaurants!

Also a lot of evangelical churches offer two or more opportunities for worship service on Sunday morning–early worship (around 8:00 a.m.), and later worship (around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m.) Either way, a person can eat before the service and not be hungry. And of course, there are the megachurches which often have their worship services on Saturday night or even throughout the week, while Sunday mornings are reserved for “seeker services” that are very musical and have sermons that are geared towards those who are not “churched.”

I’m not talking to you, JustaServant, but to others–I have noticed on CAF that some Catholics believe that Evangelicals are actually ignorant of the Scriptures and not very bright or scholarly. That’s probably true of some people (not all of us are scholars), but truly, most Evangelicals (Baptists) dearly LOVE to study the Bible and listen to long exegeses of the Scriptures from preachers and teachers. They honestly do know a LOT about the Bible and can often quote Scriptures from all over the Bible, and keep extensive notes that they have taken at conferences, worship services, and Bible studies. It is important for Catholics to know this. If Catholics assume that the Evangelical (Baptist) is ignorant, they are going into a discussion with an incorrect assumption, and they will get blown away in the discussion or debate.

As an illustration of this, my dear father-in-law, who is in his 70s, comes to the Bible study at my Catholic parish because he feels that it is the best Bible study he can attend. The study is by Jeff Cavins (videos), and it is about 2 hours long. On top of this, my father-in-law attends a Bible study at his own church (Methodist), but it isn’t as scholarly as Cavin’s studies. And finally, he does a Bible study with a Muslim friend of his–his friend reads the Bible and my father-in-law reads the Koran, and they compare notes during their meetings.

So yes, Baptists and other Evangelicals love long sermons!
 
Sounds like my in-law’s (Southern Baptist) church. Of course, nowadays even Baptists can have “mega churches” that have power point shows, contemporary “Praise and Worship” music, etc. My in-law’s church is a small country church, and their order of service is much like you described (down to the children coming up and the woman talking to them. Their pastor also talks to them, too). All the music is hymns, either on the piano or organ, no band.

Funny thing about the preaching. The first time my husband (then my boyfriend) went to Mass with me, the homily was about 15 minutes long. Afterwards, I apologized for “the long homily”. He looked at me like I was nuts, and said “That wasn’t long! In the Baptist church the pastor preaches for at least 30 minutes, sometimes longer!” (he’s Catholic now, btw.). The first time my daughter and I went to my in-law’s church (also when dh and I were still dating. Maybe engaged, I can’t remember), afterwards we were joking about how long the sermon was. My dd (who like 11 or 12 at the time) said “Just when I thought he was done, he started a whole new topic about St. Peter!” Yes, the “cultural” differences are very profound!

In Christ,
Ellen
 
Cat said:
So yes, Baptists and other Evangelicals love long sermons!
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I stood in a pulpit for many years and I can tell you that any Baptist preacher that allows his sermon to go beyond 30 minutes is going to lose the attention of his congregation.
But nevertheless I was speaking of ANY kind of public speaking. The attention span of the average American is about twenty minutes.
Just because they say at the door “Hey, great speech/sermon!!” doesn’t mean they’re telling you the truth, it just means they’re being polite.
When I was a pastor years ago I was tempted to test it by having a quiz at the end…but I chickened out.😃
 
Cat said:
So yes, Baptists and other Evangelicals love long sermons!
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Scott Hahn -in his conversion story, I think- tells how one church he was pastor of asked him to preach at least 45 minutes every Sunday. It was Presbyterian, not Baptist, but the sentiments were the same.
 
Agent_Benedict said:
Hi I am Donovan,
My father (a convert) comes from a baptist family. To see what Protestant Christianity is like I went with my aunt one day. When I was looking at the interior of the church I saw that the pinnacle of the architecture was a large pipe organ (the reason my grandmother will not convert) it was preceded by several rows of choir chairs and a stage with two podiums. When I went to my pew it was difficult not to genuflect and even odder when there were not kneelers. For about 5-10 minutes everyone was standing up and socializing. The choir came in and there was a slow dimming of noise when everyone noticed. They sung a song that seemed to be based off of a Catholic one and sang for a long while. A woman got up and stood at the front, invited some children along with her and engaged in an awkward semi-conversational homily-like speech. After the man I assumed to be the pastor walked up and invited everyone to open their bibles to Malachi. He read a few lines and went into a large sermon. That was the single reading for the service and after his speech there was a song and it was over. People got up and socialized again then slowly filed out the door.

The whole experience was odd and uncomfortable, it seemed too much like a social gathering than a service to God.
Click to expand...
In all fairness, that’s not just a Baptist thing. That occurs all over Christianity.

I’ve never understood why some churches start the service and then put it on hold to have the greeting in the middle of the service. We don’t do that in our church.

Even though you don’t say much about it, the title of your thread is “Baptist Music”. Because of my musical background, I’m the de facto music leader for our church. So, if you have any questions about Baptist music, I’ll be happy to do my best to answer them (although, to be honest, Baptist music doesn’t vary much from other denominations’ music and is so broad, I’m not sure what would classify it as “Baptist”).

PS. Tell your aunt that we only have a baby grand piano, no pipe organ.
 
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