Baptist Service

[Rarer_Way_Prior]

I went to a Baptist service this past Sunday. Wow. I was shocked when I walked in; throughout all of it really. I couldn’t worship God there. It just seemed to; fake?
I still can’t find the word for it. It just doesn’t work. I was unable to take it seriously. I’m not trying to be offensive. I just can’t connect it and God.

 

[twopekinguys]

I went to a Baptist Church, many years ago before becoming Catholic.

While I was there, I noticed everything was New Testament related, and there was very little if anything about the Old Testament, and how they tied together. I also noticed there was very little if anything mentioned of the “Trinity” as a whole. They seemed to focus mostly on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That isn’t all bad, but there are 3 persons of the Trinity.

I will give them credit though. They really and truly believed what they were taught, and most of the ones I knew there really tried to live it.

While I didn’t get as much out of it as they did, Most of them really tried to live what they thought was right, based on the teachings they received.

 

[workingman]

I used to attend a Baptist Church years ago before converting to the LCMS then to the CC. I found with the Baptist Church’s it depended on what sect of the Baptist Church you went to. I ususaly enjoyed the music and firery sermons though. Some times I think about going back from time to time though not permanently.

 

[teachccd]

I went to a Baptist service this past Sunday. Wow. I was shocked when I walked in; throughout all of it really. I couldn’t worship God there. It just seemed to; fake?
I still can’t find the word for it. It just doesn’t work. I was unable to take it seriously. I’m not trying to be offensive. I just can’t connect it and God.

My best advice would be to attend the Church that Christ founded. I have also found it hard to worship in non-Catholic churches since there is no eucharist and no references to Judaism as there should be in our Judeo-Christian faith. Chalk it up to an experience and appreciate the truth of Holy Mother Church. God bless…teachccd

 

[Robbinson]

With respect, and love, many baptists would likely say the same thing about the liturgy of the Catholic Church. I’m not a baptist, but respect that denomination’s teaching and style of worship.

I don’t belive God created as single style of worship - but did establish a truth in the gospel which will set us free (whether we are Catholic, Baptist, AOG, Methodist, Episcopalian, etc.). If we believe in, and accept, Jesus Christ as our Lord, Saviour and Messiah and believe that he died for our sins, was resurrected and will return again. This is the gospel (as taught by Paul).

I can respect those who have difficulty with a spirited/modern or gospel music style of worship - as well as those who have difficulty with a more traditional liturigical worship experience.

Blessings,

Brian

 

[Georgia]

I spent the first thirty-something years of my life as a Baptist before being received into the Catholic Church. One thing that is true throughout the spectrum of Baptist churches is that they are all different, even in matters of faith. There is no standard liturgy. Some are hell-fire-and-brimstone churches where everyone is expected to dress in his Sunday best. Others are laid back with congregations in jeans and with services that are heavy on the multi-media experience. I know this sounds uncharitable, but those strike me as church services for entertainment value. Somewhere along that scale, quite a few of those services slip into appearing fake to me too.

My own church was on the more conservative practice, so we had a service that was heavy on the sermon and on the invitation. The invitation was huge, especially if we had a visiting preacher! That sometimes could be ten minutes or more after the remainder of the service was done.

I met some of the finest people who have ever walked this earth, people wanting to serve Our Lord and their fellow man. While I miss them terribly, I very much thank God for putting me in the church He founded to receive Him every Sunday.

There is the rub, the potential for leaving the Church. Catholics often visit churches that have a softer approach, get to know a few people, go to a couple of special activities, fall away from their parishes, and surprise themselves by joining another church. Going to one of these churches does not satisfy the Sunday obligation and may lead to separation.

 

[pattynicole]

I was raised Catholic and married Baptist. For the first 12 years of my married life I was happy to be in a Baptist church. I really was not well catechized as a child and did little to improve on that in my adult life. It was not until Baptist missionaries likened Catholicism to a cult during a question and answer period that I really started to learn. See, I was not looking to revert (that would be difficult in my marriage) I just wanted to defend my families religion in front of my children. I could not raise my children to believe my family was cultists. I just didn’t know how to do that, so I started reading. Now I am a revert (and I am right, it has been VERY difficult with the husband, phew).

