Gospel Readings in Bible Churches

[bookgirl32]

Hi, new here . A very good friend of mine sings solos quite often at her Evangelical Christian church. We were music majors together in college, and she really does have a gift for communicating through song, especially in contemporary Christian music. For this reason, I enjoy going to watch her at her church 3 or 4 times a year. (Don’t worry, I know the rules and don’t consider it a fulfillment of my obligation, etc.) I do, however, stay for the whole service. I’ve noticed that, although there may be some referrences to Gospel verses, none of the Gospels have ever been the main focus of the service, or the source for the sermon. And, as anyone who has attended these services can testify to, these sermons (and the music) are the “heart” of the service – they’re always about 20 minutes long. I know that they’ll go through an entire book, often calling it a “unit” (much like we would a seasonal liturgy, it guess?) She refers to what book they’re on quite often. It’s almost always an early Old Testament book, or anything from Acts or later. Has anyone else noticed that? And isn’t that a little strange?

 

[Ignatius]

bookgirl32:

Hi, new here . A very good friend of mine sings solos quite often at her Evangelical Christian church. We were music majors together in college, and she really does have a gift for communicating through song, especially in contemporary Christian music. For this reason, I enjoy going to watch her at her church 3 or 4 times a year. (Don’t worry, I know the rules and don’t consider it a fulfillment of my obligation, etc.) I do, however, stay for the whole service. I’ve noticed that, although there may be some referrences to Gospel verses, none of the Gospels have ever been the main focus of the service, or the source for the sermon. And, as anyone who has attended these services can testify to, these sermons (and the music) are the “heart” of the service – they’re always about 20 minutes long. I know that they’ll go through an entire book, often calling it a “unit” (much like we would a seasonal liturgy, it guess?) She refers to what book they’re on quite often. It’s almost always an early Old Testament book, or anything from Acts or later. Has anyone else noticed that? And isn’t that a little strange?

Yes, I’ve noticed that the Bible churches don’t really center on the Bible. They center more on singing, clapping and listening to sermons. There are just very brief passages, and almost never from the Gospels.

 

[Fidelis]

I started a thread earlier that makes a similar observation:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=72108

 

[puzzleannie]

I don’t know what denomination your gifted friend belongs to, but down here we sometimes take youth to praise and worship events at convention centers or even neighboring churches. These events are staged to sometimes to attract youth, more often to attract families, and are not the regular Sunday worship services, which usually have hymns, scripture reading, sometimes psalms, and extended sermon based on the chosen scripture.

These praise and worship events are also not concerts although music is a big part of it. Usually there is some kind of testimony often from some of the musicians or performers. The primary focus is just that, praising God with song. The words are often drawn from or inspired by the psalms or other scripture verses, and the music is a lot of stuff that is played on contemporary Christian stations, or the slightly older songs familiar to those who attend charismatic services. Usually the “worship leader” is the lead singer or band leader.

Our kids go for the music and the fellowship, as they are in public school with these kids, and we are trying to be ecumenical when we can. As these are not Sunday worship or communion services, we are okay, and of course we prepare our kids, so they know if there is an “altar call” which happens rarely, they can simply pray quietly in their places.

In return we invite other youth groups to our events, and often succeed in attracting guests, and provide a chance for them to ask questions afterwards about the uniquely “Catholic” aspects of our group events. Again, these are not Mass or Eucharist services, but another thing altogether, more of a youth rally.

another thing that surprises me is going to public school choir and band concerts, especially in the holiday season, that feature explicitly religious or sacred music (quite well done, I might add), and we are lucky to have many of these choir members join our church choir, so I have to say the youth Mass has by far the best music in our parish.