What you told him was correct. But its no great surprise to me (who spent 20 years in Baptist churches) that he doesn’t get it. Would you expect a Kindergarter to understand a graduate level college course? He’s not there yet.
What passes for worship in many Baptist and evangelical churches are programs and entertainment or turning the Church into a lecture hall. It lacks the heart and soul of true worship. In the modern Church’s efforts to be innovative and create a ‘worship style’ it has manufactured a worship in the pattern of man’s invention, void of meaning.
Many evangelical churches resemble more an informal meeting on somebody’s back porch, there is no sense of sacredness. Its emphasis is on a subjective “experience”.
IOW, its not about God, its about me.
The problem with basing worship on subjective experience is that I will always be looking for a bigger ‘experience’.
People who selfishly judge public worship by ‘I got nothing out it’ do not think of what they can put into it out of selflessness.
There is a respect and a dignity to liturgical worship that I do not see in evangelical/fundamentalist churches. Saying prayers and confessions out loud in unison has more meaning with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not a mark of ‘dead worship’, it is a mark of living worship.
It is the Holy Spirit that gives life to worship. Liturgical worship contains no 45 minute sermon with jokes and ‘what I think’. It is a simple message fit nicely into the service. There is more public scripture reading in a liturgical church than in many 'Bible-believing’ churches.
The smoke and mirrors of the mega-churches burns out pretty quickly. God puts in each person a desire to worship, something. Even a non-Christian worships, it might not be God, but it’s worship nonetheless. One cannot worship with just the mind. One cannot worship by sitting in a pew staring. Liturgical worship feeds that desire.
A lot of this is pretty harsh, and IMO, incorrect.
Do you have personal experience, long-term, in Baptist churches? Do you personally know and love any Baptists?
I grew up Baptist (Conference), and many members of my family are still Baptist.
Now that I am Catholic, I have an even greater appreciation of the beautiful and meaningful worship services that I knew growing up.
These services led me to Jesus, not to “entertainment.” And Jesus led me to the Catholic Church.
No heart and soul? This is simply not true. I’ve been in many Baptist worship services where the Holy Spirit’s work was palpable–people crying, kneeling at the altar to repent of their sins, people praising the Lord with upraised hands, people going to others to apologize and ask forgiveness for some long-ago transgression, people taking off their watches and jewelry to give to the Lord for His work…
Self-centered? Perhaps in some cases, but please always remember that over the centuries and indeed, in our current era, many Baptists give their lives for the sake of Jesus in various missions because they love Him and are striving to serve Him only. Many Baptists in this country devote many of their waking hours to anonymous service in church, neighborhood, rescue missions, caring for the poor and ill, etc.
Please keep in mind that to most evangelical Protestants, including Baptists, “liturgy” or “ritual” is considered “a work of man,” and therefore not worshipful at all, in their view. If you point out that the Old Testament worship was liturgical, they will point out that Jesus changed the Old Covenant to a New Covenant, in which sacrifices are no longer necessary because He is now the Sacrifice that atones for our sins. Rather than using the Old Testament, I would suggest using the New Testament and pointing out passages in Acts in which it is obvious that there is an Order of Worship. But the Baptist will inform you that they believe in a God of order, and that their worship services DO have an “Order of Service.” So you’re kind of in a bind here trying to use the Bible to prove the correctness of Catholic liturgy.
The best way to persuade a Baptist or any evangelical Protestant of the validity of the Catholic faith is to live your life outside the Mass in righteousness and joy, and to love God and your neighbor in a vibrant way, not just with words, but with deeds. This is harder to do than apologetics, and it will take many years for most Baptists to come around, but in the end, it will work.
And just one more hint–if you drink alcohol, never ever get drunk or even joke about getting drunk, as this will slam the door and you will have a very hard time getting the Baptist to open that door even a crack. Some Baptists have relaxed their stance on alcohol consumption, but many are still complete teetotallers and find alcohol use as offensive as any other sin. Be careful in this.
I hope my comments are useful to the OP and others.