I used to love the Baptist service. The music, the sermons, the fellowship. It was in the Baptist faith that I realized a need for a more in depth relationship with my God and creator. I remember when I realized I could no longer be Baptist. I cried. (during a Wed night service). I love each and every one of those people at my old church. And they love me. Even now.

However, when I go to a Baptist service (as I must because I have three small children with a very good Baptist man) I long for much more. All the singing, sermons and fellowship was nice on the first level. But now I need more. Beginning with the call to repentance, the bowing for God (true bible study worship really), the gathering and listening to not one, not two but THREE Bible passages read to the crowd (and not just one or two lines as often happens in my old church). The singing of Psalms, which connects me to old Testament believers of God. Imagine, they may been odd tunes but they have been sung to the same glorious God through the ages!

Then the prayers. Where EACH and EVERY mass we pray for the leaders, the poor, the sick, the lost, the unborn etc… Just last week I was at my old church and we didn’t pray for any of those this time. We prayed for ourselves. That we would hear the message and apply it to our lives and live it. Which is great, but during an hour we can’t pray for more as a group?

Then where we tell God how great he is. How we just spend time adoring Him, reverencing Him, bowing to Him, spending time in silence just being in awe of HIM. Together and united with all the angels and all the saints in heaven. Wow!

Then we get to the Eucharist.

Now my husband HATES the liturgy of the Mass. It is boring. He doesn’t learn anything. He doesn’t feel like we have worshipped (fellowshipped, learned and sang songs he knows). He dissects every word said and twists them around. He won’t even offer the sign of peace and say “Peace be with you”. I mean, really.

I even gave him Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life, where Mr. Warren says something to the effect, “If you have ever left a service and said ‘I got nothing out of that’ then you were there for the wrong reasons. Worship is not to make you feel better, it is for giving glory to God”. But he hasn’t read that book yet.

So as weird as the Baptist service is to us, the Catholic Mass is equally puzzling to non-Catholics who don’t understand it, and are not used to it.

 

[Rarer_Way_Prior]

Others are laid back with congregations in jeans and with services that are heavy on the multi-media experience. I know this sounds uncharitable, but those strike me as church services for entertainment value. Somewhere along that scale, quite a few of those services slip into appearing fake to me too.

This is the kind of service I went to, and that is exactly what I was thinking. It was pretty bad. The sermon would have been what kept the service together, but it wasn’t much either. There’s an English Baptist church right across the street from the one I attended that is like the former you described.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

I went to a Baptist service this past Sunday. Wow. I was shocked when I walked in; throughout all of it really. I couldn’t worship God there. It just seemed to; fake?
I still can’t find the word for it. It just doesn’t work. I was unable to take it seriously. I’m not trying to be offensive. I just can’t connect it and God.

That’s really unfortunate. I find that our worship is very meaningful and I’m always disappointed when the service ends.

On the other hand, I remember my days in the Catholic church, when we’d recite this canned prayer and that prepared reading and everything was just so mechanical that it was more like going through a ritual than any kind of worship.

 

[KScoyote]

According to John chapter 6:54 well?

Do they or don’t they

 

[Erich]

So as weird as the Baptist service is to us, the Catholic Mass is equally puzzling to non-Catholics who don’t understand it, and are not used to it.

Perhaps the Catholic Mass might be more understandable (to Catholics and non-Catholics alike) when viewed in the light of the Book of Revelation.

 

[happilycatholic]

Sometimes I wonder if part of the ‘aversion’ to the ‘rituals’ of the catholic Church come down to personal preference. For me, I like the routine of the liturgy. I know what is going on at any given moment and it helps to bring to mind the reasons for the sacraments we receive in the mass.

I really don’t see it as “canned” or even repetative. I see it as a discipline and I like that very much.

I was Baptist before I was baptized catholic. I have to be honest in saying that I never felt a ‘calling’ in any Baptist church I was ever in. I’ve also been to Weslyan, Methodist, Church of Christ, SDA and non-denominational. It always seemed as though they were “going through motions”, but not actually taking a real part in their faith. (just an observation + opinion, which usually = who cares) But that’s just my two cents worth.

