According to the doctrine of many of the non-liturgical churches, baptism doesn’t make someone a Christian and doesn’t convey an indelible mark on the recipient’s soul. Under those kinds of circumstances, many of those churches would just be inclined to ask a perpective member their history, what church they previously attended and whether or not they were baptized, and take the person’s word for it.
Depends on the denomination.
Actually, what my husband and I were seeing in the evangelical churches is less and less emphasis on baptism. Many evangelicals feel uncomfortable with baptism because it is a “ritual of man.” They are very concerned that people will think it is “a work” that the person is “doing,” and that this “work” insults “faith,” which is the only way to be saved.
I think–sadly–that we will see more and more evangelical Protestant churches who totally eliminate baptism in their fellowships because of this fear of “works.” Also–but let’s not talk about this–baptism makes a “demand” upon people, forces them to leave their comfort zone and do something rather embarrassing in front of people–and evangelicals can’t afford to drive people away from their fellowships!
Another thing that we were seeing in the evangelical churches is a decreasing emphasis upon church membership. We attended the E Free church for several years, and no one ever called or visited and asked if we were interested in church membership. We finally asked, and it turned out that they really didn’t care one way or another.
We found this utterly shocking. The various churches we grew up in required church membership (which required water baptism by immersion) for anyone to be involved with a teaching ministry (which included teaching VBS or teaching a children’s choir or working with the youth group). Church membership usually involved producing a Certificate or Letter of Immersion Baptism, and an interview with the pastor or even the entire church board. Sprinkling or pouring baptism, or infant baptism, were unacceptable; the candidate for membership had to be re-baptized.
I think it’s sad that so many churches are relaxing these membership standards. It creates a “shopping mall” church culture, in which Christians attend one church for the music, and another church for the youth group, and a third church because “grandma goes there.” There is no commitment to any fellowship, which makes it necessary for the fellowship to HIRE professional staff to do things like music ministry, children’s ministry, club teachers, building services, etc. This is NOT what I grew up with. I grew up in an evangelical fellowship in which the members were committed to each other and to their church. Most of the work was done by volunteers, and only a few pastors were needed. Nowadays it is unusual to find an evangelical fellowship with just one or two pastors, unless it is a small fellowship (a few hundred people).
On the other hand, I think that this “come and go as you please” culture is causing many Christians to long for stability and “tradition” (small t), and this may be one reason why so many Protestant Christians are wandering into the Catholic Churches. They want solidity.
One thing Catholics should realize is that to most evangelicals, the most abusive, wild, rockin’ sockin’ Mass imaginable is INCREDIBLY RITUALISTIC and LITURGICAL and ANCIENT and OLD-FASHIONED!
They would leave this Manic Mass thinking, “Wow, those Catholics sure are traditional!”
So a truly reverent NO Mass is incredibly ritualistic and “traditional” to evangelical Protestants, who come from fellowships in which the pastors are actually proud that they have NEVER had the same worship service twice! A regular NO Mass is like a totally foreign experience to Protestants.
Some Catholics seem to think that the Mass is becoming more Protestant, but I think they are remembering the Protestant worship services of 40 years ago. There are some Protestant denominations (the mainlines) that have services that resemble a Mass, but many of the evangelical, fundamental, and Pentecostal denominations nowadays have services that in NO WAY resemble a Mass, or even resemble a Protestant worship service! Many Evangelical worship services of today are like variety shows. Many are even done almost entirely via video, rather than live, and the people sit and sip coffee at tables while they view the video.
A TLM would be absolutely shocking to many evangelical Protestants! (I’m not saying it would be shocking in a bad way. It would just be so totally foreign to anything that they have ever experienced in a church setting.)
I can’t say it enough. Much Evangelical Protestantism of today has NO TRADITIONS!! Traditions are condemned by evangelical leaders as TRADITIONS OF MEN, or WORKS OF MEN.
When I was growing up, there was an “order of service” in the bullletin, with an Opening Prayer, a hymn, an offering, etc. Much of this at least bore some semblance to Catholic Mass, and there was a predictable order.
But nowadays, many churches do NOT use a bulletin because the whole idea of an “order of service” is detestable. They want spontaneity.
And you never know what will happen in many evangelical “worship services.” You might see a play, watch a video, participate in a praise and worship sing-a-long, listen to a concert by a rock band, fill out a survey and discuss it with the congregation, sit quietly for 30 minutes staring at a single candle, etc. Pastors are striving to find creative “new” ways to worship Jesus.
Back to my point. Things like “baptism” and “communion” are being eliminated because they don’t fit in with the concept of a “worshp experience.”
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