Then I went to a catholic wedding and not long after a catholic funeral (same family, very sad). I found it!!! Wow!!! It was like I was hit with a ton of bricks. But being the cautious person I am, I only studied the catholic religion for the next few years.

Finally, I knew that I had been officially called to the Lord’s table.

But I think God reveals Himself differently for everyone. Both my parents are still Baptist and very devoted to God and their Church. They are active within their church and find the Holy Spirit dwells there. I am blessed to have a family that follows God, that’s all I am concerned with. I am the only catholic in the history of the past few decades that I know of but we all accept each other’s faith respectfully.

 

[KScoyote]

Folks lets be real…I was raised a church of Christ protestant!

I am now a full on catholic and am very happy. My wife and I enter Christ’s Church Easter Vigil 2008!

Since I entered the Catholic church I have seen the real problem! Most Catholics do not have any basic knowledge of the Catechism or the Bible!

Many are quite fat (on their belief Mom and Dad were Catholic) and I don’t need to know! For some this is probably generational. Mom and Dad do not save you, though they play a part in it. Parents really need to cat their kids and I really mean this

Teach your children the church teachings and tie into the Bible! Make them memorize and you also! And in so doing we the church will do nothing but grow stronger and will do wonders for the Lord.

 

[kalt]

I went to a Baptist service this past Sunday. Wow. I was shocked when I walked in; throughout all of it really. I couldn’t worship God there. It just seemed to; fake?
I still can’t find the word for it. It just doesn’t work. I was unable to take it seriously. I’m not trying to be offensive. I just can’t connect it and God.

I don’t know if you had the same reaction as I did, but my thought then was that the service wasn’t as reverent as a Catholic Mass.

 

[kalt]

That’s really unfortunate. I find that our worship is very meaningful and I’m always disappointed when the service ends.

On the other hand, I remember my days in the Catholic church, when we’d recite this canned prayer and that prepared reading and everything was just so mechanical that it was more like going through a ritual than any kind of worship.

Those “prepared” readings are from the Bible. Can you think of something that should properly take the place of the prepared readings?

The canned prayer is also found in the Bible. The Psalms–again from the Bible.

 

[pattynicole]

You know what is funny, the missionary who unwittingly moved me in the direction back to Catholicism mentioned the canned prayers and the rituals as a form of cult like worship.

What is awesome about the “rituals” and “canned prayers” is that this is way the first Christians worshipped, using the same prayers (I mean singing the Psalms is something surely Jesus did!!). All the angels and saints in heaven sing and pray right along with us. You know they know the words, they did the same ones!

I grew up Catholic and I found it boring, tedious, repetitive, no hand clapping, no shouts of “Amen”. I used to view it as a dying boring religion.

But now I can hardly get enough. Prayers are only canned if you can them. Open those cans up and let the beautiful words surround your heart and soul. When you really take time to know what they mean, why we say them, where they have their origins you begin to love the Mass. It is wholly reverent, as one should behave in the presence of a king. It begs forgiveness “for all that I have done and all that I have failed to do”, it asks us to reach out to each others “…and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God”. It offers peace to each of the assembled. The whole “Peace Be With You” is a special greeting with such awesome references in the Bible used by our Lord. And it reminds of the hope and promise of Christ “…protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior JESUS Christ”. I love that stuff. Really.

We must properly catechize our children. If I had been I’d have never left to begin with. They need to know why we are not sola scriptura, why we are not once saved always saved, why we truly believe that we are receiving the body and blood of Christ and why we believe that is what He intended. They need to read what the first Christians thought that meant. How did they interpret what the Lord said? What did the people who were taught by the Apostles do and believe?

I can read the Bible 2000 years after it was written but what about those right after it all happened? What were THEY doing? I got my interpretation, others have theirs but what was actually being done during the time the writers were writing? How did they see it and why did they see it that way?

When you begin a serious investigation and honest search for answers it will all be made clear. I NEVER meant to be Catholic again. I have a Baptist husband, we were quite involved and quite happy. But God does things we don’t understand. We must only know that we must always be willing to go where God is leading, no matter how difficult the journey.

Peace be with You!

 

[happilycatholic]

You know what is funny, the missionary who unwittingly moved me in the direction back to Catholicism mentioned the canned prayers and the rituals as a form of cult like worship.

What is awesome about the “rituals” and “canned prayers” is that this is way the first Christians worshipped, using the same prayers (I mean singing the Psalms is something surely Jesus did!!). All the angels and saints in heaven sing and pray right along with us. You know they know the words, they did the same ones!

I grew up Catholic and I found it boring, tedious, repetitive, no hand clapping, no shouts of “Amen”. I used to view it as a dying boring religion.

But now I can hardly get enough. Prayers are only canned if you can them. Open those cans up and let the beautiful words surround your heart and soul. When you really take time to know what they mean, why we say them, where they have their origins you begin to love the Mass. It is wholly reverent, as one should behave in the presence of a king. It begs forgiveness “for all that I have done and all that I have failed to do”, it asks us to reach out to each others “…and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God”. It offers peace to each of the assembled. The whole “Peace Be With You” is a special greeting with such awesome references in the Bible used by our Lord. And it reminds of the hope and promise of Christ “…protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior JESUS Christ”. I love that stuff. Really.

We must properly catechize our children. If I had been I’d have never left to begin with. They need to know why we are not sola scriptura, why we are not once saved always saved, why we truly believe that we are receiving the body and blood of Christ and why we believe that is what He intended. They need to read what the first Christians thought that meant. How did they interpret what the Lord said? What did the people who were taught by the Apostles do and believe?

I can read the Bible 2000 years after it was written but what about those right after it all happened? What were THEY doing? I got my interpretation, others have theirs but what was actually being done during the time the writers were writing? How did they see it and why did they see it that way?

When you begin a serious investigation and honest search for answers it will all be made clear. I NEVER meant to be Catholic again. I have a Baptist husband, we were quite involved and quite happy. But God does things we don’t understand. We must only know that we must always be willing to go where God is leading, no matter how difficult the journey.

Peace be with You!

A Big Baptist “Amen Sister”!

 

[Rarer_Way_Prior]

I don’t know if you had the same reaction as I did, but my thought then was that the service wasn’t as reverent as a Catholic Mass.

Absolutely. The service lacks a lot of things. I went on a communion Sunday.

Also, now that I come to think of it, there weren’t any references to the Old Testament at all; and there’s the new computer in the back and the projector up front w/ the screen covering up the old cross.

 

[Georgia]

That’s really unfortunate. I find that our worship is very meaningful and I’m always disappointed when the service ends.

On the other hand, I remember my days in the Catholic church, when we’d recite this canned prayer and that prepared reading and everything was just so mechanical that it was more like going through a ritual than any kind of worship.

The canned prayer quote exactly describes how I felt when I started going to Mass with my then girlfriend and now wife. As a Baptist for my entire life, I saw it simply as canned prayers and thought it was just going through motions that seemed pointless. I could not wait to get outside! On the other hand, I saw something special in the Eucharist and could not reconcile the teachings of my church with those of the Bible.

The point of Catholic worship is the Real Presence of Christ. Once I realized that, nothing else seemed that important. I have to confess that I get annoyed when it appears people are just going through the motions, satisfying an obligation, or whatever, blowing into Mass late, not participating, etc. I now focus on Christ being right there and the rest goes out of focus.

 

[Cody1611]

While I was there, I noticed everything was New Testament related, and there was very little if anything about the Old Testament, and how they tied together. I also noticed there was very little if anything mentioned of the “Trinity” as a whole. They seemed to focus mostly on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That isn’t all bad, but there are 3 persons of the Trinity.

I go to an Independent Baptist Church. My Pastor preaches from the NT and OT in the King James Bible. I’m not sure why that Baptist Church didn’t preach from the OT, since there is a lot of references in the OT that relate to the NT, especially when reading the Book of Revelation.

Also, the name of my church is actually, Trinity Baptist Church. We believe the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

1 John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” KJV

Not all Baptist churches are the same. If you want to hear the preaching from my church you can go to this link and listen to the sermons posted…

lookandlive.org/home.html

God bless